I am not convinced that you do.
What exactly is this interaction that we are talking about? I have absolutely nothing against the alms round and the symbiotic relationship where monks depend on food from the lay people.
However herein we are discussing a case where they clearly don’t depend on them for food. Therefore this is not the same as the almsround relationship wherein monks rely on lay people.
Herein it is just tradition and a ritual that monks and lay people do for the sake of the ritual, this is not done because the monks need food, this is done to perhaps please the monks, to please the laity, to establish or uphold customs or anything but because monks need food.
Therefore this is not an alms round that Buddha encouraged and it is inappropriate and not to be done imo, whoever undertakes it is wrong to do so.
As for womenfolk i think we better not discuss it because of the policies of this forum. I will just quote the Buddha again;
“Lord, what course should we follow with regard to womenfolk?”
“Not-seeing, Ananda”
“But when there is seeing, lord, what course should be followed?”
“Not-addressing, Ananda.”
You are free to ignore this and pursue alternative course of development. The Buddha did send monks to teach the Bhikkhunis but this matter is very delicate. However if a monk says ‘may i have nothing to do with womenfolk and may they not have anything to do with me’ and he says this because he understands that seeing and hearing women may remind him of the theme of womenfolk in general, which could lead to giving inappropriate attention and would be bad for his training. There is no offense here, this is not mysogyny but is wisdom and womenfolk should not see men either if they know their own good.
It is not that they are lust magnets it is that when a man sees a woman, he thinks about ‘a woman’, there is the perception of ‘a woman’ and because of this objectification one will think about associated themes which may or may not give rise to unwholesome states.
Let alone lust one may be reminded of one’s experiences that are associated with women good memories, bad memories and pretty much anything that has to do with women or is associated with the word women, it will be based on prior development and inclinations. There is just so much potential for entertaining ideas not conducive to development that the whole theme is best avoided as far as development of higher mind is concerned.
Women are far from the only thing one sees on an alms-round there are many things that one may encounter which are either agreeable or disagreeable, one comes into conversations and for this he leaves a delightful place where he could’ve meditated instead of spending time associating with the laity.