I disagree.
"I'm not into drugs"; "I don't need to drink booze"; "I don't need your money to make my way"; "I don't need your company 24/7" - are these also 'negative statements'?

"I do NOT need a man"

I believe it's actually 'I do not NEED a man'. Again, a nuance can mean a great difference.

The point which you seem oddly reluctant to acknowledge is, however nuanced, both are still negative sentiments.

Besides that, it seems to be rather hopeful to expect someone to place the same nuance on it, especially if we need to resort to all caps to make the point.

"I do NOT need a man"

I believe it's actually 'I do not NEED a man'. Again, a nuance can mean a great difference.

It is not humanly possible to mitigate for everybody else's interpretation. Rather, it is incumbent upon the interpreter to determine whether the interpretation is correct.

I disagree.
"I'm not into drugs"; "I don't need to drink booze"; "I don't need your money to make my way"; "I don't need your company 24/7" - are these also 'negative statements'

"I'm not into drugs"; "I don't need to drink booze"; "I don't need your money to make my way"; "I don't need your company 24/7" - are these also 'negative statements'

I don't see it like that.

You are correct that it's not likely possible to take into consideration every single person's interpretation of a message, but I believe that it's incumbent on the one sending the message to make sure the message it clear.

If I'm not mistaken, that's one of the first tenets of good communication.

The responsibility of the sender to choose a code that will best carry the message is obvious.
When encoding one’s idea, one has to pick the code that will fit the message and that will allow
the receiver to understand. So, the sender encodes the message.

Problem: The sender is not centered on the receiver. He or she does not think of the level of
understanding of the receiver, of the vocabulary of the receiver, of the cultural experiences of the
receiver. Solution: The sender has to tailor his or her message to the intended receiver.

Others think as I do.

Independence: A virtue belonging to the independent.

Because you can't claim to be INDEPENDENT, if you are DEPENDENT on a source of income. I should have thought that would be obvious.

Same as paying/receiving child support (NOT alimony) for your children - it has NOTHING to do with independence. Someone mentioned earlier that depending on a CS cheque makes one dependent? That's BS. Child support (again, NOT alimony) is money DUE to the children, period.

(ladyc4) Well, wouldn't that pretty much mean that about 98% of us are dependent...on a paycheck, a pension(based on one's working years income) on that secret grove of money trees not getting borers, blight,or uprooted by a tornado? I guess that means almost no one of either gender is "independent".

(another brick in the wall) Same as paying/receiving child support (NOT alimony) for your children - it has NOTHING to do with independence. Someone mentioned earlier that depending on a CS cheque makes one dependant? That's BS. Child support (again, NOT alimony) is money DUE to the children, period.

Anyway, I stand by my earlier post - if one doesn't like what's on a profile, they are MORE THAN welcome to click on the next profile. Simple really.

I guess that means almost no one of either gender is "independent".

That was me. Guilty as charged. This, after all, is a thread about the offensiveness of the "I don't NEED a man!" statement, not about Child Support.

Thing is, most men will tell women that they see the "NEED/WANT" thing as obnoxious, at best, and some women will try to tell us that it's NOT obnoxious.

Bragging of one's "independence" smacks to me of a two-year old in toilet-training saying, "See? I can go on the BIG BOY potty now!"

I haven't seen many women try to TELL men how they should think or feel, least of all this woman - I hate (hate hate hate) having people tell me how I should feel or think. You, as well as I and everyone else on this board, are entitled to our feelings - what you or I or anyone are NOT entitled to do (in MY opinion) is belittle those who don't feel the way we do and try to IMPOSE our way of thinking on others - if YOU or anyone is offended by a word or anything else you see on a profile, what I AM telling you (and others) is to SKIP THAT PROFILE.

There are many many many words that I see on profiles that are an immediate turn-off *to me*....do I start threads belittling people for those words and try to convince them that they are WRONG for something that is on THEIR profiles?

The way I see it, I am thankful that there are still people capable of INDEPENDENT thoughts who don't fall for this cookie cutter one size fits all insanity which better allows me to decide for MYSELF if that person might be a good match for me by revealing their true self instead of some fake or generic persona created to please the masses or worse "not to offend" ....in other words, TO EACH THEIR OWN....is that so hard????

So you can argue until next century that people must alter their messages in a way such that nobody's baggage can possibly affect their interpretation (not possible) but it's easier just to look for people who will either have the good grace to enquire about your meaning or, better yet, will just 'get you' because they think the same way.