My initial reaction was extremely dismissive toward Rebecca Watson's complaint, but after reading a few more perspectives I think I understand her point and relate to it a little bit.
When I was in Bangkok with my girlfriend, we decided one night around 1am that we wanted to have a few more drinks. The bars around our hostel were closed so we got a ride on a Tuk-tuk (cab type thing) and asked the driver to take us somewhere that was open. He took us to a bar that he got a commission for, but the entrance to the bar was halfway down a long dark alley. Faced with the uncertainty of our safety and my (probably) being a little over-protective of my girlfriend, we decided to have the driver take us back to the hostel and planned out our next night a little better (we also gave the driver some extra money to cover his commission).
http://kateharding.net/2009/10/08/gu...t-being-maced/
In this blog post, the writer discusses "Schrodinger's rapist" a seemingly nice man who may or may not be a rapist. I said that I could relate to Ms. Watson's because for us, it was "Schrodinger's Dangerous Alley" or "Schrodinger's Group of Muggers".
Now the Tuk-tuk driver and welcome staff were clearly offended and we had implicitly signalled that we felt Bangkok was so full of criminals that we were unwilling to take the chance of a thirty second walk down an unlit alley, but, frankly, that's too bad for them. Besides, much like the elevator guy, if the context was a little different (street facing entrance perhaps?) our response and comfort level would have been a little different.
Back to the issue, Rebecca Watson was in an even less comfortable situation because she was alone and in a confined space. I think it's fair for her to presume that she was being propositioned by a 4AM coffee invitation and it is reasonable that she was uneasy about how he might respond to being turned down.
Putting aside the Dawkins stuff, I think that Rebecca Watson gives good advice to the extent that had the man waited until she was off the elevator and made the same proposition (from inside the elevator, not following her into the hallway) it would have been better, if still unwanted and uncomfortable.
I am not so supportive of the larger suggestion that men should never sexualize strangers, but as far as the elevator situation, my opinion changed as I read some more perspectives and wanted to share how I got here.