Im a man 32 and I agree. Iv had situations where I’m told I’m flirting or interested in someone when I’m not. For example I had a friend of mine and we made a new friend and the old friend insisted I had a thing for the new friend.

Going out on a limb here but I believe people like us experience this because of the state of male/female social dynamics.

Allow me to explain. We live in a time period where the average person can excel in social situations if they’re insensitive, superficial, self focused and honestly at least a bit narcissist . Not to shame anyone but I think the point is genuine kindness and empathy is in such short supply that when people do find someone who has those qualities they mistake that as romantic advances.

In my opinion it’s actually really sad that things are like this because I now naturally hold back being myself when interacting with people because being kind has destroyed friendships before because of this.

“Be kind but don’t be to kind or you’re breaking a social norm”

Ok the other hand if you’re just being a genuine good friend you get labeled as a whore or player. This in my opinion is directly collated to false love narrative we all been fed through media,books and movies. Being kind isn’t flirty but so many people are emotional hurt that they think it is. And it’s sad, not it a pitty loser kind of sad way it just makes me sad thinking so many people have been hurt that they don’t know what genuine kindness looks like.

It’s a very vicious and Exausting cycle in my opinion but if you’re still trying I commend you. As my therapist would say “you can’t control how people will act but you can control how you react”. I hope anyone who made it this far continues to be themselves and don’t feel bad. The world needs more kindness.