Why are men frightened by groups of laughing women at parties?

Laughing women? Men are frightened by posses of women at parties, full stop – giggling or not. It takes a pretty brave soul to approach a group of women in a social situation and an even braver one to not actually run away with his tail between his legs after two minutes. I don’t think that the fact that they could be laughing is the only issue. After all, a throng of serious, miserable-looking women is just as intimidating, albeit in a different way. It’s just the group thing. There’s one of me, loads of them, so surely they’re going to eat me alive if I go anywhere near them with a chat-up line?

I must admit that, even for the most confident of men, there’s always the nagging feeling, when you’re standing next to a bunch of chuckling women at a party, that they are not really having a laugh amongst themselves – no, they must be taking the piss out of me, my haircut, that spot on the left side of my neck, and the new pair of shoes I bought especially for tonight and was paranoid about, anyway. That might sound stupid and insecure, but I don’t think these types of feelings are unique to men. If the situation were reversed, few women would have the guts to approach a gang of bellowing blokes. Men are too often burdened with this image of being sexual predators, and it’s worth bearing in mind that we, too, are only human.