A Dilbert from a while back (9/23) with co-workers Alice and Ted at cross-purposes:
People are inclined to sexualize social relations between the sexes, to the point where some people are dubious that men and women can have non-sexually tinged friendships, and this inclination seems to be particularly strong among men. The rather dim-witted Ted is a pretty extreme case.
Ted has trouble in relating to women in the workplace, especially in interactions that are not directly work-related; he sexualizes friendly relations in this context, understanding an invitation to a friendly interaction to be a sexual advance — presumably because if he issued such an invitation, it would be a sexual advance — so he takes Alice’s invitation this way, and protests that he’s a happily married man, not available to Alice. Then when she clarifies her intentions, Ted takes that to be a rejection of him and, dismayed by this, wonders what she finds wrong with him. Sad, sad Ted.
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