‘When men can’t take no for an answer’: Man offers uninterested woman $5 million for a date, insults her when she refuses

I aspire to one day have the ability to so ludicrously overclock my capacity for confidence the way that the more detached sector of the male species is capable of doing; not that such an ability is anything to be envious of when it’s so oft-used to breathe life after life into the sexism that permeates our society. Then again, imagine what that mindset could do if it were channeled into something productive, such as learning a musical instrument or perhaps connecting with a book of poetry.

But alas, one man thought his energy was better suited to bothering one poor woman who wanted nothing to do with him; a state of affairs that, for women, is about as newsworthy as a mowed lawn. Even so, nothing could have prepared the lady in question for the asinine conversational roller coaster that quickly followed, and she caught the whole thing on TikTok.

Indeed, if there was ever a trilogy of videos capable of short-circuiting one’s brain to a nigh unrepairable degree, @deztinymercedes can certainly lay a claim to it. No sooner did she reject this man’s offer did he offer $5 million as compensation for what would have no doubt been the longest night of her life ($5 million, may we add, that was almost certainly imaginary), only to resort to the ever-common revolving door of insults when she still said no.

The TikToker revealed in a later video that she had been at her then-workplace (a controlled, relatively safe environment, she noted) at the time the video was taken, and part of the job involved dealing with the moderately-to-severely inebriated, so the situation was child’s play to her. She warned in the same video, however, to not follow her example, and with good reason.

Indeed, according to a 2019 study from one Lily Katherine Thacker of Eastern Kentucky University, “rejection violence,” in which the offending party resorts to punishing their target in the event that they reject their desires, is starkly rooted in street harassment, which “includes behaviors such as catcalling, groping, and other similar psychologically and/or physically violent behaviors carried out by men which serve to reinforce women’s position in a gendered world via the application of fear.” When these actions are met with rejection, that’s when the violence, whether physical, verbal or psychological, comes into play.

But go ahead, fellas; keep whining about how uncomfortable Barbie made you feel.