[lumberjim]

Originally Posted by Tiki

You and Undertoad seem to believe that a quiet person loses their personal space rights when it comes to being encroached upon by a talkative person. Do you also believe that if she were a smoker, I would need to suck it up and let her smoke in my house? Do you believe that if I asked her not to, I would be disrespecting her right to smoke, rather than asserting my right to not breathe her smoke?

I believe that I should, as a human being, have the right to not have someone try to engage me in banter when I do not want to. I believe that I have the right to not be talked to when I need to not be distracted. I am not trying to impose anything on anyone else; I am only trying to ask them not to impose something on me.

I don't think I am being intolerant... quite the contrary, I think that you are being intolerant by insisting that my desire to be left alone is disrespectful of my housemate's desire to make me talk to her.

How far do you take that line of reasoning? If a man wants to have sex with me and I don't want to have sex with him, am I being disrespectful if I say no? Is rape just an example of women's intolerance for men's desire for sex?

who are you talking to? who is 'You' in that quote?