This weekend, my sister and
I (she is 22, I am 27) were dancing at a bar when a male in his early twenties
approached us and exclaimed in disbelief, "You two can’t be single." I
replied "Yes, both of us are." He said "No way, that doesn’t make
sense." I said "The world doesn’t make sense. Get used to it."
While both of us acknowledge
that men at a bar are not representative of men as a whole, what I’m ranting
about is the caveman philosophy, seemingly shared by males both at bars and
elsewhere, that all women can be arranged in a hierarchy of desirability that
is objective, i.e. the same for all men. The men then "compete for the
best mates". This system views finding a partner as acquiring a possession
or winning a prize, rather than connecting with a person. If you're
picturing them all running across a field battling it out with each other,
that's pretty much what I mean.
If things really worked this
way, yes! The objectively "best" mates would be likeliest to be "spoken
for". A simple matter of supply and demand. But my sister and I,
known amongst our acquaintances as attractive, intelligent, kind women, are
both single and have been for quite some time. Could this be because as
each of us date various men, we are not willing to compromise on the traits of
maturity, courtesy and respect? Or because we are not willing to date
just for the sake of having a boyfriend but are waiting for significant others
with whom we are truly compatible? Or because according to the
happenstance of our lives up to the present time, the only men who have shown
interest in us are not good enough for us (and by "not good enough" I mean in
terms of the characteristics above), and the men we have approached are not
secure enough in their own identity to appreciate being pursued by a woman?
Say, d'you think we've got
some choice in the matter as to whether or not we are single, and it's not just
whether a man "picks" either of us? Stakes his claim to
property?
Yep, the world doesn’t make sense
when you are operating from an outmoded set of preconceptions and "rules"
about male/female behavior. Get used to it and get over it.
