I made this same post word for word in ask men, with the pronouns switched. No responder thought I was being vague. The general consensus was "If this is a problem you have, you need to work on your communication skills."
Other than that, I work in a male dominated industry and very rarely do I have this issue with another guy during conversation or in email.
I think part of the problem (in this thread) is the bias against men that many women seem to have. You picture me sitting here scoffing at everybody, and talking down while you're simply trying to understand me, yet I don't see it that way. I've asked other people to give me their interpretation of what they think I meant by my post, you're the only person who even made the effort. Look at the responses and the down votes, tell me I didn't walk in to hostile territory.
I don't follow you on the example/metaphor thing. Saying a dog is an asshole is not a metaphor, unless you consider it a metaphor any time a person says "This person/thing is an asshole/dick/bitch" etc. If my opinion is the dog is an asshole, how is there any room for interpretation other than "OP thinks the dog is an asshole?" How could you think "Oh, OP really meant the dog is funny, or cute, or anything other than an asshole?" The reason for why I think the dog is an asshole has no bearing. My issue isn't whether or not the person agrees with how I define asshole, It's the fact that I say A and the person thinks I really meant B and responds to B instead of A. Have a look in this thread and find the responder who felt the need to tell me not all women and women are people as if I had said every woman ever did this, or that women aren't people. If that's not a good enough example, they also said that people say "I speak my mind" to justify being a dick, except I didn't say I speak my mind, did I? They provided their own conclusion off an assumption they made and responded to my post based off that.
You are the only person in this thread that didn't brush me off or give me attitude and seemed genuinely interested in tackling the problem.