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I have had a different experience and have thought Seattle is a decent place to date. The two areas I lived previously for many years were both far worse for dating in my opinion (SF Bay Area and San Diego). And the stat's support this. Percentage of the population female:
-Seattle 50%
-San Diego 49.7%
-San Jose 49.7%
-San Francisco 49.1%
So the data shows that Seattle has a better ratio of females to males than those 3 CA cities above. East Coast cities tend to have higher ratios of women to men.
After living in Seattle for 19 months now, I do have to agree with the Seattle freeze though. People are definitely less outgoing and friendly here in general no doubt. People are nice here for sure, they are just not warm, outgoing and outwardly friendly. It just has this tame kind of reserved-ness here that can get annoying, little bit of a boring-ness and lack of personality in a lot of people. The opposite of New York City or say Philly. Trying to talk to people at events, get to know you neighbors... people can just kind of put their heads down and walk away. Not very "embracing" of a culture for sure. For all the criticism Texas gets for example by many folks, I lived there in Austin for 2 mos back in 2006 and I found people to so much more friendly, warm and genuine then either CA or WA.
I have had a different experience and have thought Seattle is a decent place to date. The two areas I lived previously for many years were both far worse for dating in my opinion (SF Bay Area and San Diego). And the stat's support this. Percentage of the population female:
-Seattle 50%
-San Diego 49.7%
-San Jose 49.7%
-San Francisco 49.1%
So the data shows that Seattle has a better ratio of females to males than those 3 CA cities above. East Coast cities tend to have higher ratios of women to men.
After living in Seattle for 19 months now, I do have to agree with the Seattle freeze though. People are definitely less outgoing and friendly here in general no doubt. People are nice here for sure, they are just not warm, outgoing and outwardly friendly. It just has this tame kind of reserved-ness here that can get annoying, little bit of a boring-ness and lack of personality in a lot of people. The opposite of New York City or say Philly. Trying to talk to people at events, get to know you neighbors... people can just kind of put their heads down and walk away. Not very "embracing" of a culture for sure. For all the criticism Texas gets for example by many folks, I lived there in Austin for 2 mos back in 2006 and I found people to so much more friendly, warm and genuine then either CA or WA.
I think you have it spot on ctr.. The entire state of Washington, not just Seattle is very reserved, cold and not very outgoing. People are polite, respectful and civil, but not warm and fuzzy. I have heard your observation from many people and I have seen it myself. I remember growing up in Oregon that people were much more friendly in Portland, Eugene and Ashland. Most places west of the Cascades were much more sociable and had nicer people. Portland is easily a much friendlier and social city than SEattle. People in Seattle are very serious, whereas Portland people are more easy going and laid back. Although, Portland's suburbs, like Beaverton, Tigard, Lake Oswego, etc are probably not much different than the suburbs you see on the Eastside, except for not quite as wealthy. Bend, was the one exception, it was a town invaded by snobby Californians and the locals hate anybody who wasn't born there as a result of the gentrification.
People in Idaho are more hot-tempered and sometimes more in your face about politics, but they too seem more sociable than Washington. Western Washington has a very unique and reserved culture of people..
ON the other hand, places like Belltown are being populated with a lot of outsiders and its truly becoming one of the real cosmopolitan areas of Seattle. That is the only part of Seattle where there is events going on every day of the week and people dress up and go out and do things. Not that clubbing is my scene at all.. However, I notice a lot of the big city transplants who enjoy socializing seem to congregate in that area.
Great - our two resident gun nuts are here to circle-jerk about candy-ass liberals and how liberal cities emasculating the American male. Or some other such wing-nut speak that requires an Ovaltine decoder ring to understand.
Gun nuts!
Quote:
Originally Posted by GoBlueInSeattle
In my experience, dudes are always complaining about dating - and how women are invariably stuck up / too picky / unrealistic / etc. And women complaining about how all the good ones are taken / why can't they meet a nice guy / all the guys lake social skills. And yadda yadda yadda. Dating is hard, and its a challenge to meet someone you click with. Such has it been since time immemorial. Only difference, is 200 years ago we lived in a misogynistic, patriarchal society where parents arranged marriages and guys could do whatever they wanted. Today, we all get to live in a more enlightened age and we all get to go through the pain of dating.
As for those thinking its different today - its not. Its always been a pain to date at age over 40. Statistically, the pool is a lot, lot thinner - with far less men & women single at age 40 than at age 20. Smaller pool makes it even harder to meet someone. And on top of that, amongst that smaller pool is higher likelihood its filled with a portion of folks who don't want a relationship or just epic fail at it.
Wow, even liberals can pour their hearts out once in a while and make some meaningful posts... That is, once they get through their emotional rants.. Good job, GoBlueInSeattle and I do agree with a lot of things you posted here.. Although, I will say that a gender egalitarian society hasn't necessarily produced happy families. We have more divorces, more drug addicts, broken homes, single parents and kids who never seen their father/mother. However, at least we get to live in a world where we have to fight and strive to get a mate, rather than be forced to be married to someone they don't like. Now people have to earn each other's respect and win each other's hearts in the true sense.. All that taking into account, of course, that they are not convoluted by material and other superficial prospects of the relationship.
