God damn that's the dream. This chick at the store smiles at me a lot and giggles when I'm nearby. I like hearing her laugh and seeing her smile and don't want things to get awkward, so I'm not saying anything :/
Be direct with "Hey, I noticed that you smile a lot at me and giggle when I am around. If you want to talk outside of the store. Can I give you my phone number?"
If she's an employee and your a customer, don't ask her for her phone number or out when she's working. She will feel trapped and pressured to say yes. However. by giving her your number she gets to decide if they moves forward or not. If you are co-workers, same advice. Don't ask her out or her number. Give her your number, let her decide to move forward or not.
Aw yeah. There was this beauty at the store that, in hindsight, obviously gave me the eye, repeatedly. I wanted to ask her to a coffee the next time, but then she already wasn't around anymore. Don't be too late.
Aside from a lot of guys being thickheaded and not seeing it, there's also selection bias.
A) A girl has a crush on a guy. He notices but plays it safe. Maybe she's just friendly. Result: no harm done except perpetuating the myth that guys don't notice.
B) A girl is just friendly but the guy thinks he's being crushed on and acts on it. Now he's forever labeled as a creep.
The only safe play as a guy is always, always assuming she's just being friendly. Unless she comes right out and says she wants to hump your bones, just assume she's being nice to you.
This happens to women too. The embarrasement is real and the societal pressure to not be seen as a slut is everpresent. Playing it safe is a popular strategy no matter the gender.
I just wrote this because these memes are rampant and funny, but they do make light of a bad circumstance on our society. And that trope usually targets men, so here's some context.
It's 2026. Are people still that puritanical that they care about somebody else's sexual activity?
The places I've lived in the last 15 years have been extremely sex positive, which was a slight shift in mindsets from where I grew up, which was slowly coming this way.
Is there a sudden resurgence in this behavior?
Is it part of the man-o-sphere bullshit?
yes. most people are incredibly puritanical. including 'sex positive' people. most self-proclaimed 'sex positive' people i knew are the ones who judged people the most for their sexual habits. anytime i have hung out with sex positive people i have been shamed by them for being a slut, or being a prude. i'm a man and i've had women reject me for my partner count many times for being too much or too little.
it's not a resurgence, it's always been there. it will always be there. people don't like people who are different than them. it makes feel feel bad and insecure and they blame you for it rather than question their own feelings.
No, it's just your typical double standard shit. If I asked the that, I'd be an asshole sexist pig. If they asked me that, they are just trying to figure out if I am a womanizer or 'inexperienced'. When they do it it's a 'good thing', when I do it, it's 'bad'.
And nobody is ever happy with the answer unless your number is basically the same as theirs. If your number is significantly different, than you are 'judging them'. Because what they are really asking, on a deeper level, is you to validate them and their life choices.
It's not any different with money either. You have to answer them with the number in their head they have pre-determined is 'correct' or you are not worthy of them, or you are going to steal/abuse them. This is regardless of their own financial status. I make a great salary and am happy with money. But I meet women who think I am going to to steal their money and force them to pay all my bills if I make like 10K less than they do, which is a trivial amount to both of us. But this 'fear' is almost always a projection of her desire to be the person who steals the money and has their bills paid for them, or some deep belief that any man who can't pay her bills for her is not a 'real man'. I meet so many women I am at the same financial level as who tell me I am too poor to date them... it's just hilarious to me at this point. They basically have to come up with a conspiracy theory to justify their greed that a man must make 2-3x their income to be 'good'. And in my dating bracket, that means a guy has to make like 500K salary, which is a top .5% salary. Hence the refrain 'there are no good men'. All the men who are moderate successful making 100-200K are 'losers' who are just going to financial use and abuse her, or something.
Are people still that puritanical that they care about somebody else's sexual activity?
Yes. Many people devote their entire personalities towards policing other people's sex lives. Just look at the hatred towards LGBTQ people that continues to go on and on. It never went away, it just got pushed back, often to largely rural areas. Look at the transphobia of the past 15 or so years. That's all based in the same nonsense.
Even amongst the LGBTQ community, you have the recent "kink at Pride" drama, but there are also decades old issues like gay men using the same homophobia used on them by straight guys against bi men - or saying that they're not part of the community if they're dating a woman.
It’s always good to play it safe unless evidence is so overwhelming that she’s into you. This has cost me some romantic opportunities but has also kept me from being the guy who dates all his female friends.
after being rejected 100 times in a row for "ew gross i don't associate disabled people" when after a couple dates i let them see me take a blood pressure pill (hadn't even let them see any of my massive collection of scars except my arm and face, which i can't exactly hide without michael jacksoning) you kind of just start making fairly accurate assumptions about the women in your society
That's one of those easy things for me to overshare. I take half a dozen pills daily to function. If they aren't, or at least don't know why I take them, it ain't gonna work.
The actual like, really disabling thing about me isn't any of the things I'm treated for. It's my sleep disorder. I still have to show up to my 9-5. My kid still has arrival and pickup times at school. Banks are only open 9-5.
I've found that women with treated or untreated disabilities understand this shit way more than normies. That's not to say go look for them, but don't try to fit into an ablist mask, that's far more harmful
One rejection in college had me pegged as a creep to the point many of my own friends stopped talking to me. All I did was ask someone to get some tea once but I guess I didn't do the mating dance right or something idk.
Was a pretty powerful lesson in seeing how people will believe what they want to believe. I guess it's the same for many of the "creeps" and "sluts" out there.
I rejected a girl in college and she went around telling everyone she could that I sexually harassed her.
She got her comeuppance and got booted out of school after she did it to other guys too, but it was terrifying for that brief window when people believed her. I'd be eating lunch and random weirdos would come up to me and go 'I KNOW WHAT YOU DID YOU FUCKING CREEP!' Very few people supported me, and it was only my few closest friends, and my ex.
And even better, when I share that experience, at least 50% of the people who hear it, still think it is my fault or I'm lying. Because men are all rapists, and women are all hapless victims who never do anything bad or wrong...
That really is not ok, sorry bro. This happened to a friend of mine too, and I saw what that did to him. It's so much worse than people realize. He nearly got kicked out of school over it even.
What saved him was the same thing that saved you: she was stupid enough to make a pattern out of the behaviour. That said it didn't make it all better, because he no longer trusted the people who abandoned him. The social dynamics of that group never recovered.
I had a couple of people apologize to me after she was found out. That was cool. But most didn't.
People love to make up fake bullshit. I had another issue with this other woman... that I never ever even met who kept going around telling other people who I slept with her and how shit in bed I was. I literally never met her, but people told me about it. Maybe she had a crush or something. it was fucking weird.
This makes me think of a conversation between my wife and daughter a while back.
Daughter is angry with her BF and frustrated that he seems oblivious to that
Wife: "Oh honey, no. It doesn't work like that. If I'm mad at your dad for something I just have to tell him. If he asks if I'm OK and I say, 'I'm fine', he takes that at face value. He's very literal."
Daughter: "Ugh. Doesn't that frustrate you?"
Wife: "It was weird at first but once you get used to it it's actually really nice. You just have to learn to talk to him."
I think a lot of people need to learn to communicate more explicitly. There's also the ask culture vs guess culture dynamic, though I think it can extend past culture and some people lean one way or the other. There's also the idea that guess culture is feminine coded in America and ask culture is masculine coded.
To a guess culture, outright stating your desires is imposing. You hint and if they're willing to give it they offer. Furthermore saying no to a direct request is also seen as rude. In general directness is bad, preemptive offering is proper (and obviously they have to reject for fear of imposing), and hinting is acceptable. Think stereotypes of English culture. It's a stupid social dance that I instinctively fall into. To an ask culture all that's stupid, there's nothing wrong with asking for something and it's not problem to say no. It's direct and blunt. Think stereotypes of American culture.
It's generally quite good to be able to navigate and accommodate both, but as a guesser, asking is better as a default, especially in relationships. It's awkward and difficult to learn, but it takes all the guesswork and ambiguity out.
A girl told me in 8th grade that she knew I liked her, and was cool with it. I thought she was nice for not being creeped out that I liked her, until one day on college when I finally realized what she meant.
It's clear that when they say they liked you in high school, it means that they don't like you any more, and you blew your one shot. Don't be a dick and try now, that ship has sailed.
I used to own a retail shop, and I had one young woman assistant who had a sixth sense about those things. I'd wait on a customer, and after they left, my assistant would say"Wow, she really had the hots for you," and I'd always be like WTF are you talking about?
Fun story: this guy I know on my gaming Facebook group would complain about being single. This was an older men's group/dad group. He'd repeat whatever the manosphere would say and ask for validation, and we (usually married dudes) usually say things like, "Yeah man dating is hard" and "women give mix signals".
Finally, mods called out how his last 10+ posts were complaining and his shitty attitude is just sucking the energy out of the group. They warned him that if he kept it up, they'd ban him from the group until he fixed his behavior.
Fast forward to today - he's telling us about his new girlfriend he met on NYE and how they had a amazing valentines. He shared how after that post, he took a long look at himself and stopped sabotaging himself.
That isn't as true as you think. Communication is often the weakest part of any relationship (romantic, platonic, professional).
Everyone has their own language and very few people are willing to adapt to someone else's way of communicating, even when that effort should be mutual.
I think that's true today. When I was younger it def felt like people, of any gender, were more willing to try and understand other people. Like, people used to ask me what I like to do and why I like it... now they ask me what I like to do and tell me I'm an idiot for liking something that isn't the same as what they like.
We are on the way. sex and relationship rates are massively declining for Gen Z.
I have four newphews 16-20. they have all dated. all but one of them has already sworn off dating because they think it's total bullshit and they thought it was miserable and no fun to have a girlfriend, for the very same reasons, I also am frustrated with dating and relationships in my 40s. It's insane. It took me 30+ years of dating to get fed up, they were fed up in 1-2 years.
And all of us agree the issue is women's expectations they get from social media. My 17 year old nephew broke up with his gf because he got her flowers and she complained they were not $200+ that he was a 'low effort' boyfriend and all her friends dog-piled in group chat and agreed. He's 17 and he makes 15 bikes an hour part time...
Like why would any sane person want to subject themselves to group harassment from multiple women for the 'sin' of not being able to buy her absurdly expensive flowers? In my situation, I take women out on $100-200 dinner takes and get told that I'm a 'loser' for not taking her out to a $1000 restaurant on our 3rd date. It's INSANE.
None of that happened 10 years ago. If I took a woman out to a $100 restaurant 10 years ago she was STOKED. Now the refrain on the news is 'men are not good enough for women and women are giving up'. Without acknowledging the changes in women's expectations for men due to their addiction to social media and constant consumption of 'lifestyle' influences.
All anyone blames is the manosphere... and how evil that is. But really it's both sexes that are swept up in these toxic sexist expectations that are making both of them miserable and lonely and unable to connect with other people.
