Continuation of vague musings in general

[aadler]

The little piece I posted here a couple of days ago made note of a situation right at the end that kept tickling at my imagination. So, carrying the thought a little further —

You’re in a general social situation, a mixed crowd, where you know some people but by no means all of them. You see an extremely striking woman, the kind that just naturally draws you closer. You draw closer, and in the next several minutes (or seconds) of interaction, you quickly discover that this person who attracted your attention — even arousal — is one of the four following:

1.  a fourteen-year-old-girl (as in the original post)
2.  a high-end prostitute
3.  a skilled female impersonator
4.  your sister

Those four different outcomes produce four entirely different types of embarrassment or unsettlement; in other words, differences make a difference. No surprise there. The thing is, when your buddies laugh at your discomfort —

“Dude, you were perving on jailbait!”
“Dude, you were perving on a hooker!”
“Dude, you were perving on a dude!”
“Dude, you were perving on your sister!”

— they are missing or disregarding the fundamental fact that in all four instances you did the same thing, which was to see and approach (what you thought was) an attractive woman. No difference in the action, all difference deriving entirely from the nature of the object toward which that action was directed, of which nature you were initially unaware.

It’s as if you tossed a pebble over your shoulder, and it 1) hit, bounced, and settled without any effect, 2) set off an unsuspected land mine, 3) landed under a cop’s foot and made him slip and break his leg, or 4) startled a dog which ran into traffic and caused a multi-car pile-up. Different results — unanticipated and unforeseeable — but actually all you did was toss a pebble over your shoulder.

And why did I bring it up at all? No real reason, just the recognition that someone can be discomfited by (or even judged on the basis of) outcomes which actually had nothing to do with original intent.

Life is funny. People can be downright hilarious.