One thing you also forget about the days of misogyny is that those men didn't just get to do what they pleased. Many of those men would go off to war and get blown to pieces or never return home. Actually, this is probably the one era in the history of the world where there are so many men around. Men were short in number for generations and many women felt honored just to have a man who could be around. That is, men for generations had to go off to sea, travel, fight wars and many would not be around to simply raise a family. Another reason why polygamy was prevalent in previous generations.
Seattle doesn't have any gun stores anymore , which also is really lame..
There are at least two in the city limits - Discount Guns on Lake City Way and Outdoor Emporium on 4th Ave S, plus lots of pawn shops that have them. There are also a few between 145th and the county line.
I think you have it spot on ctr.. The entire state of Washington, not just Seattle is very reserved, cold and not very outgoing. People are polite, respectful and civil, but not warm and fuzzy. I have heard your observation from many people and I have seen it myself. I remember growing up in Oregon that people were much more friendly in Portland, Eugene and Ashland. Most places west of the Cascades were much more sociable and had nicer people. Portland is easily a much friendlier and social city than SEattle. People in Seattle are very serious, whereas Portland people are more easy going and laid back. Although, Portland's suburbs, like Beaverton, Tigard, Lake Oswego, etc are probably not much different than the suburbs you see on the Eastside, except for not quite as wealthy. Bend, was the one exception, it was a town invaded by snobby Californians and the locals hate anybody who wasn't born there as a result of the gentrification.
People in Idaho are more hot-tempered and sometimes more in your face about politics, but they too seem more sociable than Washington. Western Washington has a very unique and reserved culture of people..
ON the other hand, places like Belltown are being populated with a lot of outsiders and its truly becoming one of the real cosmopolitan areas of Seattle. That is the only part of Seattle where there is events going on every day of the week and people dress up and go out and do things. Not that clubbing is my scene at all.. However, I notice a lot of the big city transplants who enjoy socializing seem to congregate in that area.
That has NOT been my experience on Whidbey Island. Strangers invited us to a Christmas party. Neighbors we barely knew invited us over to Thanksgiving. A nice couple in the neighborhood goes through hoops making fresh apple cider for everyone else. They get out the presses and all. We have frequent beachside grills. We've met some good friends. Oh, and this is all in just 1 year.
Yeah but after you subtract all the vagrants, street dope-heads and other assorted male psychotics roaming the streets is the ratio still that bad? Seems like a man with a job who showers every day might have a bit better odds on the dating front.
That has NOT been my experience on Whidbey Island. Strangers invited us to a Christmas party. Neighbors we barely knew invited us over to Thanksgiving. A nice couple in the neighborhood goes through hoops making fresh apple cider for everyone else. They get out the presses and all. We have frequent beachside grills. We've met some good friends. Oh, and this is all in just 1 year.
That's great to know about Whidbey.. I live near there, maybe I will spend more time.. It seemed mostly like military people, so may people are nicer to each other if they are fellow miltary members, as military people are moe accusomted to camaraderie.
I will be going up to Whidbey every week soon, so may want to learn more about the island. I am assuming though Whidbey is mostly older and married people.
Caraway:
I admit that people outside of Seattle are friendlier---here it seems that they'll go out their ways to be rude before they go out of their ways to be nice. One thing I've encountered in the Bellevue Metro Area is that a lot of people moved over there to escape the 'Freeze' (and the other antisocial behaviors common over here).
Most of the rest of Washington isn't that bad, it just depends on what your social requirements are.
Just my opinion, and...well, not too sure about that, I didn't find folks in Spokane all that friendly either, I felt the freeze there as well, to a degree. Women, imo, the professional stable, finer looking ones, in Seattle, I found were much more pompous and unapproachable then the women in Spokane were. Most of my single male transplanted friends over the years, even many local men, felt that women in Seattle were basically stuck up. It really is no secret imo...lol. Such is life, I am glad to be leaving the region though, and I guess people are free to carry themselves and regard themselves anyway they like in America. I agree Texans are ten times friendlier and more welcoming then anywhere in the PNW, and the women are pretty hot too!...
Starrider:
Overall, the PNW isn't much to brag about in terms of a social scene---it's just that compared to Seattle's social scene it feels much friendlier just about anywhere else. I don't know how Texas is these days, but never saw anything like the 'Freeze' in California either. Even if Cali girls aren't interested, they're at least nice about saying 'no'. Here the women give off such a negative vibe you don't even want to approach them.
The men here too are the same way. You always get the feeling that if a Seattleite is being 'friendly' that there's an ulterior motive behind it. Most of them are too full of themselves to care about anybody else anyway.
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