Yesterday's STAR story about 'daggering draws blood' will draw some laughter. Still, it holds a serious lesson about how a man should respect a woman's personal space.

It was reported that Larome Graham was bitten on the lip by a woman at a dance in Southside, Kingston, after he attempted to follow the selector's instruction and 'dagger' a woman near to him.

It turned out that she was far from enthused and bit him, although it turned out to be someone he knew. Graham said he also heard that she was drunk.

Whatever the circumstances, though, Graham and many a man would do well to take this as a lesson in respecting a woman's personal space. Certainly, in the dancehall context it is expected that some of the women in attendance would be more inclined than not to do suggestive dances with men they may or may not have known previously.

And body language, along with eye contact, can be an invitation.

However, the party setting, whether in a dancehall, carnival or house party, can be used to pass boundaries of physical contact and achieve a level of closeness which would have otherwise been impossible and which, under any circumstance, the woman does not want.

It is important that men do not take advantage of circumstances and impose themselves on unwilling women.

Graham, though, has learnt his lesson the bloody way. As he told The STAR, "Mi nah dance wid no girl. If she waan dance wid mi, mi wi do it. Mi nuh waan get no more bite."