Valentine's Day 2013: The Millennials Are All Right When It Comes to Dating

Culture

Pundit Rebecca McCray is tired of the articles about the dearth of good men and romance among 20-somethings. She explains why it's time to quiet feeling sorry for millennials. 

Last week, I went on a date with a man who informed me after one drink that he was recently asked to marry his undocumented roommate for $20,000 to ensure her citizenship.

When asked why he decided against it, he explained that he “hated her” and that “she didn’t actually have $20,000.” As our conversation continued, he candidly reminisced about how wasted he got all summer, told me he didn’t really have any friends in the city, and ultimately got in a verbal altercation with some dude with a neck tattoo standing at the urinal next to him in the bathroom.

At the end of the night he walked me to the subway, where we paused to apathetically kiss in the cold rain before parting ways. Yet in spite of this enchanted evening, the New York Times has dared to declare courtship over for “urban 20-somethings.”

Yes, I concede that this was not my best date. This was also not the Times’ best trend piece. Rather, it was another tired page in a growing collection of articles that are inexplicably obsessed with the apparent demise of middle-class, heterosexual romance and the endless perils of being a 20-something.

We are over-educated but underemployed; inundated with choices but paralyzed by fear; and according to this latest horrified look at the young whippersnappers of today, oversexed but under-romanced.

While I’ve had my share of laughable dates and future-planning anxiety, I can’t help but think that maybe the worst thing about being one of the 20-something women this article so openly pities is simply being on the receiving end of the mainstream media’s misguided drivel.

Read the rest of the article here.