[1029] Dating Tips For Boys, Part 3 Of 4
└ posted on Thursday, 11 October 2018, by Novil
- Henry: I’m just too ugly to get a nice girlfriend.
- Cloud: Don’t say that. Girls don’t care as much about looks as boys do.
- Cloud: There are lots of things you can do to impress a girl. I’m sure there’s something you’re particularly good at.
- Henry: Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…
- Henry: … No, I’m completely average in just about everything I do.
- Cloud: In that case…
- Cloud: Henry, meet Taylor. Taylor, meet Henry.
- Sign: Looking for: Spineless, malleable cluster of cells
- Taylor: Just what I was looking for!
- Henry: Didn’t you just say to avoid snippedy-snap girls at all–
- Cloud: See? Even ugly boys can be chased after by pretty girls!
someguy wrote:
Furthermore, I think the misconception tends to come from various love stories which try to suggest that even a timid nerd can find love if he behaves himself whether he takes the initiative or not.
Plus if a guy in question is just playing nice to get a date and possibly laid, but generally is more of a jerk than no surprise if his (lack of) courting attempts is a failure. I mean a jerk can be unappealing altogether, but at honest one is better than one trying to claim being nice I’d say.
BT wrote:
Which is a fair point, though I’d argue that the clueless boy is at least more harmless than say Girl #1 (gold digger) and Girl #4 (the one who wants to do some snipping).
@ Izandai:
Saying that crazy/abusive women are harder to spot than crazy/abusive men is a little sexist since crazy hides and data on which gender is on average more abusive is a bit hazy. But nothing was said about feminism, or even implied unless you extrapolate from the woman with the “All men” shirt and the bloody knife. You don’t know if he was taking a jab at feminism or not, but you DO know that feminists have made generalizations about all men to that effect or else you couldn’t make that extrapolation. TL;DR you’re projecting
P.S. it’s not a misrepresentation if it’s true
MidoriLuna wrote:
Nah it is just difference between “average” and “median”… 50% are always below median, but average works in a way, that you have 999 of 0.1 total trash and a single 10.0 prince, all 1000 of total trash are below average in this case, because average would be 0.11 and they are 0.1…
blue wrote:
Truth is an elephant, we are the blind.
For those people complaining about how little controversy the tips for girls strips caused, that’s probably because the one for girls was more serious since being male, Novil would have a better mind for telling girls what he, as a guy, wants. However, for these strips, he, like most of you, doesn’t actually have a very good insight into what girls think about boys so thus trying to write advice for boys based on lazy generalizations comes off as rather stupid and probably insensitive.
I’m not sure I understand what a “snippedy-snap” girl is supposed to mean…
Ladybug wrote:
She’s like that feminist teacher from long ago who wanted to basically deprive males of certain parts.
this storyline is getting more and more uncomfortable
I think these comics are going to fall into the theme of. Dating problem -> Dialogue ->failure to follow advice -> bad relationship.
Ethan let his dick do the thinking and got into a relationship with someone with no common interests.
Henry has no confidence and gets a “relationship” where he’s just being used.
>Cloud: Don’t say that. Girls don’t care as much about looks as boys do.
Bull@#$%!
Brijeka Vervix wrote:
Yet according to OKCupid data, women rate something like 80% of men below average. So, yeah, being below average doesn’t mean you can’t get a nice girl, otherwise only like 1 in 5 guys would ever end up with a decent lady.
Schadrach wrote:
Not only that, but it says something that *men* interpreted this as women care more about appearances. My guess (although uncharitable) is because the men commenting could not even conceive of the idea of being romantically interested in someone that one judged below average in appearance.
Schadrach wrote:
THAT is exactly the point. Women are judgemental about physical appearance even more than men and they do care about it, BUT the average woman is still more likely to decide for a partner with low physical appeal (always provided he is still at least a little bit attractive and doesn’t look outright disgusting) if he has other desireable qualities. And I’m not talking about the gold digger here that deliberately dates a rich ugly old fart because he buys her stuff and treats here to fancy dinners (though wealth and/or power certainly can be a factor that contributes to a persons attractiveness), I’m talking about actually being attracted to a guy.
Also, the overall qualities that make a person a desireable partner subconciously also affects how physical attractive he appears to us (the effect goes for both genders, but is stronger in women). There was a study in which groups of heterosexual women were told to rate several men’s pure physical attractiveness based on portrait photos. Each photo came with a name and an alleged profession, which in theory should have been irrelevant for physical attractiveness. The groups were given the same pictures, but with different alleged professions. Surprise surprise: One and the same picture was rated considerably more attractive when combined with a well paying and/or glamorous job (e.g. architect, lawyer, scientist, actor) than with a job that suggested low income and low level of eductaion or was otherwise appalling (e.g. construction worker, waiter, undertaker). So if you manage to come across as a charming and confident (but still nice) alpha male, women will not only be more likely to be interested in you despite your just mediocre looks, they might actually judge your looks more favorably in the first place.
@ Brijeka Vervix:
It’s pretty clear you don’t comprehend the teenage mind.
Cloud gave a decent advice at the beginning of this arc, no relationship is better than a bad one. However, then he proceeded to give unhelpful and/or nonsensical advice. I’m getting the feeling that a lot of people here are confused over wether or not they are supposed to interpret certain advice as good advice.
It’s worth noting that Cloud ends this strip by saying “See? Even ugly boys can be chased after by pretty girls!”, but if you look slightly carefully, you will note that the actual message is “an ugly boy will not get a girl that’s worth having”. You can neither take what Cloud says nor what the strips themselves show serious.
Taylor is looking for a spineless boy because she doesn’t want a boyfriend at all, she wants a tool/toy. Henry also has to be spineless, anyone with a slight amount of spine will easily rebuff Taylor.
I’m finding this story arc a little hard to understand. It will however make sense if in the final one an earlier commentator is proven right- Cloud is Larisa in disguise.
@ Brijeka Vervix:
I think you are mistaking a comic strip for an advice column.
@ MidoriLuna:
That’s actually not a violation of the laws of statistics. If the top percentage of men blow everyone else out of the water, than the majority of men are below average.
For a more clear example, what’s the average of 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, and 986,423,579?
Zelnik wrote:
How so? Do you suppose that teenage girls are dying for ugly, wimpy bums? Because that wasn’t the case at my school…
Also, what’s with everyone quoting this one (potentially illegal) OkCupid study that has now been deleted as if it is the 100% truth on the matter? Apply some critical thought and don’t blindly following everything like it is the word of God.
@ Aaron:
That’s why it is better to use the median value as opposed to the mean.
To everyone debating the alleged statistic that 80% are below average
Average is not a well defined term. it could mean mean, or median, or mode, or even something exotic like root mean square or geometric mean.
So the average of 2, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, and 986,423,579 could be 2, or 5 or 140917657.7
If you wanna be happy
For the rest of your life,
Never make a pretty woman your wife,
So from my personal point of view,
Get an ugly girl to marry you.
Source: click here
I’ll say this: Cloud can be counted on to be honest about how physically attractive he finds a girl. (Or at least, to be visibly uncomfortable when his girlfriend asks him to compare this aspect of her to a girl he finds prettier.) Perhaps because he also weighs personality and smarts into his overall perception of attractiveness. He may find Taylor pretty — and she is — but I think he’d rather stay single than go with her.