Yesterday's post on the masturbating gentleman of the Brooklyn-bound 4 train provoked debate between people who hate perverts, people who hate people who hate perverts, and a pervert who defended his right to rub one out in public.

Guess which one is my favorite?

In the comments section of yesterday's post, some questioned photographer Kate Black's claim that the man she saw thrusting his boner into women's faces was actually a pervert: Perverted activity is not always apparent, they argued, and apparent perversion is sometimes innocent. What if the masturbating gentleman of the Brooklyn-bound 4 train wasn't rubbing his boner in strangers' faces, but "happened to have a boner while listening to his iPod and doing the Electric Slide?"

Others questioned whether thrusting a boner into a woman's face could accurately be described as "masturbating." Still others argued that, though the "masturbating gentleman" was not using the traditional grip-and-tug method for self-gratification, he was certainly engaged in some level of "non-consensual frottage" from which he derived sexual pleasure—thusly "self-pleasuring," or "masturbating."

But the most edifying reader response came from an actual pervert, who deigned to provide a psychological profile of perversion. (Turns out it's like a Mel Gibson phone rant.)

From: [redacted]
To: maureen@gawker.com
Date: Tue, Jul 27, 2010 at 5:03 AM

Hey maureen, you probably think they ought to castrate this guy. Pitching a tent and thrusting hips is NOT masturbating. You women are such hipocrites. Your afraid of every sexual advance on earth, yet you wear suggestive clothes. You get botox and facelifts cause your so vain and insecure about your looks. You stick your phony tits and eyelashes in front of every man you meet and then call the cops if he gets a woody. All this and your MARRIED to some poor guy who has to pay for it all and make an appointment with you to have sex. cuckoo, cuckoo, WACKO...!

have your best day, tom.

Okay, so I don't know if Tom is the sort of guy who thrusts his boner into strange women and children's faces, or if he's just a defender of those who do. (So maybe he isn't a pervert! Maybe he's like the ACLU, fighting for perverts' rights on principle. Or maybe he just hates chicks.)

I looked him up on Facebook: He has a wife, enjoys The Office, and is a fan of Kobe Bryant. Thanks for writing in, Tom. I hope you have a nice day, too. [Image via Joe Belanger/Shutterstock]