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Unspoken Rule: Two Men Talking

  • Posted on June 18, 2009 at 1:09 pm

As a non “hottie” type who is reasonably independent, you may have many male friends.  You may be used to being treated like “one of the guys”.  In a potentially romantic relationship though, the context is different.  Your boyfriend or potential is not your bro, and chances are that he’s not even in quite the same league as the guys you normally hang out with.  You are not trying to be like a sister to him, so it’s best to avoid any kind of plays for social dominance.

This is not to say that you should be a pushover.  It’s just that once you’re together, then socially you are like a team in which there is a male and a female member.  In a group of men, even if these guys have known you all your life, your man is your male representative.

Viewing things this way accomplishes two goals when incorporating your partner into your social sphere as your partner.  It allows him to establish his own place, and also allows him to prove his value to the other men.  Initially, it gives them the opportunity to get to know him without your interrupting the process or possibly obscuring any crucial flaws that they would need to know about in order to protect you.  In time, they see him as a part of you, and unless they are Gay, he may even serve as your replacement when womanly responsibilities prevent you from doing the guy stuff you used to.  Hey, it’s the least he can do since it would be his fault that you’re someone’s girlfriend or wife, and perhaps later, someone’s mom.

For those involved with alpha type or “alpha enough” (non executive/business owning, but in charge of their own lives) guys, there’s another reason for letting your man be the man socially.  There’s a world of men that many women think they know, but don’t.  If you’re a polite and ladylike woman, it doesn’t really matter how strong you are.  Your presence makes a social situation “polite company”, and there are certain things men don’t discuss in polite company.  Even if they have told you the dirty details of sexual encounters with scores of hoes and ex wives, and feel comfortable enough to ask you about a rash on their groin, one thing they will almost never discuss with you is specifics of money problems or certain aspects of business.  If they do in private, they don’t want anyone else to know that they have because it’s something that is fairly unique.  You may be a kind of ace in the hole or lucky charm in that regard, and not everybody should know that you can tell a guy is a snitch from his smell or something.

So in practice, when two men are talking, either be someplace else, or go to the happy place in your mind.  Unless they are actively including you in the conversation, tune it out.

It takes some practice to learn exactly when to do this, but if you know your friends and your man fairly well, it won’t take long to understand the cues.  Sometimes it’s a rub of the chin, or a shift in posture.  As an example, my current boyfriend has a “game face” when he’s about to talk about business or some kind of man thing.  That’s when I know to adjust napkins, bring more snacks, check for dust somewhere, or become enthralled with his ponytail.  I purposefully become part of the background until I’m invited back into the conversation or situation.

You can practice this skill with your male friends.  It will make them even more comfortable around you because it will reduce your already hopefully low attention whore quotient, and let them know that you respect their manhood despite the value equalizing aspect of friendship.  Respect builds trust.

When two men are talking, consider it a private conversation.

Why the Rules are Unspoken

  • Posted on June 16, 2009 at 1:01 am

The reason many of the most important “rules” in dating are unspoken is that men don’t often talk about their feelings.  Even when they do, they’re often so out of touch with their feelings that they don’t know how to articulate them well.  The vast majority are living behind a veil of masculine pretense, a.k.a. men’s emotional straitjacket.  Far too many men are so disjointed that they’re basically living someone else’s life.

It’s like there’s a “left brained” person and a “right brained” person living inside their heads, who are neighbors but not on speaking terms.  That there is such a cold war going on inside is the reason that despite claiming to be nice guys, so many just wear a cloak of civility so tightly that they think it is a part of them.  It is also the reason that despite most claiming to want a loyal faithful woman, they give the priority of attention and affection to disloyal women who are likely to be unfaithful.

In fact, physical features and behavior that signal disloyalty are considered attractive by most western men today.  Features and behavior that signal loyalty, honesty, and trustworthiness are interpreted as more masculine than callous cruelty, and are now unattractive and repellant.