Where are you finding these women? I've never dated anyone like that. Not disputing that they exist, but to take out enough of them that it's worth bitching about online may indicate a problem with the choices you're making. Plenty of women are looking for an actual connection and relationship with someone.
they are the majority of the single women in my city in their 30s, on dating apps and in real life. They choose me, i don't choose them. They send me likes on apps, they chat me up, they go out with me, they date me. Last night I got 3 likes on a dating app from women who said on their profile that they want a 'real man' to take care of them... my profile says I am not a 'real man'. And yet they will still pursue me. They think I am hot/attractive, but they basically want me to change everything about my lifestyle and personality and beliefs...
The women I am interested in aren't usually single. So unless I start an affair or poach someone's wife, I can only date the women who are single who are like this. I am not interested in trying to steal people's wives and girlfriends. Those women don't have single female friends for me to date either. Every liberal outdoorsy nerdy girl I meet, is never ever single. Some of them are lesbians/queer though and very cool, but again, I can't really date a lesbian/queer person as a straight guy.
I try to date outside of my city, but women in the suburbs usually even worse and they are usually conservative Trump types who hate me for being a liberal. They also are interested in me.
I'm in my 30s and I don't feel that way at all. Yeah, there's lots of shitty people or ones I don't vibe with but that's been the case my whole life. Many of the ones that I'd have considered a poor match in my early 20s have matured since then into much more likable people. If you're using dating apps though, you are probably going to get more exposure to the dregs. One of many reasons I don't touch those. You can still meet people the old fashioned way by going out and doing things. You may not find someone as quickly but you're not getting constant negativity thrown in your face.
dating in my early 30s was great. once i got past 35 thought, it all went to shit. 9/10 dates i meet now give me this long premable about how their exes all sucked and i better be better than them. it's insane. like they will approach me at a bar/event and just start ranting at me, and think it's cute or 'flirting' because they are issuing me a challenge I have to overcome to prove my worth to them. because 'real men' want to prove their worth to their woman... yeah right
and the 1/10 one that doesn't... has never dated and has basically no adult life experience. i did go out with a nice lady last month... but she was had zero real life experience and I'm not interested in that either. she had been living at home until she was 35 and just starting her adult life like she was 22.
every normal, happy, well adjust woman I meet is already married. that includes all my female friends over the years. the funny part is they are so chill you don't even know they are married because they don't really talk about their SO at all... because they are their own person and don't have a partner who defines them and from which they derive their worth and self esteem... and if you flirt with them they just point it out and it's no big deal.
before i was 35 i used to meet normal people who actually wanted to date normally. but the culture has changed it's much more hostile and aggressive than it was even 5 years ago. even when I see other people on dates when I am out... often it's weird and hostile interaction and it's rarely relaxed. I miss going out with people who were relaxed and chill and who had passions and interests, instead of relentlessly trying to judge every aspect of me and then think they are above all judgement in their quest to acquire a fantasy romance novel of a relationship.
i blame all these gender toxic media shit. i grew up with the idea men and women were the same and our differences were funny and not a big deal. now people act everyone of the opposite sex is the enemy until prove otherwise by subordinating themselves to their 'tests' and 'checklists'. It's like people are looking for someone to hate more than someone to love, and absolutely no interest in a mutual understanding. but when i see videos of the shit that goes on on tiktok and instagram and all that... holy moly the 'advice' people give is just insanely toxic shit.
there is also a huge uptick in traditional gender role crap the past 5 or so years. in 2015 I never saw women demanding 1950s style relationships or demanding men pay for everything so they can be homemakers. now it's easily 50% of the profiles I see on dating apps. not to mention the crap games where they insist on splitting the bill and then text you after the date that 'you shouldn't have let me pay, you are not the man for me'. crap.
Many will have married already, so choices when I was in my 30's tended to be:
Somebody who didn't marry because they really were careful about who they want to date or settle down with. This could be fine, but could also mean unrealistic expectations or some issue that hadn't worked through previously (I was in the latter boat)
Somebody who married and divorced, possibly due to a relationship that went bad. They may be the cause of that, the victim of it, or other circumstances. Increased chance of kids and ex issues
Married but the spouse passed away (30+ is increased chances for previously unknown medical issues to crop up, it just a car accident)
Somebody who didn't have it together enough (in their mind) to even consider relationships. Could have been persuing a career or took a bit to get past the "wild party" stage
Immigrants. People who worked to get out of one country and to another and relationships weren't in the cards yet. There can be possible language/cultural miscommunication hurdles (including different social cues)
I wouldn't say it's the dregs. Just that one's choices have changed a lot from "the one a couple houses/lockers down from you".
sorry, do men dog pile on their friends girlfriends for not buying them nice enough gifts? or not giving him enough blowjobs?
I've never had another guy comment on my relationship with my girlfriend. and I've never commented on theirs. only thing I ever experience was some bitter virgin types guy telling me how good i have it that I have ever had sex or get female attention at all.
No, I'd argue that women who think that way are simple choosing to be miserable and making excuses for it. And that's their choice.
They also often blame men for their choice the make them unhappy, weirdly enough.
I don't date or interact with women who think that way, purposefully. I sure do meet plenty of them, who lecture me about how hard their lives are... and I just laugh at them because most of the time their life is 1000x easier than mine ever was.
The incel slope does seem to have a lot more members lately, whether due to social media or guys bitter from failed relationships, bit I will note that there's an old adage that still often rings true
"Men will fight each other physically sometimes to the point of bloodshed, but women will tear each other down socially without mercy"
it's not. it means we all suffer because so many of us want to be in happy relationships but the toxic bullshit people believe is totally preventing that. My dates use to talk to me like a human being, now they lecture me because I'm a 'man'. They see me as guilty until prove otherwise, instead of just a fellow human being who they are trying to get to know.
and the other thing that baffles me is how petty and mean dating has become.
Just explain them their use of fallacies is wrong and communication is key and then, maybe, they will reconsider their position. If they don't then you dodged a bullet especially in the long term
It's not new. My cousin constantly argued with her boyfriend 20-25 years ago because she believed she deserved to be taken out to $200 dinners on a regular basis, and he only ever wanted to go to McDonald's.
It's not economic, as much as people like to believe.
Even socially democratic utopias like Norway ,which have such massive sovereign funds that their citizenry don't need to work a day in their lives, have a population birth crisis.
And while I obviously am not arguing against it, the biggest correlation with declining birth rates are education and women enfranchisement.
Honestly, a demographic implosion needs to happen with some generation. Better now, to reset capitalistic expectations of unsustainable growth then later when it's compounded.
In Norway, housing costs have skyrocketed like in the rest of the rest of the western world. This plays a significant role in the decline of birth rates. Also, as populations increase in wealth and education, birth rates tend to go down, because parents prioritize focusing on fewer children rather than having more to support an agrarian economy. It is economy-driven. The effects on female empowerment are interwoven with that. Women tend to do better in better economies, because better economies focus more on service industries rather than material ones, which favor women over men.
I don't meet anyone like that. So I stay single. I was just on a date last week with a woman who made it clear it was my job to serve her, and my 'reward' was her company and I should never ask anything of her... this is the most common attitude I get these days. Along with a lot of 'equal respectful partnership is slavery for the woman' nonsense.
As a dude in my 20s, actively trying to find some random 20 year old woman to date for a long term relationship is such a bad decision. I've stopped trying to date people (for now) because it's just so draining as a man to have to deal with all the expectations and stereotypes placed on us.
my teenage nephews feel exactly the same way. they are completely cynical about romance due to the ridiculous and hypocritical BS that their potential dates put on them. and they have only had 1 girlfriend for a few months. It took me 30 years dozens of girlfriends and 100s of dates to get to that point!
That was my wife for the last 20 years... The divorce is almost final (almost as in we've both signed off, it's been sent to the court (Friday afternoon) we're just waiting to hear back...). Yeah, she cheated on me. Yeah, it was a surprise. Yeah, she blamed me for not paying enough attention to her.
If you want to know why men with basic decency are so oblivious, head on over to the womens stuff community and see how many posts boil down to "all men are rapists". I'm friends with several real life women, and most of them hold that same opinion and have damn good reasons for it ("Except you glitch, you're one of the good ones"). More than one have expressed to me that they hate being straight because they've never dated a man who hasn't taken advantage of them.
So yeah, I'm not making a move on a lady, well mostly because I'm gay, but even if I wasn't I wouldn't unless she explicitly asked for it. (I'd also have to run it by my boyfriend, and ask if she wanted a threesome with us, but that's another topic.)
Reminds me of an interaction my friend had with a girl that he usually just had casual sex with.
She asked him if they could do some rougher stuff, things that definitely would leave a physical mark. He said OK, but ONLY if she wrote up a statement beforehand explaining that this is in fact something she wanted to have done to her.
There isn't a single iota he could have said or done if she decided after the fact that it wasn't for her and just reported it to the police. Most decent guys are very cautious about being wrongly accused, as the fallout entails the same thing as actually having violated someone.
I'd say most guys are as afraid of being accused of violence as most women are afraid of being exposed to it.
I've dated plenty of women who lecture me about 'enthusiastic consent' and condom use and safe sex. but if you try to practice it with them in the bedroom, they call you a pussy and tell you to grow a pair and how they just want you to make them feel like a rape victim. they are often two-faced.
it's stupid and insane and no well-intention ed person is going to do that. only violent weirdo nutcases are going to want to do that. And plenty of them see nothing wrong with being verbally of physically violent towards men that disappoint them. violence is only bad if it's done to them, it's totally OK if they do it to other people, especially men.
Let's check out womens stuff... arts and crafts, cute outfits, articles on women's health, weekly accomplishments, friday games, memes... did not see a single comment or post calling all men rapists. Probably because it goes against the rules.
I'm sick of this lie that the internet isn't real.
Have you ever heard it said that character is who you are in the dark? Kind of a Jungian take, the whole "you change your persona depending on environment and company, you're only ever your true self when you think nobody's watching."
Well, I think the internet is "in the dark." It brings out the actual in people.
Only on the fourth ejaculation, which implies the person can fully pass as a native English speaker, but if they get too excited (or drunk) the Spanish slips in.
Why are women even taught/expected to behave like sneaky spies when it comes to romance? "Ok, time to do my personal hair signal that I'm interested and want him to approach"
Probably because historically the patriarchy took away women's rights to be able to choose mates and had years and years of arranged marriages. Then couple that with women being in those forced relationships who could not chose their partners looking for comfort outside of the inhumane treatment of forced marriages and you get societal pressures that taught women they dont get a say in romantic relationships and as such them showing interest had to be covert as it was typically to those outside their prescribed marriage and if caught they could at the very least be socially disowned or at worst be literally killed for it. So yeah im not surprised women have a tendency to be less obvious about it its only very recently in human history that they got to have a say in finding partners.
