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PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   11219 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 29, 2025

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In the past, dating seems to have been less serious, as well. You could go out on several dates a week with different people, so long as you weren't supposed to be exclusive/serious with one person. A date might just be a one-off thing with no expectation that it would develop into something more. And of course, the expectations around sex (on the first date? wait till the third date?) were completely different. You might take a woman out, buy her dinner, and hope that would lead to more than "goodnight, Horace" on the doorstep, but if it didn't... she was behaving just fine by the standards of the time.

Now dating seems to be a cross between a job interview and a judgement of your entire life. If you don't get another date after this one, you've wasted your time. If she doesn't put out, she's wasted your time and money. If she doesn't answer your messages on the dating app... if you haven't the right profile and the right photo... if you can't get a date on an app you'll never get one anywhere else... you're a failure, women are too picky, women are to blame, men are to blame, something is wrong and someone has to be held accountable.

It really seems impossible.

I'd argue that dating used to be less serious precisely because it didn't entail the possibility of premarital sex, at least not with society's sanction.

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