Tapioca | 01-06-2012 06:47 PM | Read this - an epic comment made on the Vancouver Magazine website. Quote:
I'm at a loss as to where I should begin with this, but I'll try a bit of an intro first. I'm a mid-late-twenties guy, great job, sense of humour, polite, athletic, the usual mix of typically Canadian values. Ambitious, fun-loving, and oh yes, absolutely fed up with Vancouver women. I think going through this article chronologically might be easiest, because there's so much that's so blatantly wrong and it does an excellent job of illustrating the problems men face in dealing with Vancouver women, though largely by accident.
First, Natalie, Elise, and Tracey need a reality check. I'm sorry to have to break this to you, but life isn't an episode of Sex in The City, despite your best efforts. Realistically, few in their mid-20s have their lives so figured out. What Tracey hasn't told you is that her electric-blue dress was bought at either H&M or Le Chateau, because she couldn't afford anything better due to the sky-high rent she's paying for the Yaletown condo she couldn't afford to buy on her entry-level marketing coordinator salary. Her bright blonde hair is actually brown, and while she's the one buying at Commune tonight, it's all going on her Visa which is close to being maxed out, as she's living far above her means. Elise's job in "business development" is really just a low-level sales position, so she's slightly better off in that she can at least write off part of her clothing as an expense. As for Natalie, she may be at grad school in Ontario, but there's a very good chance mommy and daddy are footing that bill, along with her tab for the night's drinks. They may sit around and complain about Vancouver men, but they're part of the problem and unfortunately common in this city. Vacuous women who'll do nothing but talk about their designer shoes and gossip about who's sleeping with who, all while living a lifestyle they can't actually afford and expecting the guys they see around them to do the same. Do they go out and hike, bike, and kayak? Sure, but only enough to be able to tell their friends they do it.
Tracey being tired of spending the night in "chic" Whistler bars with guys who are dressed in baggy jeans and hoodies is laughable. Let's overlook the fact that there's really no such thing as a "chic" bar in Whistler and instead focus on the fact that it's a ski town. It's populated by, you guessed it, skiers and snowboarders who wear baggy jeans and hoodies and tourists. Sure, there's the odd W/B exec kicking around, and you can recognize him by the tell-tale signs: slightly more fitted jeans, a button-up shirt, and his very happy, very nice, athletic, intelligent wife with a great job who's out walking the dog while he takes care of the baby. He's not interested in you, and neither are any other guys there because you're the annoying, over-dressed girl with a sense of entitlement so big it doesn't quite fit into the bar. Tracey's issues with Whistler bars are easily solved by throwing on a pair of jeans and checking her attitude along with her coat. Sadly for her, she's too self-absorbed to realize this.
No one getting up to give her a seat on the bus when she's in 6 inch heels and "laden with packages"? Of course not. The guys on the bus have already given up their seats to the seniors with canes and mothers with strollers. You chose the 6 inch heels, live with them. Side note: This is something you'd only ever see or hear about in Vancouver. Go to New York, LA, Montreal, Toronto, or any other major city and while you might see women in 6 inch heels, they'll all be sensible about them and take cabs, drive, not carry a ton of packages with them, and maybe even wear flats until they get to where they're going. Besides, why are you wearing 6 inch heels? Are you so insecure with your height that you feel they're necessary? I'd usually just dismiss someone wearing 6 inch heels in this city with a casual "meh, she's probably a stripper," but in this case that'd be insulting to strippers everywhere, who are either too sensible to wear their stage shoes around town or make enough money to afford a car that they can drive to work while wearing their 6 inch heels. No, chivalry hasn't died, it just doesn't apply to your case of wearing ridiculous shoes while carrying a ton of, let's be honest, what are probably magenta shopping bags onto a crowded bus.
Complaining about Vancouver's sartorial standards is of course what comes next. No, this isn't New York, and no, I'm not wearing a suit daily. I don't need to. It's not that I can't, it's not that I don't have a half dozen suits ready to go in my closet, it's that I don't need to. When I do, I clean up rather well, thank you. If you're after guys in suits, move to New York or London, where suits are the standard uniform. This isn't that city, and while it might be a bit sloppy, the fact that we aren't required to wear suits does make the place more casual, which is nice. Besides, the jeans, button-up shirt with the sleeves casually pushed up, casual shoes, and the Arc'teryx jacket that keeps me try in the rain we get here cost me about what a decent suit would have cost me at Harry's. Looking this "bad" isn't cheap.
