This is a great thread, thanks for introducing it James.
I've gone through all the comments and all the suggestions are great. It's true you can't know how any one woman will react to an offer of assistance. Some will, because of fear or past experience, react badly (or to their mind, they react in self defence). The best thing to do in that situation is simply back off and not take it personally. Understanding that these reactions come from a genuine place of fear, and not out of some desire to persecute men, will go a long way. Unfortunately some men take a woman's reaction whatever it may be as a personal attack and in doing so make the whole thing about them and their perceived emotional wounds, instead of recognising that women have greater fears than feeling rebuffed to cope with. Margaret Atwood said (paraphrased) men fear being laughed at, women fear being killed.
There is little more tiresome than when fear of a man's reaction to something we say or do has to be added to our already long list of things to fear. Offer help, by all means, many women will appreciate it. But if she doesn't want help or even tell you to rack off, just be cool. It's probably not about you. Be polite as you would to anyone. Accept no for an answer the first time it is given. Call out bad behaviour in other men when you come across it, or at the very least refuse to laugh along if someone is out of line. Listen to women when they say something makes them uncomfortable, instead of dismissing them as paranoid.
If all good men did these things it'd be a weight off most women's minds I think.
