jwfess wrote:
Sometimes when I talk I use hand gestures to explain things. I've seen a couple women flinch and back up when I do so, as if I'm about to backhand them!
That's because too many of us have been smacked around by a**hats and it has made us paranoid. The other day, my bf, who has never been violent towards me in any way, and I were in the kitchen cooking (ok, I was stirring, he was cooking, I get points for trying.) and there was a knife laying by us on the counter. He wanted me to close my eyes and I couldn't do it because I was terrified he was going to do something to me or pretend to do something to me with the knife because in the past I dated guys like that. I wouldn't close them until i had the knife in my hand. He wanted to give me a kiss. I felt like a dick.