The Dating Game

We’ve all been saying for years that women don’t understand men and men sure as hell don’t understand women. We get those mixed signals from the person you’re seeing or want to be seeing, over analyze and confusion ensues. My question is, is all the confusion really just a constant miscommunication or are we all just playing the game? I think it’s a bit of both.

I’d first like to call out everyone who plays the game and tell them to knock it off. I’m also calling bullshit on the theory that it works on anyone over the age of twenty-one. Sure, when you’re playing your tricks on a drunk twenty year old at the bar, she might fall for it. But that same girl will fall for you after your one night stand and you get to play the game of hide and I think we should see other people. Dating is shitty enough; why add a game to the equation and make everyone crazy?

You have the hit on her friend routine, where the guy hits on the friend of the girl he wants to take home. The theory behind this –I’m going to go ahead and assume a bunch of guys unanimously decided this is how most women think –is that the girl you’re not hitting on, even though you were flirting with her before, will wonder why and try to get your attention back. Again, I call bullshit. I’ve had guys do this to me at the bar, and you know what I do? I find another, usually hotter guy to make poor decisions with.

There’s the game that both men and women are frequent players of, the he waited twenty minutes, I’ll wait thirty minutes when texting you’re crush. This is by far the worst, because both parties are just trying to outplay each other in said game, when the end result they both want is to date each other. So why waste all that time not talking to each other when in fact that’s all you want to do? Side note, why are we always trying to prove how much we don’t want that other person in a game designed for people who want each other? I know, it’s ludicrous –I’ve always wanted to use that word in a sentence; point for me.

Then there’s a game I didn’t even know existed, and I refuse to believe that it would ever work. Flirting with a cute guy who comes into your store every morning –this may or may not be a real scenario –but he never asks for your number even though he’s obviously flirting back? Fret not; apparently he’s playing the game. Insert eye roll here. The theory behind this –the part I’m refusing to accept is accurate –is that you will be thinking about him because he didn’t ask for your number. Goal accomplished, you’ll think about him, he’s the one you’ll try to impress to get him to ask you out, etc. First of all, how incredibly cocky of the guy who thinks he can get to the top of your list –some people have a list –because he didn’t ask you out, and therefore you’ll want him more. Second of all, that game is really stupid and y’all should knock it off right now.

With all these games happening all the time, how are we ever supposed to take anything at face value? When he says he’s been busy and can’t go out but is obviously into you, is he playing a game, blowing you off or really just busy? Let the over analyzing begin. In my experience, if a guy isn’t into you or doesn’t want to talk to you, he won’t. So when he is, and he says he’s busy, we should believe him...right? No wonder single people are so crazy. So then we have the game all single people play on their own –the game of trying not to over think everything and, essentially, trying not to care so much when you’re given mixed signals. And how successful are we at this game? Speaking from personal experience, I’m worse than an amateur.