These days, singles of every ethnicity, nationality, sex and gender face the minefield of political correctness. If you don’t believe it, try a little experiment. Walk around your town going through as many public doorways as you can in an afternoon- play around with holding doors for different kinds of people approaching the doors at different distances and not holding it at different distances. Try and see how many people you can get to hold the door for you in a variety if situations. You’re likely to have different experiences depending on what you look like. Okay, that’s not very scientific, but it may give you a taste for what I’m talking about.
There is an atmosphere of fear surrounding political correctness in our society and if you run afoul of someone’s idea of what’s PC and what isn’t, you’re likely to experience some very harsh accusations.
So what does this have to do with dating? Everything. Let’s begin with a few traditional expectations.
First, the man is expected to;
1. Summon the courage to ask a woman for a date.
2. Provide transportation for the entirety of the evening.
3. Pay for meals, movie tickets, admission prices etc.
4. Drop her off at her place and see how well he’s played his cards.
Okay, I admit this is an extremely conservative dating format. It is one end of the spectrum, and it is the end of the spectrum from which we are all coming, historically speaking. The politically correct opposite to this model would look like this.
1. A woman might ask a man for a date.
2. Transportation provisions will be decided on the fly.
3. You go Dutch, assuming no one has left their wallet at home.
4. A ‘hook up’ may or may not happen.
To be clear, either way is fine, as far as I’m concerned and as long as everybody gets what they want. But, that’s the clincher- you just can’t know what everybody wants. Despite all the pressure on guys to be egalitarian and to treat women like their equals- (not like children that have to have everything provided for them)- there are still a lot of women who want to be swept off their feet and treated like a princess. Worst of all, you’re never going to know which sort of gal you’re taking out for the evening until she either does or does not blow you off- and then go complain about how you didn’t open every door for her to her massive pool of female friends.
You’ll notice I haven’t said anything about gay dating, and that is a major PC transgression. Well, sorry PC cops, we just don’t have enough typographical landscape commissioned to accommodate every possible nuance in this piece. That’s how easy it is to become a horrible horrible person on the PC dating scene.
So what’s to be done? What advice is there for the modern man to navigate this storm of PC umbrage-taking we are all living in? Well, there isn’t any. The only advice that can get you anywhere is to treat your dates like the kind of woman you’re attracted to- hope she is that kind of woman, and- if she isn’t- brace yourself because the PC police will be knocking at your door.
All you can do is, be yourself. Know that no matter what happens- you are not a ‘s#it-lord-neckbeard, misogynistic, right-wing conservative Nazi.’ You’re just a regular guy looking for fun and companionship in a world gone mad with identity politics.
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