A good friend of mine recently made a post on Facebook that, thanks to a catchy jingle, she will always have the number for her hometown’s pizza joint accessible should she need to give a guy a fake phone number.
After enjoying a chuckle of gratitude for savvy marketing mnemonics providing my friend with a way out of such uncomfortable situations, I realized this indicated ?something more sinister.
It got me thinking about this phenomenon that is so common among women basically from the moment they get cellphones.
Having a fake phone number always at the ready seems crafty, practical or perhaps a little bit quirky.
Then I got to thinking why a woman would need to be able to give out a fake phone number, presumably to a guy she isn’t interested in ?romantically.
The reason why a woman will want to memorize some ersatz digits is because she will need them when a guy asking for her real phone number won’t take no for an answer.
This is where I discover yet another derivative of our lovely rape culture. It plays out like most other structures of rape culture. It’s like fractal ?geometry, but grosser.
This isn’t explicitly sexual violence, but it is still ostensible aggressive male behaviors toward women rooted in a sense of entitlement.
It’s certainly on a smaller scale; our society conditions men to think because effort is put forth, they deserve what they were pursuing. That’s what fairness is, right?
It’s this American dream mentality in which labor and reward are directly ?proportional.
A guy puts himself out there, talks to one of those flesh frames with boobs and that little fun tunnel in her crotch custom-made for his penis.
The least he deserves in return is a tidbit of her contact information so the chase may continue into the realm of digitized courtship.
The fake number is a smokescreen and a damn effective one, too. To those who don’t see how great it is — who knows, maybe a male person hasn’t stopped reading this column by now — it allows a woman to satisfy the immediate desire of the man on the hunt.
He gets the number he was after and doesn’t realize it isn’t bona fide until the ?woman is safely distanced.
Of course, the woman probably also provides a pseudonym to accompany the pseudo-number. He is going to insist on having a name to match the number on the contacts list. That’s right, ladies; be ready to alter who you are.
Just like you shouldn’t express yourself by dressing in a way that makes you feel good or drink alcohol if a man might be around.
Too risky, you know?
A man’s ego is on the line, and the burden is on the woman to not put that in jeopardy.
If any fellas are still reading, don’t worry. Of course not all guys are like this. For instance, some men are gay and do this to other men ?instead.
Others are self-aware enough to ask if they’re making women uncomfortable before putting them on the spot. Just understand the “women should just say ‘no’” argument doesn’t work.
Not when women have been conditioned to realize that “no” doesn’t always get the job done, especially when needed most.
gmleeds@indiana.edu
