It has been said before, and I will say it again: this millenial generation does not know how to love.
You'd think with all of the access to old movies on Netflix and various examples and wishes for the apparent lost chivalry on different social media platforms that people would change or revert back to what they "think is the right way to date."
I think people are whining and making things worse themselves.
No matter how much they complain, no matter how much they may boast or whine about the way they have been treated or what's expected of them, they do not change.
Change comes from a near universal agreement and movement of people to make a difference in how something is. Unfortunately, even though this may seem to be the case in the millennial population, that we are striving and desiring to be treated better our actions do not reflect this.
More specifically, women are not acting like we want to be treated a certain way. Yes, I am directing this criticism towards my own gender, and for good reason.
Think about it. In the fifties, the usual "desirable dating" was in all actuality to be courted. You know the story, you've totally seen Grease right? You've read all the lovey-dovey books? Boy meets girl. Boy likes girl. The girl sees boy but doesn't do anything. The boy woos girl. Boy continues to woo said girl. They go out on a cute little innocent ice cream date to the ice cream parlor following the sock hop. And girl with her culturally appropriate knee length skirt walks back home with the boy and a simple kiss on the cheek suffices for the evening. Boy leaves, girl writes in her journal. The rest is the oh so familiar story of Mrs. Insert Boy's last name here on her journal and more innocence to live happily ever after.
These girls hear these stories from their Grandmothers and expect their lives to follow the exact same footsteps. But wakeup call, you're not your grandmother. This isn't the fifties. And yes, it is all of our faults.
Now a day, when boy meets girl it doesn't follow that cute little modest pattern. Girl meets boy at a party, they suck face and never speak again, or have drunk sex in a random bedroom, boy meets girl and they go through a phase of texting and if he sends you the right emoji that equates the same value as them sending you a bouquet of flowers. Girl texts boy but alongside of four other boys just to make herself feel better about her low self-esteem. Boy texts girlfriend while sneaking around behind her back.
The list goes on and on with all of the unseemly and unfortunate ways that our generation strays from what we apparently desire. We do not act like we want that. We do not demand it. In history, the only way that things have changed is through complete cooperation and a demand, an imperative attitude for a better lifestyle.
And no, I'm not condemning every single person and all relationships to this. Some people can move past this. There are good, and respectful relationships. I've been in them, and I've seen them. But when we complain about the way we are treated, and do not act in a fashion that would cure this ailment, then I hold no sympathy.
We are the heartbreak generation.
