@beckyjsbx:
Yup. Not all of us, but a lot of us. It's more of a feeling than a thought, an instinct that conflicts with rationality. It's easy to feel slimy if you think women are laughing at you, or if (as sadly happens more than you might think) they really are laughing at you just for trying to talk to them, which can sometimes make you think you're the one who's wrong and that they're laughing for a reason.

Being knocked back in any bad way can colour your perceptions of how you come across. I ws talking to a friendly, genuinely likeable friend of mine the other week, and he told me he experiences the same thing I often do: women he approaches in clubs often just ignore him and walk away when he says "hi". This makes you feel like a weirdo. Just saying "hi" back and deliberately keeping the conversation brief can achieve the same result without making anybody feel bad. "Sorry, Im spoken for" or "just not my type" are obviously fine and don't make him feel like it's his fault.

Not that this notion is entirely caused by women's responses; just almost as an aside I wanted to mention how rudely men sometimes get treated. I'm probably just unlucky in that I happen to have tried talking to a lot of women who aren't as pleasant as they might have seemed. It does reinforce the idea that men who pursue women are perverts though.

The fact that the stereotype has been lampooned so often only contributes - the pursuing alpha male is parodied as a pervert who thinks he's studly when really he's just a twat who nobody likes.
(The Ghost of Stephen Foster, Tue 1 Jul 2008, 23:26, Reply)