Karma Part II

On the subject of blind dates from my earlier blog, a couple of my friends mentioned that the way I structured the whole thing made me look "cheap". This is an interesting topic of discussion especially from a guy perspective. Now I am perfectly cognizant of the fact that we live in a world where men and women are considered equals in every facet of our lives, it is also a theory that I subscribe to and firmly believe in. However, this one aspect - dating, this particular notion of equality seemingly does not hold. In our efforts to be chivalrous, it would seem we men are at a slight disadvantage. We're expected to hold the doors, act gentlemanly and on top of that foot the bill in any dating circumstances. No self respecting man would even entertain the idea of letting his date pick up the tab at the end of the night, even if she were to insist on going dutch. Of course, most women on the other hand will offer to go dutch, but almost never can be expected to nor will offer to pay the whole bill. There is a little bit of dichotomy there, and for whatever reason most of us men have accepted this status quo fairly happily. Now mind you, I have heard women complain plenty of times about guys that they have gone out with, who they will refer to as "cheap" because they did not entertain them as, how shall we put it, as lavishly as they would have liked. Now in the case of my experience from last weekend, why is it that I was expected to pay for someone else's indulgences at my expense, especially someone I did not even like that much to begin with and did not know at all? In a world where we are supposed to be equal, I should have been able to stand up at the end of the meal, look at the bill, split it at least down the middle or more correctly, since I had maybe eaten and drank a tenth of the entire bill, paid for my part and been able to walk out with my head held high, right? hmmm... I guess we're not as "equal" as we like to think we are?