You've seen the picks of him and the Saudi king (or whomever it was) right?

To be fair, there was oil involved and he is the leader of a nation of addicts.

(2) Handshake OK. Hug OK if friend, or woman initiates. Shoulder or foot rub OK if close friend, or woman clearly needs -- in which case, offer before commencing. Anything else beyond what is unavoidable in a crowded situation is to be avoided because it can be seen as sexual, even if it wasn't intended that way.

(1) I haven't seen the video. So I'll give him the benefit of the doubt that he may not have intended anything sexual. But see above -- regardless of what he intended, it was a stupid thing to do because it could be reasonably seen as sexual.

(3) Beats me. The only thing I can think of is that co-worker thought your statement implied that it would have been ok if some other gender combo had been involved.

(4) Does Bush commonly feel-up male heads of state?

You've seen the picks of him and the Saudi king (or whomever it was) right?

I used that argument with Chatty!co-worker -- "Does Bush grope male heads of state?" -- and his reply was "We don't know that he *doesn't.*" And he was serious. I said, "Well, there's never been any news coverage of him groping male heads of state," and Chatty said "That still doesn't mean that Bush doesn't do it."

He's the ultimate relativist, and it drives me utterly utterly batshit.

Sexual or not, still really inappropriate.

(4) Does Bush commonly feel-up male heads of state?

Aside from holding hands or receiving belly kisses?

It's condescending and overly familiar, from what I can tell. And, yeah, unlikely to do that to a guy.

It seems I left my favourite swimsuit in Jamaica.

And that my Powerbook power supply is dead.

Question(s): (1) Do you think that Bush's grope-y gropiness was sexual in any way? (2) Do you think that, in general, adult men in Western society are aware of the connotations of touching women? (3) How was my statement sexist?

I'm not sure I'd call it sexual, exactly (though that could be because my mind runs screaming away from the concept, with this man involved), thought it could be there, for sure.

Definitely a dominance behavior*, though, in a very gendered way.

And I think I just threw up a little in my mouth.

*spent way too much time talking about dog training recently

"We don't know that he *doesn't.*" And he was serious. I said, "Well, there's never been any news coverage of him groping male heads of state," and Chatty said "That still doesn't mean that Bush doesn't do it."

He's got a point, for that matter we don't really know that Bush doesn't slaughter puppies for fun. We only suspect that he doesn't.

We only suspect that he doesn't.

We do?

[edit: Okay, having now looked at this series of stills, I'm gonna have to side with Team Inappropriately Gendered Touching. I don't know that I'd call it "sexual" but I'd definitely call it "sexist."]

He's got a point, for that matter we don't really know that Bush doesn't slaughter puppies for fun. We only suspect that he doesn't.

That sounds more like Cheney anyway. Or Karl Rove.