Only half true, not every western society was made entirely of arranged marriages; those were the norm in aristocratic circles, but for people closer to the bottom of the pyramid it wouldn't matter as much.
Women always had less rights in general in the west, especially after Christianity took over, but it wasn't a case of "every woman has always been at a real peril of being killed if they're seen openly flirting with a man" - similar to how not every Christian country has made prostitution illegal, not even back in colonial times, or how even when it was, it wasn't equally enforced everywhere.
I imagine, it has also manifested in our culture for women to exert an abundance of caution and to try to gauge reactions as long as possible, because playing it entirely open can lead to the man developing feelings, and if you then have to break things off, it can get ugly. Some men, even if it is just a tiny fraction, may then turn to violence and rape.
In particular, the men may "blame" you for their feelings and they might feel """justified""" in raping you, because you did tell them that you find them attractive. No, none of this makes sense and I'd need to order another bucket of quotation marks, if I wanted to try to continue making sense of it, which I don't, so let's not do that.
Yes, the same can happen with the genders reversed, but typically the men are physically stronger, which is why this power dynamic made it into our culture, at least according to my pet theory here.
I have only ever been able to tell when it was someone I did not want to have a crush on me, someone I was definitely not interested in. If it was a woman I was interested in, or even someone not on my radar but that I probably would’ve seen how things went had I known she was interested in me, I have not figured it out until years later, if ever. My now-wife had to come right out and tell me she was interested. I would not be surprised to find out there were people I’d completely missed hints from decades ago.
What most women don't get is that men like assertive women.
Some men don't. Just like some women don't like assertive men.
People generally, like other assertive people who are clear about what they want. I don't have any issue with a woman giving me a clear rejection. But I really hate the fake 'rejections' they give me most of the time that leave the door open or the bullshit double-standard where they reject me and then expect me to 'try harder' to win them over because 'men need to chase me'. or whatever horse pucky they believe.
edit:
And just to be clear, should anyone think i'm alpha male-ing. If every woman out there is scared to death of the average guy, who am I to further that? I have a wife, I have kids, I simply do not start conversations with women because when that chose the bear thing happened, not one woman I know didn't resonate with that. Who am I to try to push past that?
Not saying I agree with the bear thing, but understand there’s statistics at play here. Whether it’s a bear or a man, it’s not to imply all men or all bears will attack you. It’s relative likelihood. And whether I think women who chose the bear got the risk assessment correct or not, as a non-rapist, I’m not really offended by the idea that some subset of men has made women extra cautious.
The vast majority of men out there aren't POS. The vast majority of evening and nighttime walks aren't dangerous. Yet women are scared AF to walk at night to the point where they feel they need to be armed, and that the average guy is worse than the bear.
Decent guys didn't get us into this, and we're damned well incapable of getting us out.
Man, I feel this one. That put me off any interactions with women that I can avoid. I'm in a relationship, I have no need or interest in creating a situation because someone takes something the wrong way.
Precisely why I walk the other direction when kids try to talk to me. I'm polite and friendly as long as it takes to get away.
I tell my husband I love him 18000 times a day, and incessantly compliment him. Been there for thick and thin. I definately compliment him wayyy more than he compliments me.
"if they didnt want to be there they wouldnt be"
how the hell do you stay in a realtionship, married for that matter, if you dont know your partner likes you?
"if they had done xyz when we were dating we would have broken up on the spot" is also a fun thought to have, especially when it is true. relationships can be hard work.
It's called codependency, and it's running rampant amongst my peers.
My highschool buddy has been "dating" (they're basically married at this point) his girl for over 15 years, and they can't stand each other. No kids, not married, no real obligations. Hate each other most days, and terrified of the idea of breaking up. It's fucking surreal at a bbq.
lots of people, men and women both, are only in a relationship because they don't feel they have any better options. they believe, and they might be right, that they will never find a future partner, and/or any future partner won't be as good.
a lot of people stay in crappy unhappy relationships because it's better than being alone or fear of being single.
and a lot of people have no model of a happy relationship to compare against. when i was young, in my hometown, literally nobody had happy parents. when i went to college i was SHOCKED at being around people who had happy parents and visiting their homes sometimes and seeing families that actually loved one another instead of HATED each other.
I watched my mother's parents be like this. blows my mind folks, idk. I don't understand the whys, well, I do, but, why live and stay in misery? Fear?
Maybe after all these comments, I understand what the original context means (in some way), but that is not funny, it's sad. Like I said, my mother's parents hated eachother, always bickered, yet always stayed together. When my grandfather passed away, my grandmother became a wholley different person, in a good way. It was like years of burden were lifted, leaving her spirit lighter. Why not give yourself that gift earlier than old age? She spent her whole life with someone she didnt like, and who didnt like her, why? Because jane down the street will talk gossip? Because you may have to sit alone with yourself for a time?
You free your partner too, to find someone else better fitting, as well as for yourself. "if you love them let them go" and all that. It's not even all selfish to sever a connection with a person not right for you. It is good for both parties.
When one door closes, you get oppourtunity for many other doors. Maybe because I have faced death a few times early, I dont carry these feelings. I am still a bit co dependent to be honest, but not in this way. Life is too short to stay in situations that dont serve your own peace. Hope, you dont hope for a person to change, you hope you yourself can, and move foward to something new, and better fitting.
Its like keeping a pair of jeans that fit you when you were 20, and "one day they will fit me again" meanwhile, youve not lost any weight, or became any smaller in the decades youve held on. Just give the pants to someone they will fit, so they can still have life, if even not with your ass in them, but someone elses. Instead, you hold on, until the jeans are eaten by moths in the draw, and the stitching weakens, and the pants wont ever see life again. Its selfish to stay in this way
some people cannot function as independent human beings. i had girlfriends who basically never in their entire life were ever self-sufficient and when I date I constantly meet women who are looking for a father/caretaker, not a boyfriend/husband.
Unfortunately I've very definitely had this problem many times in my life. I really don't like to assume someone's interested in me unless it's far beyond obvious.
I thought I knew my wife after 20 years, but she surprised me. Apparently, being direct with me was terrible for her, just the most emotionally draining experience imaginable for her, and she got tired of it- but rather than tell me that, she just stopped being direct and expected me to pick up on it, and when I inevitably didn't, she decided the relationship was over- but again, she didn't tell me that, just started boinking our son's best friend's dad, then when I started to figure it out, told me I was crazy for thinking it, that he was just a friend... When she finally did tell me she wanted to divorce (one year ago today, matter of fact), she didn't want either of us to move out, she expected me to be ok with continuing to live together sharing a house (and bed!) while she screwed her side piece... I moved out so quickly I didn't even have furniture, just slept on an air mattress on the floor for the first couple weeks... Then after I had signed a year lease, I found out the other guy lived right around the corner from my apartment... Rather than randomly bump into each other at the grocery store, I decided to call him (son's best friend's dad, remember?) Turns out, she had been lying to him too, told him we had been separated "for some time", just living together for the sake of the kids... He seemed genuinely horrified to hear that wasn't true, apologized for his part, and said he was going to break it off with her. I didn't really believe him at the time, but as things have played out since, while she was trying to make me think they were still seeing each other, I could tell they weren't - my son lamenting not seeing his friend much anymore for one. Some months later after I had dropped off the kids with her, she let it slip that "he's always busy now". Gee, I wonder why...
People change and feelings change in 25 years, and with children in the house we're more like coworkers than a couple now. There's plenty of opportunities for conflict and so little time for each other. So yes, it's natural to doubt in such circumstances.
It's putting all responsibility on others. Like, honey, use your words. Communicate. Don't expect people to read your mind. If you set the expectation that you want people to guess how you're feeling, then you'll have to deal with the fallout of some wrong guesses. It's easier to just make yourself clear.
It has provoked a lot of great conversation, if you haven't come back to read it.
I'm approaching 20 years and very much still need my wife to tell me how she's feeling. My wife appears to be in tune emotionally and often is right, but from my perspective sometimes she seem to be overreaching.
Women are like cats. They rub on you, climb on you, try to be near you, sigh when they're next to you, and we're like "I think she's just being friendly". Also, I just told on myself that I don't have a girlfriend because I compared women to cats...
there is a tend of people being aggressive now in dating where they basically like list out all their demands and then expect you to say yes or something. it's so fucking weird to me to demand that a complete stranger pay your bills for you or get rid of their pet for you, but it's popular on tiktok and all that. and if someone says no your demands, they are a weak and pathetic person. There is just this weird like 'make major lifelong commitments to me from the get go' nonsense going on.
maybe I'm old fashioned but when i was growing up you typically didn't make demands from strangers, you got to know them a bit before you started asking them for major commitments and then you respected them if they said no. relationships were something that emerged and you negotiated, they weren't employment contracts where you specified everything you 'need' before you even met them.
something something commodification of relationships, I guess?
Wow, I can't believe you said that!!! I was vibing with a woman who approached me. Got her number, we have similar interests, etc. I mentioned in a text something offhand about my cat in the context of "what have you been up to"... Boom. Instant ghost. Never heard from her again!
because she isn't logical or thoughtful person. She is emotional and biased and has lots of irrational insane beliefs.
I dated a woman once who told me eating cereal was unmanly and pathetic. Like granola. I was suppose to eat MEAT and BREAD, and be a MAN. but eating a bowl of fruits, nuts, and grains was WEAK.
I just laughed and tried to dismiss it, but she was dead serious and basically said if I want to keep seeing her I'm not allowed to eat granola as a cereal in a bowl w/milk... only in bar form as a hiking snack or something. It was so arbitrary and bizarre.
I'm sorry but this is not what makes me laugh. I think this is what is broken in the relationships. I mean why women has to be the passive role every single time? It's like im not ugly, and actually when I talk with them It goes well. My critic is why I have to start every single fckng time?
Uh... have you been around for the last thirty or so years? Apparently accosting women is harassment these days, so it's less hassle to wait for women to do the first step, I guess.
I basically thought it was a synonym for "assaulted." Which is like explicitly violent. Like I was WAY off. Which is rare for me, I had like 750/800 on my SAT verbal. 99/100 on my NYS English Regents exams. That's so embarrassing to me.
Now I have to algorithmically sift though the memories of my life to see if I'm relying on that definition for any important logical frameworks that my autistic brain uses to do my thinking.
Because women are in higher demand than men. That's the sad truth. Women do make the first move, maybe more than you realize, but they all tend to go for the same top 1% of men. If you aren't that, then you've gotta do some work, either to chase them or to become the top 1% that they chase. It's a sad reality but that's what it is.
I don't know if everyone has been paying attention to how things are trending and extrapolating, but the fact is a ton of men are looking at that scenario and saying, "eh I'm just done, I'm gonna stay home and enjoy the peace and quiet while it lasts. Less risky."
