@PNS I hate the 'talking stages' because I'm autistic. If the right woman just walked into my life one day I'd be fine with that, if it doesn't work out, there's the door. To me it feels like fluff, kind of a waste of time, and why on God's green earth would I want to try holding a conversation with a woman in the first place?
She's not wrong in the sense that 'traditional dating' no longer exists but I also can't think of a time in history when men gave a shit about what women had to say about anything.
Even now that they're terminally politically involved, dependent on SSRIs and birth control, and 'empowered' by employment it's still hard to imagine talking to or taking seriously anything a woman has to say on matters that are 'traditionally' male oriented, the matters that concern me the most, without expecting to hear the dumbest fucking opinion I've ever heard in my life.
On that what even is 'dating'? Did people used to 'date' at all or did it just happen? Didn't previous generations just roll with the punches and naturally end up in relationships?