Dating has a problem – and the only people willing to fix it are women. Specifically, straight women, who are flocking in droves to singles nights around the world in an attempt to find a pleasant, emotionally available, and suitably untraumatised man. And yet, very often, this pursuit is futile, because the only other people there are single women like themselves, with little to talk about besides the mythological men who didn’t show up. As for those men, well, who knows? Perhaps they all decamped to a desert island without wifi.
This might sound hyperbolic. But it’s a realistic depiction of what’s going on in the dating industry right now. I know this because I’ve recently become a part of it, having launched my own singles nights last year. It started as an accident; I wrote a feature for Style about throwing a singles mixer for my straight female friends who, like me, were struggling to navigate our digital-first dating landscape. The organisation process hit a roadbump very quickly; after advertising the event on my social media accounts, I realised that the only people who were interested in coming along were straight women.