How did things get this bad?  Well, as women we only have ourselves to blame.  We are the ones who mistook equality for sameness, and raised our sons to be irresponsible spoiled little girly men who all think they are entitled to the same things for merely existing.  We took the femininity out of representations of feminine beauty because we didn’t want them finding anything sexy about dependency.  We shamed them for finding teenage girls attractive, and scared them into thinking that they would become pedophiles en masse for doing so.  We didn’t trust that if we raised them to be responsible men, they’d naturally choose age/life phase appropriate relationships.

We put their emotions at war with their logic because we don’t see the day that a young man can plausibly kick his mom’s butt, as the same as the day a young woman begins to menstruate.  By that age, even though they aren’t legally adults, they should be prepared for adult level responsibilities.  This is crucially important as their brains enter the final stages of complete development.  Quite often, the catch-up later on is too little too late.

Add that to many boys being basically raised by the television, and there you have your scorpion tailed locust babe of Revelations.  Everyone suffers and feels the sting once those are let loose.

Now, we have hordes of men who are basically sexually screwed up, and think that decent women are ugly and repellant.  Their left brain, which still has the natural template for long term suitability engraved in a tiny corner somewhere, is making their mouths say, “I don’t like whores or sluts,” but their shrill right brain is directing them straight towards the girls in the butt crack jeans and tube tops, and not just for sex.  I’ve seen with my own eyes, guys actually telling themselves that such women look like nice girls.

To date, I’ve only seen this turn out to be true in one case, and she seemed to at least be wearing the jeans and tube top properly.  She took the time to talk to a local mentally ill man we both knew and cheered up occasionally, on her way to the cafe I was sitting in.  Strangely, her apparent kindness triggered criticism of her looks by some of the guys sitting with my friends and I.  Her companion with the disgusted sneer remained hot in their view.

Many males seem addicted to rejection even though they claim not to enjoy it.  They complain about how hard it is for a “nice guy” to get any attention.  The attention they get, they complain is from women who are somehow below their standards in looks.  Usually what makes these women substandard in their view is some pop culture measure like weight well below mobility or hygeine or even athletic concerns, or ethnicity.  As a side note, one thing I’ve found very telling is that most guys I’ve met who have said such things will end up with an exploitive woman who is physically ugly in the same way as women they’ve rejected.

So what does a woman who isn’t looking for a victim do to find a man who truly isn’t looking to be a victim?  What does one do if they’re already involved with a guy who is pulling away because he wants to be a victim even though he says he doesn’t?

All of us who’ve been out there in the dating scene, have one time or another, had this gutt feeling we couldn’t put our finger on, that maybe the guy needs us to be more of a bitch.  Some of us have given in to that, only to find that once we do it, we have to keep that up in order to keep the guy interested.

I have no correct answer for this.  Some people are broken.  Some guys will never break down their internal Berlin wall that allows their logic and emotions to cooperate.  It happens whether they like it or not, usually in their 40′s.  Some realize that they’ve wasted their lives and start trying to have a life.  Some never grow up but at least become more tolerant and tolerable.

My personal solution is to stick with guys who don’t have this problem.  This means that I seldom date anyone under 45 or more than one generation from a country/culture where men are supposed to grow up on time.

I also made a personal vow to myself long ago that I would never have a child outside of marriage or “common law” type marriage.  My kids will all have a dad who grew up on time.  I’m not a feminist but I do have a lot of care for my gender.  I do not wish to inflict on any woman (or Gay man if it turns out that way), an irresponsible child who is looking to be a victim of the crop of anti femininity (read anti female) pseudo feminists who are equally spoiled and irresponsible.

Men’s rules are unspoken because they haven’t been allowed to speak on them for going on thirty years now.  Their masculinity has become cosmetic…something to wow the onlooker and draw attention, rather than an indicator of strength and dependability.  This is why thuggishness is so popular.  It is cosmetic masculinity…the display of competitiveness taken to extremes, and as far away from the protective arm of dad fending off rivals and bandits, as lipgloss is from the blush of aroused lips.

The rules are unspoken because they have been silenced.  They have been silenced so effectively that men state them, but do not themselves adhere to or enforce them with their option to give or remove attention.

To be fair, this isn’t the case with all men.  Some men’s logic and emotions are very well integrated.  The thing you ladies out there must remember though, is that you will not attract an integrated man unless you are an integrated woman.

You do your job, so he can do his.