It’s 2011: Quit Waiting for Men to Approach You First

My mama is old-school with her courtship expectations. If ever a dude wanted to get on, he had to pursue and properly court her before anything jumped off.

Yet sometime in the mid-aughts, shortly after the death of my grandmother, she decided to go against the grain of convention and semi-court her ballroom dance teacher. It was the first time in her more than 50 years of life that she’d approached anyone on her own volition. It all worked out and they’re now happily married.

I realize this was a stretch for her considering her generational ideals, but I’m blown that, in 2011, many American women are still yoked to the antiquated tradition of waiting for dudes to pursue them. Even women who consider themselves otherwise “liberated” and dependent in any sense scoff at the idea that they would have to ask a n*gga for his digits. (Continue reading…)