Straw poll

[ethelthefrog]

I guess this is aimed at the womenfolk of my flist, but I'm not going to restrict.

Just to help with a debate I have been having with $someone, how would you feel if someone referred to you as "on heat"?

Comments

[nunfetishist]

I'd get off the stove.

[gwendraith]

*snort!*

[gwendraith]

I might be mildly offended. It would depend in which context it was said and who said it.

[juts]

Well I guess it does depend on the context but I can't really think of (m)any where I wouldn't be very offended, to be honest!

[gwendraith]

Thinking about it, I'd certainly be very offended in some cases.

[goddamnitbabies]

I assume this is the British way of saying "in heat" meaning when a dog is ready to breed.

Would depend on the person, how they were saying it, and what their intentions were. I don't really mind since I basically see us as animals with oversized brains anyway, but if someone was trying to belittle what seemed to me as intensely personal emotions of love and lust, I'd be fucking pissed.

[garpu]

It really depends on the person. If my best friend says it, it's one thing. If a complete stranger says it to me, it's another.

Have a poorly-thought-out essay

[kaberett]

Almost certainly offended, with some allowances for gerald-duck and context - particularly given that being-fertile and bleeding are separate in humans and therefore it wouldn't necessarily be clear what was being referred to, etc.

Whether or not I'm currently fertile really isn't my defining characteristic. Yes, it has an effect on my sex drive, but most people don't get to know that, where with cats and horses, actually? Yes, it does show. So... it's offensive because of being viewed as a baby-making machine first and foremost, I suppose, and also because of the implied lack of discretion.

No, that's not quite what I mean.

I suppose that what I mean is that my sexuality is my business and my partner's business and no-one else's, and making a comment that personal is simply rude, even before one gets into the more complicated comparing-women-to-animals thing. (Sorry, have recently read Peter Mayle. What I'm actually getting cross about here is comparing people to animals-as-objects, and then there's more cross about viewing animals as