guys

I was thinking about this specific Q&A exchange at outreach on Wednesday:

…very pretty student sitting next to me said, "How do you react when guys are attracted to you?"

My answer was simple, i.e., that I never noticed any guys being attracted to me.

The student was incredulous and said, "You make such a pretty woman, so guys must be attracted to you."

I said that she might be right, but I never noticed probably because I did not want to attract guys, so I paid little attention to them.

After thinking about it, I did recall some instances when guys have been attracted to me. In each instance, the guy and I have been in vehicles; he in a car or truck and me in my car.

This makes sense because while I am in my car, it is unlikely that an observer can gauge my height. All they see is a woman's face, hairdo, and maybe hands with long painted nails grasping the steering wheel. They don't see a woman, who is 6'2" tall, so my height does not give away my birth gender while I am in my car.

On the other hand, I may look like a woman walking out and about, but my size will clue in many observers that I may not be what I seem.

Guys see me in a car and assume I am a woman, so they check me out at traffic lights or when they pass me by on the highways. On more than one occasion, I have noticed a guy in a vehicle ahead of me checking me out in his rear view mirror, and a few times, after initially spotting me in his rear view, the guy drives very slowly… to do what? Check me out some more, see if I will react, see if I will wave him over so we can get to know each other better… I dunno.

One time, I was the first car at a traffic light around 10 PM on a Saturday night. A guy solo in a vehicle approached from the crossroad on my right and made a left hand turn onto the street I was on. As his car crossed in front of me, our eyes met and he must have thought it was love at first sight because he immediately made a U-turn and pulled up next to me in the empty lane on my driver's side.

I could see him out of the corner of my eye waiting for me to respond, but I ignored him and prayed he did not follow me when the light turned green. He did not and I breathed a sign of relief.