[toomanyrichies]

I recommend showing your mom the comment you wrote, and asking whether her circumstances were the same as those of the Uber driver in this scenario.

There’s an ocean of difference between being ashamed to feel attraction, vs. refraining from acting on that attraction because it’s neither the time nor the place to do otherwise. The fact that so many men can’t tell the difference is the reason why it’s better for the Uber driver to err on the side of caution.

Feeling an attraction to someone does not, by itself, give a person license to act on that attraction. The world, and the people in it, have agency as separate human beings. They don’t exist merely as a repository for men’s feelings.