I know around a dozen people who are no longer the gender they were when we met. It's facebook, and from all I've heard, creep is a reasonable default assumption there. But don't dismiss the other possibilities out of hand.
So, if I knew someone back in the day, and changed gender in the meantime, and then tried to get in touch with old pals out of the blue, I'd probably mention something like "Oh, and you knew me as Jane Doe, back in the day. A lot's happened since then..."
There's the episode of WKRP where Herb (the self-proclaimed make-out man) meets a woman who remembers him from college and he doesn't remember her. When he finally gets her into bed, she casually mentions that she used to be a he and Herb freaks. The episode is hysterical if you know the characters. -- Dagonell
I was mostly commenting, in an oblique sort of way, on the warnings to Jane that the guy might of been legit. I think it's 100%-epsilon that he's not, in that Jane would have had a clue and looked more carefully if he might have been.
One gets this sort of thing a lot. These days, it takes the form "you can't believe what you read on the internet." The point is that people are really good at telling what's real and what's not, and generally don't need the cautionary tales. For every person taken in by a Nigerian bank president, there are a gazillion who laugh and point.
I don't think that most of the commentators were "warnings" -- I think they were sympathetic and/or academic discussions and piling-ons, for the most part. These sorts of things often go for the long-shot devil's advocate positions.
Not to be rude or validate the presumed-creep, but the assumption that a Wellesley graduate would automatically be able to spell is a trap one should not fall into.
Spelling ability/inability does not automatically correlate with intelligence or education. I've known many brilliant people who are terrible spellers, most notably my late husband, Johan.
I'm a pretty good speller myself (typos aside), so it took me a long time to learn that lesson.
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-- Dagonell
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I was mostly commenting, in an oblique sort of way, on the warnings to Jane that the guy might of been legit. I think it's 100%-epsilon that he's not, in that Jane would have had a clue and looked more carefully if he might have been.
One gets this sort of thing a lot. These days, it takes the form "you can't believe what you read on the internet." The point is that people are really good at telling what's real and what's not, and generally don't need the cautionary tales. For every person taken in by a Nigerian bank president, there are a gazillion who laugh and point.
Reply
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Spelling ability/inability does not automatically correlate with intelligence or education. I've known many brilliant people who are terrible spellers, most notably my late husband, Johan.
I'm a pretty good speller myself (typos aside), so it took me a long time to learn that lesson.
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