My friends and I have all had bad luck dating these days. How can we not give up hope?

I read in your other comment that you're not into casual sex, so this comment may not apply to you or your ilk (successful career women in your late 20's) a 100%, but I think it merits a post here.

http://www.reddit.com/r/TwoXChromosomes/comments/2l2fjk/does_anyone_else_here_have_trouble_with_dating/clqzdnx

I've noticed a trend among my friends and male acquaintances that they just don't take women seriously anymore. This is not how I would characterize myself, I've been in a relationship for three years and i'm very happy, but my friends just see women as these interchangeable tools they use to scratch various itches. I'm not really saying this as a sort of judgement because I don't really care what women do with their sex lives, but pretty much every guy I know well enough to have the conversation seems to think that every woman they meet is some kind of power-slut who's run through like 20-30+ guys each and they just can't establish any real emotional intimacy with them because they seem themselves as link in a long chain, and there's no reason to think they're the end link, or a link that's more remarkable than the other links. I know one guy who is with a girl who really likes him. Even I can see it. She's completely in love with him. But he's told me she's slept with like 30 guys, and he knows it's just not likely that he's the best she's ever had and he has trouble dealing with that. It would make him more comfortable to be with a girl who has had less partners so he knows he has some chance of being something special to her and not just another guy she could get with ease just because she's a woman. I've heard other versions of the same point. They just think absolutely every girl out there is sleeping with every dude who locks eyes with them, and it's like why bother trying to lock down a girl like that? Some other folks in this thread have mentioned that it's no longer necessary to get married or even be in a relationship to sleep with women. They'll just hook up with you at the drop of a hat, so what's the incentive to stay with them? What's the incentive to get married on top of that? Divorce tends to be more costly to men than to women so it's better just to stay single, get real, non-judhemental emotional intimacy from your male friends who aren't going to hold you to some ridiculous gendered ideal, maybe get into a relationship for a bit, and when that runs it's course keep playing the field, because the number of women out here to just date for a couple of months and then just trade up is endless. Truly endless, because there's always another girl turning 22 and looking for someone to regularly hook up with somewhere. I dunno. This is how it is in the big city I live in anyway. Maybe it's not like that everywhere.

Also, betamax234 has really good advice. Look for men who are less than perfect because it will only get harder in your early 30s. Good luck!

/r/AskWomen Thread Parent