Yes, it may be easier to go out, meet people, flirt, and enjoy good nightlife in other parts of the country. Toronto's great for it, as is Montreal. I know, I've been in both cities extensively. It's also a lot easier to strike up conversation at places like Canadian Tire, while you're "buying windshield wipers," but my experience tells me that most Vancouver women don't know what windshield wipers are, would have no idea how to buy or install them, and have never stepped foot in a Canadian Tire. Besides, your 6 inch heels wouldn't work too well in 6 inches of snow and -30 temps. Do I prefer the nightlife in other parts of the country? Yes, and with good reason. That said, I'm also on vacation when I'm there, so I'm more likely to be open, having a good time, and generally just meeting people. A common phenomenon with people who are somewhere other than where they live.
"No one who's ambitious comes to Vancouver," because there are no head offices isn't quite true either. While it's definitely true that a promotion to a regional office in Vancouver is generally either considered a "thank you" to a long time executive or a way of getting rid of an under-performing employee, there are just as many regional-office employees who move to Vancouver to get away from having to work 80 hour work weeks and deal with idiotic office politics, all in the name of work-life balance. It might put a cap on your upwards potential, but when you can be out of the office by 3:30 pm and on a ski hill or in the yoga studio by 4, you don't really care too much. If these women cared to, they could come appreciate that freedom as well. If they don't, well, their loss I suppose.
Of course, there are actually a number of head offices in Vancouver, filled with ambitious guys. Video game producers, a major apparel company that you may have heard of named Lululemon, numerous resource-based companies where jeans are considered "semi-formal" wear because a lot of their time is spent in the field, etc. Then there's all the guys working at the head offices of much smaller financial companies that are into things like "wealth management for high net worth individuals" and all the guys working at head offices of companies involved in skiing, snowboarding, and other such sports. They're all ambitious, you just haven't bothered talking to any of them because they're reasonably casual in both appearance and demeanor. You may judge based on clothing but that's a very, very bad idea in this city. The guys dressed in jeans and scuffed shoes sitting at the longbar at Joeys at 2 pm on a Tuesday might be losers, but there's just as good a chance that they're mining-industry guys discussing yet another deal to sell their find or project to a bigger firm for big, big money. Welcome to Vancouver. It's still a humble place in many ways, and we're all the better for it. So no, we don't have head offices of huge banks and hedge funds out here, but again, if that's the kind of guy you're after, feel free to relocate to somewhere they are. Just know that if you do, you'll be competing with women who are more intelligent, more polite, and more interesting than you are along with having much better jobs, so you'll have next to no chance.
I wish the sense of entitlement and snobbiness that the women mentioned in the article are afflicted with wasn't as common as it is in Vancouver, but that's the reality of dating here. I've never lived in any city where such a large part of the female population is just so incredibly un-dateable, for lack of a better term. It's their attitude towards men, it's their lifestyles, it's their beliefs, it's how fake they end up being, it's how utterly incapable of interesting conversation they are, it's their tendency to complain about us at every turn, it's the huge amount of gold-digging that goes on here, it's the insidious way in which their families tend to get involved in making sure they date the "right" guys, it's their complete lack of ideals that are realistic for the city they live in, it's their completely overblown sense of how great they are, it's everything. Yes, they're good looking and fill out their Lululemon pants quite well, but that's not enough for me to bother anymore. Vancouver men are pretty good at keeping quiet about all of this, but I'm sick of hearing the same stuff spewed day-in and day-out by women in this city and tired of reading it in print. Enough's enough ladies, take a good look at yourselves when you're in front of the mirror every morning and repeat the following mantra "I'm not in New York and guys here are just as good as anywhere else."
Now If you'll excuse me, I'm out to go skiing, mountain biking, hiking, or grab an espresso.
BY FEDUPVANCOUVERGUY ON JAN 6 2012 AT 3:17 PM
| |