If that works for them then they can do that. I think if most left the house and tried chasing girls IRL rather than online that they'd be pretty successful once they practiced a bit. As an older man, young women seem a lot more thirsty than they ever were when I was young.
A lot of men think differently than women about relationships though. A lot of men would:
Fundamentally know they would be happiest with a woman who respects them and treats them softly and with love and treats the relationship as a partnership.
Concurrently, they would be happy to accept sex if it were freely offered with no risks (but there ARE very clear risks that sometimes make them balk at sex even being worth that anyway).
They believe that past behavior predicts future behavior. They see women that they would sleep with but never marry.
End result: the men willing to take the risk sleep with all the women they want to. Women all sleep with that shared small group of men. Those men don't commit, they have all the sex they want and never intended to commit. The men that would have committed were friend zoned, turned down, or ignored, took that at face value as they are not valued or in demand. Ultimately choose a peaceful life as a hermit enjoying whatever they can find happiness in. Hobbies, games, friends, etc.
Is selection bias a term or did I just make that up? Perhaps women get an incomplete understanding of men because they only interact with the men they choose to interact with. At minimum I know confirmation bias definitely comes into play with all these social interactions and assumptions. And men get an incomplete picture of women just from sheer lack of exposure. They only know what they see using what limited means of remote study. Social media, news, anecdotes from each other, etc.
That sounds like you're saying "it is what it is." Which I agree with.
I was a bit hyperbolic, you're right, I apologize. They do settle down when they want to, on their time scale, but their preferences also correlate with other parameters that should be considered.
The higher social status, the more selective the man who has been pursued by women gets to be. He may say to himself I prefer a younger woman that has fewer relationships, and thus a real statistically relevant lower risk of having had traumatic experiences and the resulting damage that may affect her ability to trust him and view him through an adversarial lens.
Look at DiCaprio. People can balk all they want at the age gap thing, but consenting adults gonna bang. And he gets to be as selective as he wants and he'll never not have options.
But my ADHD has made me forget what point I was even trying to make. Sorry I ramble often.
Edit ok now that I went and re read the post I can get back to topic.
So that's my take on the men that hook up a lot. Now the other side!
The men who don't hook up don't get married. Yeah, that makes sense to me. They are too afraid to do what it takes. And honestly I think that's coming from a pervading sense of hopelessness that is growing and growing amongst that demographic. And extrapolating that further, worries me greatly. Fear leads to anger leads to Yoda was right leads to shit is on fire yo!
Y'know I'm glad I am aromantic, emotionally insular, and paranoid as fuck. Makes my dumbass not even have to factor this shit together, was she flirting with me quickly turns into I don't care. Though I will say having sex would probably be nice, but I'm also hypersexual and autistic so it's almost guaranteed id probably fuck it up and go too far.
Oh my yes. I do ask, subtley, if they can read minds. And on the off-chance they say yes, I take a hot minute to push the brain "clear browser history" button before carrying on -- just in case.
You just made me think of a book I once read, written by an AI researcher and author who wanted to try his hand at a format akin to a Japanese light novel. The premise is a girl who is absolutely depraved and terminally online as an isekai. She literally gets summoned while masturbating, gets asked if she is a virgin because the plan relies on giving her holy magic by binding an angel to her and she has to be a virgin for that to work (and thankfully masturbation doesn't count). The angel is bound to her, which gives it access to her mind, and it immediately begins screaming in horror.
During college I got asked out by a few women as a man and I appreciate the initiative!
Be it woman or man, asking someone out is never easy because you'll make yourself vulnerable to rejection. So ask friendly and politely for a meeting in a safe space like a cafe and make it easy for the other person to decline and save their face if they have no interest. The other way around, turn others down with respect to their effort of making themselves vulnerable ('I am flattered by your offer but I have other plans for that evening' or something).
I have asked out a few women and got rejected some times. But with the ones who said yes I have spent years of great relationships, some of which even have turned into friendships. And I got to spend years with girls who I thought were way out of my league. But it turns out we're all just people and they were also happy that someone asked them out!
Not all of the dating world is hostile and there are still women and men out there with a good heart. Don't try too hard, get yourself out there in clubs or sports and go to parties occasionally. I have never used a dating platform and yet I had the pleasure to spend quality time with many wonderful people.
In an ideal society, we would just go and ask the person we adore out, no matter what gender or social framing we have. And even if the person asking you out is definitely not your type, don't let them feel bad - make them feel good about asking, boost their confidence.
My last girlfriend asked me out (she beat me to the punch by like 2 text messages, but still). It took a lot of the nerves off that relationship starting out.
I can always tell when someone wants to get in my pants (danger signals I developed as a young girl), but I can never tell when someone genuinely likes me.
I'm just going to give you a little hint here, men can both want to get in your pants in genuinely like you at the same time. It's not an either or thing. I'm pretty sure if a man genuinely likes you he also probably at some point wants to have sex with you. And yeah there's going to be those guys that just want to have sex with you just have sex with you. That's the part you probably have to differentiate.
Well, yeah. There's a difference between wanting to hit it and quit it and having a sexual desire that comes with genuinely liking someone. The former views me as a piece of meat, and that's easy to clock. I should have been more clear, but I thought sexual desire being a spectrum was implied.
Sleazebags are easy to spot, everyone else is just a normal person who may be interested in you as a person and that interest can grow or wane depending on successive interactions.
Whenever a comment section becomes this much of an incel circle jerk, it's always the same few people madly posting their grade school gender research for what I assume is Jordan Peterson's psychology class.
"anything they don't understand is weird and wrong and should be shunned" is how you characterized women, and seems to be something that you take issue with, no? Or do you actually like that they do that (in your opinion)?
Is that not a generalization that you claim women make about you/ "undesirable men" (to use your own vernacular)?
I think if you changed your perspective away from incel and towards charitably I bet you'd have a lot more luck communicating with them.
We typically have no idea unless explicitly told, no.
Even then, maybe she's just nice. Or canadian
I knew a nice Canadian that had a crush on me once. I still messed it up.
Damn. I've watched Letterkenny. You messed up.
https://youtu.be/xa-4IAR_9Yw
i don't click the link but i know which video it is
Edit: Is she into you? - Casually Explained
Damn, I got here too late, I wanted to make this reference too!
Yeah, see, my girlfriend just right out told me. But we're both AuADHD. So you know, things happen impulsively and directly.
I asked her on a date, she said yes. We get to the date we have fun, we have a long night out, she goes home and texts me "I like you."
Yep. Which is a good thing too because I liked her and was a lot nervous about that.
God damn that's the dream. This chick at the store smiles at me a lot and giggles when I'm nearby. I like hearing her laugh and seeing her smile and don't want things to get awkward, so I'm not saying anything :/
Just give her your phone number.
just ask her out.
she will say yes or no. anything that isn't 'yes!' is a no.
The problem with doing something like that is it can make the situation awkward permanently afterwards
it's already permanently awkward
Be direct with "Hey, I noticed that you smile a lot at me and giggle when I am around. If you want to talk outside of the store. Can I give you my phone number?"
If she's an employee and your a customer, don't ask her for her phone number or out when she's working. She will feel trapped and pressured to say yes. However. by giving her your number she gets to decide if they moves forward or not. If you are co-workers, same advice. Don't ask her out or her number. Give her your number, let her decide to move forward or not.
Also respect any boundaries she has.
Aw yeah. There was this beauty at the store that, in hindsight, obviously gave me the eye, repeatedly. I wanted to ask her to a coffee the next time, but then she already wasn't around anymore. Don't be too late.
Even if we're explicitly told the first twenty times we'll just think she's being nice.
To a degree that once a woman chatted me up, gave me her number and I somehow still missed it entirely.
Aside from a lot of guys being thickheaded and not seeing it, there's also selection bias.
A) A girl has a crush on a guy. He notices but plays it safe. Maybe she's just friendly. Result: no harm done except perpetuating the myth that guys don't notice.
B) A girl is just friendly but the guy thinks he's being crushed on and acts on it. Now he's forever labeled as a creep.
The only safe play as a guy is always, always assuming she's just being friendly. Unless she comes right out and says she wants to hump your bones, just assume she's being nice to you.
Thanks for lining it out so well.
There's a good shot that she's into me, but if she's not, I'll either die of embarrassment or I'll get bullied by their whole social circle.
Add to this that men usually are not as socially comfortable as women, and you kinda understand it why this happens.
This happens to women too. The embarrasement is real and the societal pressure to not be seen as a slut is everpresent. Playing it safe is a popular strategy no matter the gender.
Oh yeah most definitely.
I just wrote this because these memes are rampant and funny, but they do make light of a bad circumstance on our society. And that trope usually targets men, so here's some context.
It's 2026. Are people still that puritanical that they care about somebody else's sexual activity?
The places I've lived in the last 15 years have been extremely sex positive, which was a slight shift in mindsets from where I grew up, which was slowly coming this way.
Is there a sudden resurgence in this behavior? Is it part of the man-o-sphere bullshit?
yes. most people are incredibly puritanical. including 'sex positive' people. most self-proclaimed 'sex positive' people i knew are the ones who judged people the most for their sexual habits. anytime i have hung out with sex positive people i have been shamed by them for being a slut, or being a prude. i'm a man and i've had women reject me for my partner count many times for being too much or too little.
it's not a resurgence, it's always been there. it will always be there. people don't like people who are different than them. it makes feel feel bad and insecure and they blame you for it rather than question their own feelings.
Is it TMI for them to even be asking that?! Unless you mean a few dates in or something maybe
No, it's just your typical double standard shit. If I asked the that, I'd be an asshole sexist pig. If they asked me that, they are just trying to figure out if I am a womanizer or 'inexperienced'. When they do it it's a 'good thing', when I do it, it's 'bad'.
And nobody is ever happy with the answer unless your number is basically the same as theirs. If your number is significantly different, than you are 'judging them'. Because what they are really asking, on a deeper level, is you to validate them and their life choices.
It's not any different with money either. You have to answer them with the number in their head they have pre-determined is 'correct' or you are not worthy of them, or you are going to steal/abuse them. This is regardless of their own financial status. I make a great salary and am happy with money. But I meet women who think I am going to to steal their money and force them to pay all my bills if I make like 10K less than they do, which is a trivial amount to both of us. But this 'fear' is almost always a projection of her desire to be the person who steals the money and has their bills paid for them, or some deep belief that any man who can't pay her bills for her is not a 'real man'. I meet so many women I am at the same financial level as who tell me I am too poor to date them... it's just hilarious to me at this point. They basically have to come up with a conspiracy theory to justify their greed that a man must make 2-3x their income to be 'good'. And in my dating bracket, that means a guy has to make like 500K salary, which is a top .5% salary. Hence the refrain 'there are no good men'. All the men who are moderate successful making 100-200K are 'losers' who are just going to financial use and abuse her, or something.
