Enjoying quiet drink & elder man approaches

Yes, I agree. So then I am not sure why you posted that you would be "afraid to be a man" and would have to avoid eye contact etc? Women face harassment and potential violence at the hands of men far more than the other way around so why would you be afraid to be male? Men are the aggressors here, not women.

Noone is saying he should have avoided eye contact and kept his head down, we merely said, he should have immediately backed off when OP blanked him and made it clear she didnt want to talk. Also, that women are entitled to go to a pub on their own without being approached by men trying it on.

"Oh you look familiar" sounds like an opening chat-up line, too. To be followed up with flattery like "You remind me of Marilyn Monroe" or some such.

None of those things happened to the OP either.
The man sounds like an absolute creep and i'm sorry the OP felt like she did.
I do go to pubs / beer gardens alone and take a good book to read and have a beer or a glass of wine. I've previously had men approach me and just told them to go away. It's not nice if you have to be more assertive than that admittedly.
The OP could have also spoken to the bar staff because she felt uncomfortable.
Bar staff are trained in a service called 'Ask For Angela'. Which is a good scheme.

Love this! :)

I'm going to do it too, for the younger ones!

I'd have to have been there to know how to react. If he was just trying to chat then it's far more reasonable to say what I said above. If he was being leery and weird then yes maybe a fuck off would be better. Depends on the context....

Balderdash.
It's not about avoiding eye contact - it's about male entitlement.
The kind that makes some men think they are entitled to approach a complete stranger in a restaurant because she is a woman on her own.
Most men don't do this because they know it is inappropriate, unwelcome and unsettling.

Right? It’d be delightful if they could just keep themselves to themselves but to claim they should be scared of being told no is a little galling!

Tbf if they could all do that it would be great thanks.
They. Just. Keep. Breathing.

If you were a man you should probably be scared of violence from other men

Indeed- men should be most scared of other men. Its men that commit most acts of violence and murder

Why? nothing happened to this bloke in the OP's story did it? he wasnt beaten up, he wasnt verbally or sexually abused, he wasnt raped, he wasnt murdered. Women, on the other hand, regularly have these things done to them at the hands of men and sometimes because they dare to turn a man down in a bar on a night out.

If you are more scared of some comments on an internet forum than being raped or murdered then your faux "fear" is clearly misplaced and deeply ridiculous isnt it?

Don’t interrupt people when they’re watching telly then. This chap didn’t try interrupting the other men watching the rugby (wouldn’t dare more like).

The only thing men have to be scared of is being held accountable for their actions.

I would be scared to be a man nowadays, rather than a woman.
I would keep my head down, not make eye contact and not utter a word to anyone.

you mean just like a lot of women do to avoid unwanted male attention?

What would you be scared of as a man? Being arrested for talking to a woman in a pub? Let me set your mind at ease. it isn't going to happen. Do you think the man who talked to OP was scared when she didn't engage?? seriously?

If you were a man you should probably be scared of violence from other men. Same fear women have.

Don't give it a second thought. You didn't want his company and that's totally up to you.

Why?

On a hot day I sometimes think I might pop in that pub and sit in the garden, or just go in for a sandwich and drink. But I never do. Because I worry that I will either get talked about by the clientele or get bothered. I can’t be the only one. That is the only reason women don’t solo drink in pubs.

I am going to change that. I am going to make a point of going into one.

I would be scared to be a man nowadays, rather than a woman.
I would keep my head down, not make eye contact and not utter a word to anyone.

Now to be fair, I do agree with you here. A restaurant is not a place people tend to go to mix with others outside of the table they're sitting at.

So fair comment.

Women opt out of going to many places alone because of sleazy men.
I've traveled alone on business many times and was often bothered by creepy men in restaurants just because I was on my own.
They're predatory men.
A normal guy would not approach a lone woman in a restaurant because they know it's not appropriate and unsettling.

The pub I refer to has a very, very good reputation for not tolerating any misogyny. It's a very politically correct place.
Indeed it is very near a Russell Group university.
Yet not one single female drinking alone. Not one.

N. B. To be frank, I had no idea what 'Malvados' meant: my dh loves port - as do I- and there was a bottle on the table when I picked my username.

It seems a bit weird that you've 'noted' this but then with the level of what I perceive to be largely misplaced paranoia generally displayed on this thread that men are just lecherous pigs and we can't go outside without being accosted by them to the extent we can't ever go for a drink alone, I'm not surprised.

@YourFirmCoralBiscuit did the OP say "enjoy your evening"? then why should the guy? Maybe he was just matching her energy.

Yes, but not graciously and not politely. Hence the point!

Well he left and removed his coat which is what everyone wanted.

It's atrocious how you're stereotyping women. It tracks with your assertion, "also I firmly believe that women can't be friends". You have a bad case of internalised misogyny. Internalised misogyny is almost as harmful to women as the misogyny women have to endure from men

Yes, it's really quite disturbing. The misogyny is off the scale

I am referring to your ridiculous comment that "men dont chat up women who they dont think will give them a chance"

That is a completely untrue statement and I have illustrated it by pointing out I was sleazed over at age 14 by men who knew darned well they "didnt have a chance" with me. What a ridiculous statement you made there!!

I note you havent referred to the rest of my point though. I wonder what excuse you'll make for this creep next!