I reread this article, DC Women Only See the DC Men That They Let Themselves See, and I was very excited to revisit it. I hope you enjoy it. I don’t even remember reading and and receiving it. It was based on DC Men and the Number One Wife. Got a Wonkette link from it, too.
In response to Dating DC Men and Number One Wife, a buddy of mine responded with his own experience. “Simply put, DC Women only see the DC Men that they let themselves see, and so they can’t bitch when they get treated badly or when they can’t find a good guy,” is my favorite line.
“Now, I am not really the prototypical DC Male, being, as I am, prone to monogamy even when I have a friends-with-benefits (I mean, really, who has the time to juggle any more?). And, certainly, my FWB is something of a relationship placeholder until I meet someone with a slightly better mix of sex appeal and conversation skills (and who likes to play cards).”
“I think the DC Male could just as easily be described as a natural response to the liberation of women in this town. Let’s face it, in DC there is always someone smarter, more powerful, more interesting … hell, the itinerant nature of the town virtually assures a fresh flow of the new and novel. How does your average male compete with the knowledge that 1) the very next reception you attend could also be the beginning of that whirlwind love affair that just so happens to include your present ‘other’ and someone who is definitely not paying your mortgage; and 2) that your present ‘other’ is smart enough to know that, at least in some respects, she can always do better (or, at least, she has now been taught that settling is for Midwestern girls, thus the buffet line of sample men is the perfect place to run roughshod over any occasional gentleman who may cross her path)? ”
“DC is the perfect pressure-cooker for irrational romance…better, dare I say, than even New York. And as hard as most men may argue it, women are simply better at getting swept away in the ‘moment’ with that suave, multi-lingual, unbuttoned-button-down jackass who will just as soon give them the clap as he would to give them commitment.”
“Simply put, DC Women only see the DC Men that they let themselves see, and so they can’t bitch when they get treated badly or when they can’t find a good guy. Good, kind, single guys abound … they are just not going to walk up to you at Salsa night and give you some crap line to show how cool they are. They are going to be hanging with their friends, because a few actual and good friends are so terribly hard to find these days. They are going to be reading a book with a beer in the corner, because a good lay may fade from memory, but knowledge lasts forever (or until Alzheimer’s). They are going to be at a play or the symphony, because true beauty is felt and embraced by the soul, not just through the eyes and the pecker. They are going to look boring at the outset, because they have felt some part of the pain of this world and have gained the wisdom of experience in not blithely opening themselves up to another can of romantic whup-ass.”
“But, in the end, they are the ones who are going to look after everyone else, who will answer the most pressing and important questions of our times, who will raise the next generation of good people. In short, they are the most interesting and desirable of them all, because they are real. And, if DC Women can’t seem to find a good guy, then fuck ‘em. Call it modern natural selection, because I know a good DC Male can be happy and single, and no matter who they are with, the typical DC Woman will always be alone.”
This buddy of mine is no nice guy and has discrete lovers and friends-with-benefits and so forth, which does nothing to change the fact that he is indeed earnestly searching from miss right.
I was rereading Dating DC Men and Number One Wife and realized that the acronym for number one wife is NOW.
“Now” has a lot to do with it, I think. Proper relationships are time- and energy-intensive. We Washingtonians are an awful mixture of a-type, ambitious, workaholic, social, neurotic, and never-satisfied and number one wife allows a man to have a wife without needing to maintain one.