Yes. Many people devote their entire personalities towards policing other people's sex lives. Just look at the hatred towards LGBTQ people that continues to go on and on. It never went away, it just got pushed back, often to largely rural areas. Look at the transphobia of the past 15 or so years. That's all based in the same nonsense.
Even amongst the LGBTQ community, you have the recent "kink at Pride" drama, but there are also decades old issues like gay men using the same homophobia used on them by straight guys against bi men - or saying that they're not part of the community if they're dating a woman.
Quadruple the caution if it's a coworker. Hello HR violation.
To quote Amos Burton, "I don't shit where I eat"
Don't, "butter your bread where you earn it."
if romance is a type of shit to you then i'm sorry for all your relationships
I mean, this is Amos. His experience with romance is probably rather different than yours.
never heard of them
It's a character from the TV show The Expanse.
It’s always good to play it safe unless evidence is so overwhelming that she’s into you. This has cost me some romantic opportunities but has also kept me from being the guy who dates all his female friends.
She's Canadian.
https://youtu.be/xa-4IAR_9Yw
Pascal's Wager but for pussy
A lot of the time we do know, but we're terrified of getting it wrong and getting rejected and maybe worse.
after being rejected 100 times in a row for "ew gross i don't associate disabled people" when after a couple dates i let them see me take a blood pressure pill (hadn't even let them see any of my massive collection of scars except my arm and face, which i can't exactly hide without michael jacksoning) you kind of just start making fairly accurate assumptions about the women in your society
Hahahahahahahaha hahahahaha.
That's one of those easy things for me to overshare. I take half a dozen pills daily to function. If they aren't, or at least don't know why I take them, it ain't gonna work.
The actual like, really disabling thing about me isn't any of the things I'm treated for. It's my sleep disorder. I still have to show up to my 9-5. My kid still has arrival and pickup times at school. Banks are only open 9-5.
I've found that women with treated or untreated disabilities understand this shit way more than normies. That's not to say go look for them, but don't try to fit into an ablist mask, that's far more harmful
it took me so so long to learn that one
Been there. Not blaming women either, men are equally ableist.
Women and men are ableist because society as a whole is ableist.
Wouldn't be better to do it on the first date?
there are better ways to vet potential dates
One rejection in college had me pegged as a creep to the point many of my own friends stopped talking to me. All I did was ask someone to get some tea once but I guess I didn't do the mating dance right or something idk.
Was a pretty powerful lesson in seeing how people will believe what they want to believe. I guess it's the same for many of the "creeps" and "sluts" out there.
I rejected a girl in college and she went around telling everyone she could that I sexually harassed her.
She got her comeuppance and got booted out of school after she did it to other guys too, but it was terrifying for that brief window when people believed her. I'd be eating lunch and random weirdos would come up to me and go 'I KNOW WHAT YOU DID YOU FUCKING CREEP!' Very few people supported me, and it was only my few closest friends, and my ex.
And even better, when I share that experience, at least 50% of the people who hear it, still think it is my fault or I'm lying. Because men are all rapists, and women are all hapless victims who never do anything bad or wrong...
That really is not ok, sorry bro. This happened to a friend of mine too, and I saw what that did to him. It's so much worse than people realize. He nearly got kicked out of school over it even.
What saved him was the same thing that saved you: she was stupid enough to make a pattern out of the behaviour. That said it didn't make it all better, because he no longer trusted the people who abandoned him. The social dynamics of that group never recovered.
I had a couple of people apologize to me after she was found out. That was cool. But most didn't.
People love to make up fake bullshit. I had another issue with this other woman... that I never ever even met who kept going around telling other people who I slept with her and how shit in bed I was. I literally never met her, but people told me about it. Maybe she had a crush or something. it was fucking weird.
This makes me think of a conversation between my wife and daughter a while back.
Daughter is angry with her BF and frustrated that he seems oblivious to that
Wife: "Oh honey, no. It doesn't work like that. If I'm mad at your dad for something I just have to tell him. If he asks if I'm OK and I say, 'I'm fine', he takes that at face value. He's very literal."
Daughter: "Ugh. Doesn't that frustrate you?"
Wife: "It was weird at first but once you get used to it it's actually really nice. You just have to learn to talk to him."
Me: "Wait, I did something right?"
Wife: "You do lots of things right babe."
Yeah, I think she likes me.
Yeah communication is key. Even if you are too literal at least you are clear and not obscuring your thoughts.
Mmmm, can't be so sure. Better play it safe and look for more signs
I think a lot of people need to learn to communicate more explicitly. There's also the ask culture vs guess culture dynamic, though I think it can extend past culture and some people lean one way or the other. There's also the idea that guess culture is feminine coded in America and ask culture is masculine coded.
To a guess culture, outright stating your desires is imposing. You hint and if they're willing to give it they offer. Furthermore saying no to a direct request is also seen as rude. In general directness is bad, preemptive offering is proper (and obviously they have to reject for fear of imposing), and hinting is acceptable. Think stereotypes of English culture. It's a stupid social dance that I instinctively fall into. To an ask culture all that's stupid, there's nothing wrong with asking for something and it's not problem to say no. It's direct and blunt. Think stereotypes of American culture.
It's generally quite good to be able to navigate and accommodate both, but as a guesser, asking is better as a default, especially in relationships. It's awkward and difficult to learn, but it takes all the guesswork and ambiguity out.
A girl told me in 8th grade that she knew I liked her, and was cool with it. I thought she was nice for not being creeped out that I liked her, until one day on college when I finally realized what she meant.
Well, don't leave us bros hanging! What did she mean?
That she might be down to clown if the circus is in town, but our boy left her hanging around at the dog pound
!remindme 3years
do we have a remindme here?
!remindme 1 second
She lived in a refrigerator.
That's cool
What did she meant?!
A girl in college told me she liked me when we were in high school, took me like two days to realize what she meant...
It's clear that when they say they liked you in high school, it means that they don't like you any more, and you blew your one shot. Don't be a dick and try now, that ship has sailed.
Or it means they've had a long term crush on you, and are very interested. Sometimes you get little context.
Good communication is important.
If that were true, they'd say it. Don't be that creepy guy who thinks a girl likes them just because they're nice. - What guys believe.
Well don't leave us hanging! What did she mean?
No man knows what she means.
I told a girl who told me she likes me that she is bluffing... 🤦♂️
Yeah she played a stupid game and won the customary prize
I was at some fast food joint with a buddy and his girlfriend, and after ordering my friend's girlfriend told me the cashier was so flirting with me.
Me and my friend: What? She was? How so?
Nah I don't trust it, she was just being nice cuz it's her job
I used to own a retail shop, and I had one young woman assistant who had a sixth sense about those things. I'd wait on a customer, and after they left, my assistant would say"Wow, she really had the hots for you," and I'd always be like WTF are you talking about?
Your buddies girl was the one flirting with you.
men are discouraged from approaching women and women dont want to show their interest in clear way. How have we not gone extinct yet?
Because the internet isn’t real life and plenty of people know how to talk to people, including those of the opposite sex.
Fun story: this guy I know on my gaming Facebook group would complain about being single. This was an older men's group/dad group. He'd repeat whatever the manosphere would say and ask for validation, and we (usually married dudes) usually say things like, "Yeah man dating is hard" and "women give mix signals".
Finally, mods called out how his last 10+ posts were complaining and his shitty attitude is just sucking the energy out of the group. They warned him that if he kept it up, they'd ban him from the group until he fixed his behavior.
Fast forward to today - he's telling us about his new girlfriend he met on NYE and how they had a amazing valentines. He shared how after that post, he took a long look at himself and stopped sabotaging himself.
That isn't as true as you think. Communication is often the weakest part of any relationship (romantic, platonic, professional).
Everyone has their own language and very few people are willing to adapt to someone else's way of communicating, even when that effort should be mutual.
I think that's true today. When I was younger it def felt like people, of any gender, were more willing to try and understand other people. Like, people used to ask me what I like to do and why I like it... now they ask me what I like to do and tell me I'm an idiot for liking something that isn't the same as what they like.
let me see: 99.9% of interactions man-woman are started by man right?
We are on the way. sex and relationship rates are massively declining for Gen Z.
I have four newphews 16-20. they have all dated. all but one of them has already sworn off dating because they think it's total bullshit and they thought it was miserable and no fun to have a girlfriend, for the very same reasons, I also am frustrated with dating and relationships in my 40s. It's insane. It took me 30+ years of dating to get fed up, they were fed up in 1-2 years.
And all of us agree the issue is women's expectations they get from social media. My 17 year old nephew broke up with his gf because he got her flowers and she complained they were not $200+ that he was a 'low effort' boyfriend and all her friends dog-piled in group chat and agreed. He's 17 and he makes 15 bikes an hour part time...
Like why would any sane person want to subject themselves to group harassment from multiple women for the 'sin' of not being able to buy her absurdly expensive flowers? In my situation, I take women out on $100-200 dinner takes and get told that I'm a 'loser' for not taking her out to a $1000 restaurant on our 3rd date. It's INSANE.
None of that happened 10 years ago. If I took a woman out to a $100 restaurant 10 years ago she was STOKED. Now the refrain on the news is 'men are not good enough for women and women are giving up'. Without acknowledging the changes in women's expectations for men due to their addiction to social media and constant consumption of 'lifestyle' influences.
All anyone blames is the manosphere... and how evil that is. But really it's both sexes that are swept up in these toxic sexist expectations that are making both of them miserable and lonely and unable to connect with other people.
Damn.
15 bikes an hour is really fucking impressive, no what what kind of bikes.
Right, depending on the margins, he could probably make good money selling those bikes.
Where are you finding these women? I've never dated anyone like that. Not disputing that they exist, but to take out enough of them that it's worth bitching about online may indicate a problem with the choices you're making. Plenty of women are looking for an actual connection and relationship with someone.
they are the majority of the single women in my city in their 30s, on dating apps and in real life. They choose me, i don't choose them. They send me likes on apps, they chat me up, they go out with me, they date me. Last night I got 3 likes on a dating app from women who said on their profile that they want a 'real man' to take care of them... my profile says I am not a 'real man'. And yet they will still pursue me. They think I am hot/attractive, but they basically want me to change everything about my lifestyle and personality and beliefs...
The women I am interested in aren't usually single. So unless I start an affair or poach someone's wife, I can only date the women who are single who are like this. I am not interested in trying to steal people's wives and girlfriends. Those women don't have single female friends for me to date either. Every liberal outdoorsy nerdy girl I meet, is never ever single. Some of them are lesbians/queer though and very cool, but again, I can't really date a lesbian/queer person as a straight guy.
I try to date outside of my city, but women in the suburbs usually even worse and they are usually conservative Trump types who hate me for being a liberal. They also are interested in me.
Yikes. Sounds like you're all single for good reasons.
You're kinda down to the dregs when you get to your thirties, the nice ones have all paired up by that point.
