Why it all goes wrong

WITH WOMEN'S EMANCIPATION

Yep, again something that makes my blood pressure reach life-threatening levels. A while ago I wrote about how maddening I find it that as a single woman you always have to explain the absence of a boyfriend, today I discovered that there are actually people who see this as a business opportunity and only make the problem bigger. Because here’s what’s going on.

There is a site, Hire a Gentleman, where you, as the name clearly suggests, can hire a man to accompany you to parties & events where you’d rather not appear alone, just imagine. “Hire a Gentleman is an exclusive dating service where women can hire a gentleman for occasions where a partner is desired, but not available. Should you just appear alone at appointments, parties, and dinners? Absolutely not, you just hire a man!” So says the website. I really wonder when it happened that we went back to 1938.

 I would really like women to stop hiding behind a man

How on earth can you, as a woman, not appear somewhere alone? Why can’t you go to that business dinner by yourself? Why are you afraid to go to a wedding without a date?Weren't we just working on becoming independent women who don't need a man to validate their own existence? The site mentions several reasons why you might want to hire a man, “some people use us to make others jealous (exes or girlfriends).” Or: “some people have doubts about their sexual preference.” And the kicker: “no one wants to be seen as lonely, or not in a state to have a nice date.”

And really, I’m not making this up. If you are so insecure that you pay 500 bucks (because that’s how much it costs to hire a gentleman for an evening) because you’re afraid that others think you’re not capable of having a “nice” date, then you have much deeper issues and you’d be better off spending that 500 euros on a good psychologist. I would really like women to stop hiding behind a man. That they just are who they are, without silly excuses. I am genuinely surprised that this can still be a business in 2015, that the world we live in still somehow looks down on women without partners and that it’s even so bad that these women feel compelled to pay a fortune to avoid explaining why they don’t have a man for a few hours. People, wake the fuck up.