S04E10 – Did Dating Norms Swing the 2024 Presidential Election

In this episode of Finding Common Battle Grounds, Josh, Tom, and Ryan explore new gender/dating norms. We focus on a recently published editorial in the New York Times that argues the advances women have made in education, income, and independence have resulted in men feeling confused about how they are supposed to interact with women and how to be a “man.” Women in the US increasingly have more education than men. They are also more likely to be homeowners and some are making more money than men. Dating norms have grown rather complicated, with highly successful men being in a position to pick and choose among partners while less successful men are being marginalized and forced out of the dating market entirely. The result is a growing number of men who are frustrated, lonely, and angry. Josh and, to some degree, Tom attribute this to progressive approaches that have argued that men and women are the same and should be treated the same. Josh and Tom agree that men and women should be equal and have equal opportunities, but they also argue that men and women are different and have different motivations, wants, and needs. Ryan agrees that there are some meaningful differences between men and women but tries to soften the magnitude of the differences and make it more of a distribution rather than a dichotomy. We ultimately conclude that current dating norms are challenging and causing problems, though we don’t really have a solution.