I'm in my 30s and I don't feel that way at all. Yeah, there's lots of shitty people or ones I don't vibe with but that's been the case my whole life. Many of the ones that I'd have considered a poor match in my early 20s have matured since then into much more likable people. If you're using dating apps though, you are probably going to get more exposure to the dregs. One of many reasons I don't touch those. You can still meet people the old fashioned way by going out and doing things. You may not find someone as quickly but you're not getting constant negativity thrown in your face.
dating in my early 30s was great. once i got past 35 thought, it all went to shit. 9/10 dates i meet now give me this long premable about how their exes all sucked and i better be better than them. it's insane. like they will approach me at a bar/event and just start ranting at me, and think it's cute or 'flirting' because they are issuing me a challenge I have to overcome to prove my worth to them. because 'real men' want to prove their worth to their woman... yeah right
and the 1/10 one that doesn't... has never dated and has basically no adult life experience. i did go out with a nice lady last month... but she was had zero real life experience and I'm not interested in that either. she had been living at home until she was 35 and just starting her adult life like she was 22.
every normal, happy, well adjust woman I meet is already married. that includes all my female friends over the years. the funny part is they are so chill you don't even know they are married because they don't really talk about their SO at all... because they are their own person and don't have a partner who defines them and from which they derive their worth and self esteem... and if you flirt with them they just point it out and it's no big deal.
before i was 35 i used to meet normal people who actually wanted to date normally. but the culture has changed it's much more hostile and aggressive than it was even 5 years ago. even when I see other people on dates when I am out... often it's weird and hostile interaction and it's rarely relaxed. I miss going out with people who were relaxed and chill and who had passions and interests, instead of relentlessly trying to judge every aspect of me and then think they are above all judgement in their quest to acquire a fantasy romance novel of a relationship.
i blame all these gender toxic media shit. i grew up with the idea men and women were the same and our differences were funny and not a big deal. now people act everyone of the opposite sex is the enemy until prove otherwise by subordinating themselves to their 'tests' and 'checklists'. It's like people are looking for someone to hate more than someone to love, and absolutely no interest in a mutual understanding. but when i see videos of the shit that goes on on tiktok and instagram and all that... holy moly the 'advice' people give is just insanely toxic shit.
there is also a huge uptick in traditional gender role crap the past 5 or so years. in 2015 I never saw women demanding 1950s style relationships or demanding men pay for everything so they can be homemakers. now it's easily 50% of the profiles I see on dating apps. not to mention the crap games where they insist on splitting the bill and then text you after the date that 'you shouldn't have let me pay, you are not the man for me'. crap.
Many will have married already, so choices when I was in my 30's tended to be:
I wouldn't say it's the dregs. Just that one's choices have changed a lot from "the one a couple houses/lockers down from you".
Brother, if you think this is a one-way thing, you are profoundly mistaken
sorry, do men dog pile on their friends girlfriends for not buying them nice enough gifts? or not giving him enough blowjobs?
I've never had another guy comment on my relationship with my girlfriend. and I've never commented on theirs. only thing I ever experience was some bitter virgin types guy telling me how good i have it that I have ever had sex or get female attention at all.
Please, do not go down this road. Are you really going to argue that our society does not put unrealistic expectations on women?
No, I'd argue that women who think that way are simple choosing to be miserable and making excuses for it. And that's their choice.
They also often blame men for their choice the make them unhappy, weirdly enough.
I don't date or interact with women who think that way, purposefully. I sure do meet plenty of them, who lecture me about how hard their lives are... and I just laugh at them because most of the time their life is 1000x easier than mine ever was.
And I'd argue you're going full speed down the incel slope, and that's your choice.
The incel slope does seem to have a lot more members lately, whether due to social media or guys bitter from failed relationships, bit I will note that there's an old adage that still often rings true
"Men will fight each other physically sometimes to the point of bloodshed, but women will tear each other down socially without mercy"
I guess it's a blessing in disguise because now it will be easier to detect people who are not worth dating
it's not. it means we all suffer because so many of us want to be in happy relationships but the toxic bullshit people believe is totally preventing that. My dates use to talk to me like a human being, now they lecture me because I'm a 'man'. They see me as guilty until prove otherwise, instead of just a fellow human being who they are trying to get to know.
and the other thing that baffles me is how petty and mean dating has become.
Just explain them their use of fallacies is wrong and communication is key and then, maybe, they will reconsider their position. If they don't then you dodged a bullet especially in the long term
It's not new. My cousin constantly argued with her boyfriend 20-25 years ago because she believed she deserved to be taken out to $200 dinners on a regular basis, and he only ever wanted to go to McDonald's.
Won't be long til they can compromise on that one with the way things are going.
We slowly are, most western countries have a birth rate below what we need to maintain the population.
That’s for economic reasons that have nothing to do with gender issues.
It's not economic, as much as people like to believe.
Even socially democratic utopias like Norway ,which have such massive sovereign funds that their citizenry don't need to work a day in their lives, have a population birth crisis.
And while I obviously am not arguing against it, the biggest correlation with declining birth rates are education and women enfranchisement.
Honestly, a demographic implosion needs to happen with some generation. Better now, to reset capitalistic expectations of unsustainable growth then later when it's compounded.
In Norway, housing costs have skyrocketed like in the rest of the rest of the western world. This plays a significant role in the decline of birth rates. Also, as populations increase in wealth and education, birth rates tend to go down, because parents prioritize focusing on fewer children rather than having more to support an agrarian economy. It is economy-driven. The effects on female empowerment are interwoven with that. Women tend to do better in better economies, because better economies focus more on service industries rather than material ones, which favor women over men.
Nah, it's a mixture of both.
No, it’s not. Many studies have confirmed this. Do your research.
Yes it is, studies have confirmed it.
We compensate with ✨horny✨
When women can't communicate and frustrate themselves.
I have dated women who expect me to read their minds and think if I am not Professor X I don't care about them.
One breakup the reason was "I shouldn't have to ask you for anything, you should already know what I want before I want it. That is what love is!"
Then I asked her if she does that for me and she made a face and said "No, you're a man you don't deserve that."
I don't meet anyone like that. So I stay single. I was just on a date last week with a woman who made it clear it was my job to serve her, and my 'reward' was her company and I should never ask anything of her... this is the most common attitude I get these days. Along with a lot of 'equal respectful partnership is slavery for the woman' nonsense.
As a dude in my 20s, actively trying to find some random 20 year old woman to date for a long term relationship is such a bad decision. I've stopped trying to date people (for now) because it's just so draining as a man to have to deal with all the expectations and stereotypes placed on us.
my teenage nephews feel exactly the same way. they are completely cynical about romance due to the ridiculous and hypocritical BS that their potential dates put on them. and they have only had 1 girlfriend for a few months. It took me 30 years dozens of girlfriends and 100s of dates to get to that point!
That was my wife for the last 20 years... The divorce is almost final (almost as in we've both signed off, it's been sent to the court (Friday afternoon) we're just waiting to hear back...). Yeah, she cheated on me. Yeah, it was a surprise. Yeah, she blamed me for not paying enough attention to her.
yep, the woman i quoted above, also was cheating.
she also told me it 'wasn't her fault' that she was 175K in debt and that it was my job to help her back it back...
something something equal rights
Autism is severely under-diagnosed in women. Probably just a coincidence...
If you want to know why men with basic decency are so oblivious, head on over to the womens stuff community and see how many posts boil down to "all men are rapists". I'm friends with several real life women, and most of them hold that same opinion and have damn good reasons for it ("Except you glitch, you're one of the good ones"). More than one have expressed to me that they hate being straight because they've never dated a man who hasn't taken advantage of them.
So yeah, I'm not making a move on a lady, well mostly because I'm gay, but even if I wasn't I wouldn't unless she explicitly asked for it. (I'd also have to run it by my boyfriend, and ask if she wanted a threesome with us, but that's another topic.)
Reminds me of an interaction my friend had with a girl that he usually just had casual sex with. She asked him if they could do some rougher stuff, things that definitely would leave a physical mark. He said OK, but ONLY if she wrote up a statement beforehand explaining that this is in fact something she wanted to have done to her.
There isn't a single iota he could have said or done if she decided after the fact that it wasn't for her and just reported it to the police. Most decent guys are very cautious about being wrongly accused, as the fallout entails the same thing as actually having violated someone.
I'd say most guys are as afraid of being accused of violence as most women are afraid of being exposed to it.
I've dated plenty of women who lecture me about 'enthusiastic consent' and condom use and safe sex. but if you try to practice it with them in the bedroom, they call you a pussy and tell you to grow a pair and how they just want you to make them feel like a rape victim. they are often two-faced.
it's stupid and insane and no well-intention ed person is going to do that. only violent weirdo nutcases are going to want to do that. And plenty of them see nothing wrong with being verbally of physically violent towards men that disappoint them. violence is only bad if it's done to them, it's totally OK if they do it to other people, especially men.
Let's check out womens stuff... arts and crafts, cute outfits, articles on women's health, weekly accomplishments, friday games, memes... did not see a single comment or post calling all men rapists. Probably because it goes against the rules.
sounds like today is a good day. To be fair, I only pay them a visit when they hit the all feed so my observation may be heavily skewed.
I was looking at the last month. Mind linking where they call all men rapists?
I block those posts when I see them, so no I don't have links
That's because you made it up. I've been commenting and posting to that community for months. Most of the comment sections don't even mention men.
So how do I move into the universe you live in? Sounds better than the reality I'm in.
You stop taking crazy pills provided by manosphere grifters.
You can start when you stop lying about benign shit.
basically online feminism is super toxic. don't take it serious. women in real life are not like that, at least most aren't.
in fact i even suggest that these people are online because they can't deal with real life.
I'm sick of this lie that the internet isn't real.
Have you ever heard it said that character is who you are in the dark? Kind of a Jungian take, the whole "you change your persona depending on environment and company, you're only ever your true self when you think nobody's watching."
Well, I think the internet is "in the dark." It brings out the actual in people.
The G.I.F.T. Later referred to in actual research as the online disinhibition effect.
I feel seen. Been with my partner for over 10 years and I feel the same way as the dad in this text exchange.
It is unclear whether my wife liked me, but she does make it clear when she does not. Kinda like a cat.
Hahahaja
Did you just laugh with a spanish accent? Nice
Only on the fourth ejaculation, which implies the person can fully pass as a native English speaker, but if they get too excited (or drunk) the Spanish slips in.
That's called Spanglish 'round these parts.
"Spanglish"?
In the sense of "...if she likes me still" or "... if she ever liked me"?
Why are women even taught/expected to behave like sneaky spies when it comes to romance? "Ok, time to do my personal hair signal that I'm interested and want him to approach"
Being clear about your desire also means that rejection is clear, and that hurts.
