I disagree that the way women prefer to be approached has changed.

At 52, I'm old enough now to have witnessed a marked change in the way men approach women now. What we women prefer has not changed, what we get has.

I remember being with my grandmothers in public as a little girl and how they were treated. I remember being with my aunts (who were young women at the time) and seeing how they were treated.

Somewhere from the time that I was a little girl and that I entered college myself, men changed.

And it's gotten worse since then.

It's not like harassing behavior never happened then, but it was so super rare. You were shocked by it. Appalled.

It's common now. Nobody's shocked or appalled anymore. It just is, along with all the justifications.

Some differences between then and now.

1. Men genuinely smiled at you and wished you a good day in passing, you reciprocated. Now, men bark at you, "Why don't you smile?!?" You generally walk by and keep an eye out to make sure he's not following you down the street.

2. Then men offered acts of chivalry and backed off without a fuss if you politely declined. Kind of like what you were talking about. Now, it's about a 50/50 split of whether you get that or presumed acts of chivalry being imposed upon you whether you want them or not. (I'm on my way to work right now and just had an interaction with a gentleman that goes in the plus column so see? In the past week I've had 5 positive interactions with men strangers and 3 negative ones. That's the way it goes. This morning, so far, one and one).

3) Men used to take no for an answer the first time. You only had to say no once and they went about their day. Now, there's a presumed assumption that no is a negotiation point. So if you politely decline, you get badgered until you can get away from him. This has led to women having to adopt nip it in the bud responses to avoid that badgering, but it lands on all men. That's not been good, but what are we supposed to do? Just accept being badgered throughout our day by every scrub in the world who won't accept a polite no?

4) Men used to compliment women and talk to her like a person. The compliments were usually banal and canned come ons, but they weren't mean spirited. Now, men neg and come up on you demanding to know why they should give you the time of day. They talk at you like you're a sex vending machine or a prostitute instead of a person. Or they're a male gold digger (Go read that article I wrote, "Lack of Interest or Curiosity" for an example of what that looked like).

Women have always wanted to be treated with respect and dignity. We've always wanted our humanity to be seen and matter.

That's not changed. How men treat women has. Men are playing games. And again it's not all men, no one is saying it is. It's half and half.