Time for a random rant: I fucking hate dating. It's predatory and proprietary. It's shallow and reductive...how in the fucking world can you find a mate out of swiping right? How can you get anywhere when someone stops mid conversation because a person has ordinary, non psychotic human flaws that are common to everyone? Maybe something that they can't help like a physical disability or because they aren't neurotypical. Why DOES dating have to be overly sexual where you have to either dodge lewdness from the jump, or on the actual date itself? Why is there pressure to put out hanging over people's heads? And if you're adamantly against it, you're shamed. If you're comfortable in your sexuality, good for you! But can we at least get past dinner before you tear off and start trying to get in my pants? Why do most people have to pencil you in because they're treating dating like something to cross off like a grocery list? Why isn't there any effort? Why does it seem like every other guy that I come across while dating is married- gotdamnit? Fine, you're not happy with your spouse. Fine, there's a million variables as to why a marriage is unhappy...What does that have to do with me? Having encountered unhappy married men enough--I don't want to be a mattress and counselor because you don't know what a divorce is. Or, You and your spouse are looking for unicorns - I DON'T CAAAAARE. Unicorns ARE A MYTH, human beings aren't canapés to pass between you and your suddenly liberated wife who wants to ~try women ~ out of nowhere. Dating just feels like another stressor I don't really need. Yeah, I don't want to be reduced to a pack mule for my family, ATM, and a defacto caretaker for my stubborn mother because somehow being married with kids absolves you of being chained to an elderly woman. Maybe this is my destiny, to just be beholden to my family and my mom - yeah, fuck having a spouse, perhaps adopting a child and living my own life. I guess we don't do that here.