The girl in the OP isn't happy with being ignored tho
she won't be happy if she gets what she wants either.
unhappy people invent reasons to be unhappy, no matter what happens, good or bad.
Probably because historically the patriarchy took away women's rights to be able to choose mates and had years and years of arranged marriages. Then couple that with women being in those forced relationships who could not chose their partners looking for comfort outside of the inhumane treatment of forced marriages and you get societal pressures that taught women they dont get a say in romantic relationships and as such them showing interest had to be covert as it was typically to those outside their prescribed marriage and if caught they could at the very least be socially disowned or at worst be literally killed for it. So yeah im not surprised women have a tendency to be less obvious about it its only very recently in human history that they got to have a say in finding partners.
I don’t think that’s it.
Only half true, not every western society was made entirely of arranged marriages; those were the norm in aristocratic circles, but for people closer to the bottom of the pyramid it wouldn't matter as much.
Women always had less rights in general in the west, especially after Christianity took over, but it wasn't a case of "every woman has always been at a real peril of being killed if they're seen openly flirting with a man" - similar to how not every Christian country has made prostitution illegal, not even back in colonial times, or how even when it was, it wasn't equally enforced everywhere.
This is a selfmade problem, don't try to pin it on anyone but women.
It seems women don't know what they want until their choice is validated by someone else.
plausible deniability. if you don't actually try, you can't actually be rejected.
From that girl's perspective, it seems that she feels rejected, just not explicitly
I imagine, it has also manifested in our culture for women to exert an abundance of caution and to try to gauge reactions as long as possible, because playing it entirely open can lead to the man developing feelings, and if you then have to break things off, it can get ugly. Some men, even if it is just a tiny fraction, may then turn to violence and rape.
In particular, the men may "blame" you for their feelings and they might feel """justified""" in raping you, because you did tell them that you find them attractive. No, none of this makes sense and I'd need to order another bucket of quotation marks, if I wanted to try to continue making sense of it, which I don't, so let's not do that.
Yes, the same can happen with the genders reversed, but typically the men are physically stronger, which is why this power dynamic made it into our culture, at least according to my pet theory here.
I have only ever been able to tell when it was someone I did not want to have a crush on me, someone I was definitely not interested in. If it was a woman I was interested in, or even someone not on my radar but that I probably would’ve seen how things went had I known she was interested in me, I have not figured it out until years later, if ever. My now-wife had to come right out and tell me she was interested. I would not be surprised to find out there were people I’d completely missed hints from decades ago.
Hint all you want, the decent among us will still be terrified of looking creepy. Just tell us!
What most women don't get is that men like assertive women.
Some men don't. Just like some women don't like assertive men.
People generally, like other assertive people who are clear about what they want. I don't have any issue with a woman giving me a clear rejection. But I really hate the fake 'rejections' they give me most of the time that leave the door open or the bullshit double-standard where they reject me and then expect me to 'try harder' to win them over because 'men need to chase me'. or whatever horse pucky they believe.
The bear thing scared a lot of decent guys off.
edit: And just to be clear, should anyone think i'm alpha male-ing. If every woman out there is scared to death of the average guy, who am I to further that? I have a wife, I have kids, I simply do not start conversations with women because when that chose the bear thing happened, not one woman I know didn't resonate with that. Who am I to try to push past that?
Not saying I agree with the bear thing, but understand there’s statistics at play here. Whether it’s a bear or a man, it’s not to imply all men or all bears will attack you. It’s relative likelihood. And whether I think women who chose the bear got the risk assessment correct or not, as a non-rapist, I’m not really offended by the idea that some subset of men has made women extra cautious.
I'm certainly not offended. I just don't wish to cause undue stress when women obviously feel distressed about random men.
...leaving women with getting approached to an even greater degree by men who don't get that. Thus confirming their bias and continuing the spiral.
At this point, I know of no-one who has any idea how to walk back the great and widening chasm between genders. It's heartbreaking.
The vast majority of men out there aren't POS. The vast majority of evening and nighttime walks aren't dangerous. Yet women are scared AF to walk at night to the point where they feel they need to be armed, and that the average guy is worse than the bear.
Decent guys didn't get us into this, and we're damned well incapable of getting us out.
Man, I feel this one. That put me off any interactions with women that I can avoid. I'm in a relationship, I have no need or interest in creating a situation because someone takes something the wrong way.
Precisely why I walk the other direction when kids try to talk to me. I'm polite and friendly as long as it takes to get away.
The only way a person can definitely know what’s going on in your head is by telling them with your words.
Dad might be anxious though, lol. “I do” usually means informed consent 😂
You've obviously never been married
I tell my husband I love him 18000 times a day, and incessantly compliment him. Been there for thick and thin. I definately compliment him wayyy more than he compliments me.
"if they didnt want to be there they wouldnt be"
how the hell do you stay in a realtionship, married for that matter, if you dont know your partner likes you?
Anxiety and mixed signals?
"If they loved me, they wouldn't have done xyz. Right?"
"if they had done xyz when we were dating we would have broken up on the spot" is also a fun thought to have, especially when it is true. relationships can be hard work.
It's called codependency, and it's running rampant amongst my peers.
My highschool buddy has been "dating" (they're basically married at this point) his girl for over 15 years, and they can't stand each other. No kids, not married, no real obligations. Hate each other most days, and terrified of the idea of breaking up. It's fucking surreal at a bbq.
because you don't have other options.
lots of people, men and women both, are only in a relationship because they don't feel they have any better options. they believe, and they might be right, that they will never find a future partner, and/or any future partner won't be as good.
a lot of people stay in crappy unhappy relationships because it's better than being alone or fear of being single.
and a lot of people have no model of a happy relationship to compare against. when i was young, in my hometown, literally nobody had happy parents. when i went to college i was SHOCKED at being around people who had happy parents and visiting their homes sometimes and seeing families that actually loved one another instead of HATED each other.
I watched my mother's parents be like this. blows my mind folks, idk. I don't understand the whys, well, I do, but, why live and stay in misery? Fear?
Maybe after all these comments, I understand what the original context means (in some way), but that is not funny, it's sad. Like I said, my mother's parents hated eachother, always bickered, yet always stayed together. When my grandfather passed away, my grandmother became a wholley different person, in a good way. It was like years of burden were lifted, leaving her spirit lighter. Why not give yourself that gift earlier than old age? She spent her whole life with someone she didnt like, and who didnt like her, why? Because jane down the street will talk gossip? Because you may have to sit alone with yourself for a time?
You free your partner too, to find someone else better fitting, as well as for yourself. "if you love them let them go" and all that. It's not even all selfish to sever a connection with a person not right for you. It is good for both parties.
When one door closes, you get oppourtunity for many other doors. Maybe because I have faced death a few times early, I dont carry these feelings. I am still a bit co dependent to be honest, but not in this way. Life is too short to stay in situations that dont serve your own peace. Hope, you dont hope for a person to change, you hope you yourself can, and move foward to something new, and better fitting.
Its like keeping a pair of jeans that fit you when you were 20, and "one day they will fit me again" meanwhile, youve not lost any weight, or became any smaller in the decades youve held on. Just give the pants to someone they will fit, so they can still have life, if even not with your ass in them, but someone elses. Instead, you hold on, until the jeans are eaten by moths in the draw, and the stitching weakens, and the pants wont ever see life again. Its selfish to stay in this way
some people cannot function as independent human beings. i had girlfriends who basically never in their entire life were ever self-sufficient and when I date I constantly meet women who are looking for a father/caretaker, not a boyfriend/husband.
Hope.
:(
just fucking ask and get your answer
No, but in a close-to-a-decade LTR. We’ve got by so far lol
No, like, a merchant at the bazar will typically charge higher prices when a customer is specially interested.
The issue many women face is that they fear they get a worse deal if they show too much interest.
I think the best solution might be a liberalization of the market, i.e. ending monogamy.
This feels like "haha men stupid" and I dont like it.
Unfortunately I've very definitely had this problem many times in my life. I really don't like to assume someone's interested in me unless it's far beyond obvious.
but it's in the context of husband and wife, not even dating. I can understand dating, but married? long term? what?
damn I think it's worse now, just boomer humor wife/husband bad. aw damn.
I get the dating side of the joke.
I thought I knew my wife after 20 years, but she surprised me. Apparently, being direct with me was terrible for her, just the most emotionally draining experience imaginable for her, and she got tired of it- but rather than tell me that, she just stopped being direct and expected me to pick up on it, and when I inevitably didn't, she decided the relationship was over- but again, she didn't tell me that, just started boinking our son's best friend's dad, then when I started to figure it out, told me I was crazy for thinking it, that he was just a friend... When she finally did tell me she wanted to divorce (one year ago today, matter of fact), she didn't want either of us to move out, she expected me to be ok with continuing to live together sharing a house (and bed!) while she screwed her side piece... I moved out so quickly I didn't even have furniture, just slept on an air mattress on the floor for the first couple weeks... Then after I had signed a year lease, I found out the other guy lived right around the corner from my apartment... Rather than randomly bump into each other at the grocery store, I decided to call him (son's best friend's dad, remember?) Turns out, she had been lying to him too, told him we had been separated "for some time", just living together for the sake of the kids... He seemed genuinely horrified to hear that wasn't true, apologized for his part, and said he was going to break it off with her. I didn't really believe him at the time, but as things have played out since, while she was trying to make me think they were still seeing each other, I could tell they weren't - my son lamenting not seeing his friend much anymore for one. Some months later after I had dropped off the kids with her, she let it slip that "he's always busy now". Gee, I wonder why...
Anywho, you think you know someone...
People change and feelings change in 25 years, and with children in the house we're more like coworkers than a couple now. There's plenty of opportunities for conflict and so little time for each other. So yes, it's natural to doubt in such circumstances.
It's putting all responsibility on others. Like, honey, use your words. Communicate. Don't expect people to read your mind. If you set the expectation that you want people to guess how you're feeling, then you'll have to deal with the fallout of some wrong guesses. It's easier to just make yourself clear.
In the context of marriage??
Like, we can assume there were years of intimacy involved, followed by formal proceedings.
2 things:
It has provoked a lot of great conversation, if you haven't come back to read it.
I'm approaching 20 years and very much still need my wife to tell me how she's feeling. My wife appears to be in tune emotionally and often is right, but from my perspective sometimes she seem to be overreaching.
This feels like "haha men stupid" and this is why I like it
EDIT: Are the MRAs upset, and missing all of the men in this thread saying "lol literally me"?
Haha women stupid
She's just being polite.
Women are like cats. They rub on you, climb on you, try to be near you, sigh when they're next to you, and we're like "I think she's just being friendly". Also, I just told on myself that I don't have a girlfriend because I compared women to cats...
Do you have cats?
I have a cat and I get messages on dating apps from women telling me they like me but I need to get rid of my cat to date them. It's fucking weird.
