By J. DeVoy
There’s plenty of fish in the sea, so can you not flirt with my fish? Uh, no. Absent a relationship, men and women have zero duties to refrain from flirting and hitting on targets of the opposite (or same) sex. As for non-engagement, non-marriage relationships, how is anyone even supposed to know up front that his or her intended target is in one? It’s the target’s duty to disclose…if he or she does at all. Even then, it’s not a sure thing — “I have a boyfriend” has become such a stock test for women that it’s impossible to tell if a girl has one and, even if she does, whether that actually precludes anything from happening.
Whenever I see people join this group, I cringe. There’s a reason why people who would publicly affiliate themselves with such sentiments have the relationship problems that they apparently do — a lack of confidence. Whether it’s a fear that they’ll never be loved (either again or in the first place), or a case of soul-crushing one-itis that interferes with the ability to see that there are other fish in the sea, both are driven by an all-consuming insecurity that reeks like garbage dump baking in the hot sun, permeating the air for miles.
Life sucks, and in all things, one must kill or be killed. In the intensifying competition for desirable mates, no quarter is given, and none should be expected. Those pathetic and embittered enough to whine about prospect poaching so openly should be the least surprised when it happens to them.
