Yes, there is a new normal, and it can be found in the book “Why Men Love Bitches.”

But in all seriousness, please don’t be tempted to dig up The Rules out of your attic. I’m a few years younger than you, 37, but like you I followed The Rules during my dating years and I damn near ended up a single terrier lady (I hate cats).

That said, obviously don’t sleep with men on the first date. Or fifth. You may not have been in the dating pool for the past couple decades, but you’ve got enough life experience at this point to know when someone is being real with you and worthy of your respect. Use this experience as your guide.

And buy the “Bitches” book.

“Read” and “culture” being thrown around a little loosely in this thread.

If you want the people that you date to get the message that you are interested in a relationship and not just a hook-up, I think you'd have more luck telling them directly, rather than hoping that they know the secret 3rd date code, no?

Anonymous wrote:Why do you want another relationship so quickly?

She wants someone to pay her bills.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What’s a “rules girl”

Ok, Millenial.

I’m a Gen-Xer (43) and I’d never heard of this either.

Honestly at your age if you don’t know this book you probably missed quite a lot of modern culture. But cultural competence isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.

“Competence” isn’t the word you are looking for. For that matter, you aren’t really using the word “culture” correctly, either.

PP — it refers to a heavily marketed book that was a brief phenomenon about 20 years ago that basically laid out a playbook of games for women to play in their attempts to land a man.

It was cynical, puerile and simultaneously misandristic and misogynistic.

You could probably find a copy in the quarter bin of a second-hand bookstore though if you call around.

Why do you want another relationship so quickly?

I’d hit it on the first date, I guarantee it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What’s a “rules girl”

Ok, Millenial.

I’m a Gen-Xer (43) and I’d never heard of this either.

Honestly at your age if you don’t know this book you probably missed quite a lot of modern culture. But cultural competence isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What’s a “rules girl”

Ok, Millenial.

I’m a Gen-Xer (43) and I’d never heard of this either.

Then you did not read a lot. I am 42. The book was a bestseller and everywhere in the late 90s/early 2000s

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What’s a “rules girl”

Ok, Millenial.

I’m a Gen-Xer (43) and I’d never heard of this either.