The biggest reason women started rebuffing men who approach them in public is because men stopped taking that polite no for an answer and go on about their day.

I'm old enough to remember how it was and how it is. I used to be able to simply say no thanks and a guy would leave me alone. I didn't feel threatened or pressured.

Now, I deal with street harassment regularly that has become more aggressive and vitriolic over the years. A lot of men, young men in particular (and yes, I still get hit on by younger men often), are either drunk/high when they do it, on a power trip of some kind (purity culture), or acting as though they are mentally disturbed. They no longer use polite, respectful language but have adopted manipulative, coercive, demanding language—usually along the lines of how you owe them. Two days ago a young man approached me with the line that I should give him a chance because when I die I might find out that he was Jesus in disguise and I'd have to prove that I treated everyone equally and "knew" and loved Jesus. When that didn't work, he straight up claimed to be Jesus come back to Earth. Clearly, disturbed.

Even seemingly normal guys can turn very angry and violent in an instant over nothing.

Men ARE less social. Even their body language is more threatening because they've adopted "tough guy" persona to perform masculinity for other men. They keep a constant scowl on their face, their arms crossed, and stand like they're about to throw down. They're taciturn and will peck all the time. It never seems to occur to them that if you want a date with a woman then peacocking for other men is not the best way of going about this.

They dress like children mocking thug life for Halloween.

I could go on. Men have changed how they approach women in public over the years. They've gone from something that worked eventually to freaking out the entire female population. And it's not dating apps either, not entirely, because dating apps were initially appealing because they were a possible means of bypassing this creepy behavior that was ALREADY on the rise. Dating apps turned out to make it worse.

There's a path forward, but it won't be women who make it. That particular part of the social contract was broken by men so they need to be the ones to restore it. Ultimately, women are going to HAVE TO keep their own safety in mind because society has determined to gaslight victims of assault and harassment rather than deal with a very real problem.

The path forward is for men to stop acting like they think they're John Wick (who smiled when he was with his wife btw) and start learning to socialize and approach women in that manner rather than like they might turn violent in an instant.