Redefining Dating

Bitch Media

How many more trend pieces can you stomach on the theme of "Millennials Killed Traditional Dating"? There's this idea in our culture that this generation has fundamentally changed dating—for the worse. That we’re getting away from “traditional” dating and into some terrible uncharted waters. But a look at the history of dating shows one thing loud and clear: every generation has redefined dating. The idea that there’s a “traditional” kind of dating that’s stayed true for 100 years until the internet burned romance to the ground is just… a myth. Instead, with each new generation, new technological changes, evolving gender norms, and our economy has changed the way we date. On this episode, we talk about early 20th century freak-outs over young peoples' dating lives with Moira Weigel, author of the "feminist-Marxist history of dating" Labor of Love: The Invention of Dating. Also, the founder of ACES NYC joins us to talk about how rising awareness of asexuality is changing mainstream ideas about what dating means. And Ev'yan Whitney, who hosts the podcast The Sexually Liberated Woman and teaches feminist workshops on taking sexy selfies, interviews someone very special about sex: her mom. Tune in.