It's nice of them to tell you that you should ignore them.
there is a tend of people being aggressive now in dating where they basically like list out all their demands and then expect you to say yes or something. it's so fucking weird to me to demand that a complete stranger pay your bills for you or get rid of their pet for you, but it's popular on tiktok and all that. and if someone says no your demands, they are a weak and pathetic person. There is just this weird like 'make major lifelong commitments to me from the get go' nonsense going on.
maybe I'm old fashioned but when i was growing up you typically didn't make demands from strangers, you got to know them a bit before you started asking them for major commitments and then you respected them if they said no. relationships were something that emerged and you negotiated, they weren't employment contracts where you specified everything you 'need' before you even met them.
something something commodification of relationships, I guess?
Wow, I can't believe you said that!!! I was vibing with a woman who approached me. Got her number, we have similar interests, etc. I mentioned in a text something offhand about my cat in the context of "what have you been up to"... Boom. Instant ghost. Never heard from her again!
a lot of women think a man with a cat is gay. even if they have a cat, or like cats.
it's incredibly stupid. but incredibly common.
Okay... maybe this is a dumb question. But if I get her digits and am clearly pursuing her... how could she think I'm gay!?
because she isn't logical or thoughtful person. She is emotional and biased and has lots of irrational insane beliefs.
I dated a woman once who told me eating cereal was unmanly and pathetic. Like granola. I was suppose to eat MEAT and BREAD, and be a MAN. but eating a bowl of fruits, nuts, and grains was WEAK.
I just laughed and tried to dismiss it, but she was dead serious and basically said if I want to keep seeing her I'm not allowed to eat granola as a cereal in a bowl w/milk... only in bar form as a hiking snack or something. It was so arbitrary and bizarre.
Maybe she thought you're bi, apparently that's a big turn off for some women.
Yeah when I got my cat all I wanted to do was have anal sex with a guy.
It was so odd. Pat a dog and it's like all want is pussy.
Pat a cat and bam, ass all the way
I mean my boyfriend calls me good kitty but like you should like warm up to that lmao.
you should look at better places on fedi for a gf :)
😅😅😅 Why ?
according to anecdotal evidences representation of catgirls is higher on fedi compared to conventional dating platforms..
Communication from everyone involved would do wonders!
I'm sorry but this is not what makes me laugh. I think this is what is broken in the relationships. I mean why women has to be the passive role every single time? It's like im not ugly, and actually when I talk with them It goes well. My critic is why I have to start every single fckng time?
Uh... have you been around for the last thirty or so years? Apparently accosting women is harassment these days, so it's less hassle to wait for women to do the first step, I guess.
Wow. You just made me realize accosting has a completely different definition than I thought for the past 25 years. God damn it that's upsetting.
You made me check and apparently it's a bit more aggressive in English than in French. Now I'm curious what you thought it meant.
I basically thought it was a synonym for "assaulted." Which is like explicitly violent. Like I was WAY off. Which is rare for me, I had like 750/800 on my SAT verbal. 99/100 on my NYS English Regents exams. That's so embarrassing to me.
Now I have to algorithmically sift though the memories of my life to see if I'm relying on that definition for any important logical frameworks that my autistic brain uses to do my thinking.
Because women are in higher demand than men. That's the sad truth. Women do make the first move, maybe more than you realize, but they all tend to go for the same top 1% of men. If you aren't that, then you've gotta do some work, either to chase them or to become the top 1% that they chase. It's a sad reality but that's what it is.
I don't know if everyone has been paying attention to how things are trending and extrapolating, but the fact is a ton of men are looking at that scenario and saying, "eh I'm just done, I'm gonna stay home and enjoy the peace and quiet while it lasts. Less risky."
If that works for them then they can do that. I think if most left the house and tried chasing girls IRL rather than online that they'd be pretty successful once they practiced a bit. As an older man, young women seem a lot more thirsty than they ever were when I was young.
A lot of men think differently than women about relationships though. A lot of men would:
Fundamentally know they would be happiest with a woman who respects them and treats them softly and with love and treats the relationship as a partnership.
Concurrently, they would be happy to accept sex if it were freely offered with no risks (but there ARE very clear risks that sometimes make them balk at sex even being worth that anyway).
They believe that past behavior predicts future behavior. They see women that they would sleep with but never marry.
End result: the men willing to take the risk sleep with all the women they want to. Women all sleep with that shared small group of men. Those men don't commit, they have all the sex they want and never intended to commit. The men that would have committed were friend zoned, turned down, or ignored, took that at face value as they are not valued or in demand. Ultimately choose a peaceful life as a hermit enjoying whatever they can find happiness in. Hobbies, games, friends, etc.
Is selection bias a term or did I just make that up? Perhaps women get an incomplete understanding of men because they only interact with the men they choose to interact with. At minimum I know confirmation bias definitely comes into play with all these social interactions and assumptions. And men get an incomplete picture of women just from sheer lack of exposure. They only know what they see using what limited means of remote study. Social media, news, anecdotes from each other, etc.
In my experience, the men who hook up a lot also generally end up settling down. The ones who don't, don't.
That sounds like you're saying "it is what it is." Which I agree with.
I was a bit hyperbolic, you're right, I apologize. They do settle down when they want to, on their time scale, but their preferences also correlate with other parameters that should be considered.
The higher social status, the more selective the man who has been pursued by women gets to be. He may say to himself I prefer a younger woman that has fewer relationships, and thus a real statistically relevant lower risk of having had traumatic experiences and the resulting damage that may affect her ability to trust him and view him through an adversarial lens.
Look at DiCaprio. People can balk all they want at the age gap thing, but consenting adults gonna bang. And he gets to be as selective as he wants and he'll never not have options.
But my ADHD has made me forget what point I was even trying to make. Sorry I ramble often.
Edit ok now that I went and re read the post I can get back to topic.
So that's my take on the men that hook up a lot. Now the other side!
The men who don't hook up don't get married. Yeah, that makes sense to me. They are too afraid to do what it takes. And honestly I think that's coming from a pervading sense of hopelessness that is growing and growing amongst that demographic. And extrapolating that further, worries me greatly. Fear leads to anger leads to Yoda was right leads to shit is on fire yo!
because gender roles.
you aren't a 'man' and she isn't a 'woman' outside of these roles. they are arbitrary rules, but people have deep emotional belief in them.
I agree with you. But we have to start changing anytime...
So... Let's change. They do more damage than good
i can change myself. I can't change other people. Other people seem to be embracing 1950s gender shit more and more.
Y'know I'm glad I am aromantic, emotionally insular, and paranoid as fuck. Makes my dumbass not even have to factor this shit together, was she flirting with me quickly turns into I don't care. Though I will say having sex would probably be nice, but I'm also hypersexual and autistic so it's almost guaranteed id probably fuck it up and go too far.
Are you me?
No but I am me.
Same here. The guy speaks truth.
Like is a strong word. Let's say she's used to you.
We can, we just don't want to reveal our telepathic abilities. Shhhhh
Oh my yes. I do ask, subtley, if they can read minds. And on the off-chance they say yes, I take a hot minute to push the brain "clear browser history" button before carrying on -- just in case.
You just made me think of a book I once read, written by an AI researcher and author who wanted to try his hand at a format akin to a Japanese light novel. The premise is a girl who is absolutely depraved and terminally online as an isekai. She literally gets summoned while masturbating, gets asked if she is a virgin because the plan relies on giving her holy magic by binding an angel to her and she has to be a virgin for that to work (and thankfully masturbation doesn't count). The angel is bound to her, which gives it access to her mind, and it immediately begins screaming in horror.
Cool!
During college I got asked out by a few women as a man and I appreciate the initiative!
Be it woman or man, asking someone out is never easy because you'll make yourself vulnerable to rejection. So ask friendly and politely for a meeting in a safe space like a cafe and make it easy for the other person to decline and save their face if they have no interest. The other way around, turn others down with respect to their effort of making themselves vulnerable ('I am flattered by your offer but I have other plans for that evening' or something).
I have asked out a few women and got rejected some times. But with the ones who said yes I have spent years of great relationships, some of which even have turned into friendships. And I got to spend years with girls who I thought were way out of my league. But it turns out we're all just people and they were also happy that someone asked them out!
Not all of the dating world is hostile and there are still women and men out there with a good heart. Don't try too hard, get yourself out there in clubs or sports and go to parties occasionally. I have never used a dating platform and yet I had the pleasure to spend quality time with many wonderful people.
In an ideal society, we would just go and ask the person we adore out, no matter what gender or social framing we have. And even if the person asking you out is definitely not your type, don't let them feel bad - make them feel good about asking, boost their confidence.
My last girlfriend asked me out (she beat me to the punch by like 2 text messages, but still). It took a lot of the nerves off that relationship starting out.
I can always tell when someone wants to get in my pants (danger signals I developed as a young girl), but I can never tell when someone genuinely likes me.
I'm just going to give you a little hint here, men can both want to get in your pants in genuinely like you at the same time. It's not an either or thing. I'm pretty sure if a man genuinely likes you he also probably at some point wants to have sex with you. And yeah there's going to be those guys that just want to have sex with you just have sex with you. That's the part you probably have to differentiate.
Well, yeah. There's a difference between wanting to hit it and quit it and having a sexual desire that comes with genuinely liking someone. The former views me as a piece of meat, and that's easy to clock. I should have been more clear, but I thought sexual desire being a spectrum was implied.
Sleazebags are easy to spot, everyone else is just a normal person who may be interested in you as a person and that interest can grow or wane depending on successive interactions.
Damn the incels turned OUT for this post lmao
Whenever a comment section becomes this much of an incel circle jerk, it's always the same few people madly posting their grade school gender research for what I assume is Jordan Peterson's psychology class.
Ah yes, "Deciphering Females", the most enrolled course at Trust Me Bro University (accreditation pending).
Well said!
It's mostly stories of people saying they missed hints in the past, or recounting toxic dating experiences they've had in the past.
I'm not sure why you think that's worthy of mockery.
Sorry this observation hurt your feelings I guess?
The only wisdom is in knowing we know nothing.
Edit: who downvotes Socrates and B&T‽
It seems you're generalizing about all women in the same way that you yourself are complaining about being generalized. Hmmmm curious
My complaint isn't one of being generalized. Is that what you projected on it? Hmmm curious.
"anything they don't understand is weird and wrong and should be shunned" is how you characterized women, and seems to be something that you take issue with, no? Or do you actually like that they do that (in your opinion)?
Is that not a generalization that you claim women make about you/ "undesirable men" (to use your own vernacular)?
I think if you changed your perspective away from incel and towards charitably I bet you'd have a lot more luck communicating with them.
Damn you deleted your comments huh. Curious
No, a moderator justifiably removed the comments.
Makes sense, I probably should have just let it be anyway
I did not. Curious, huh?
Oki Doki Boomer
"therefore I must say 10.4, dinosaur" 💀