Manipulation and self-interest suffused relations between the sexes even when gentlemen strode the earth; a few pages of Edith Wharton should disabuse any doubters on that score.
The lengthy article on modern dating, Love in the Time of Darwinism, at City Journal raised several reaction in me while I was reading it.
The only thing I reacted positively to was the quote above. The rest of the article took turns depressing, digusting, and disappointing me. Actually, let me be more precise: the behaviours and environments that the article describes were both disgusting and depressing, and the people in the article disappointed me–and, of course, the article itself, in taking the facile surface interpretation of a lot of these things as read, also disappointed me.
I think it’s probably fair to say that my strongest reaction to the article is an intense glee that I’m not active in the thirtysomething dating scene.
