Trading Places: Should a Woman Pursue a Man?

If you Google “Should I pursue a guy?” 98.99999% of the information tells you to do the exact opposite – don’t do it, don’t try it, don’t even think about it, honey. You’ll push him away. You’ll seem needy. You’ll emasculate him. Just let the man come to you and allow him to do all the work while you sit back and let the chase ensue.

From a very young age our mommas, aunties, and Disney Princess movies have taught us that one day a knight in shining armor will come whisk us away on his white horse and save us from singledom. We should sit back, be pretty, learn to cook, and just allow the man to be the man. If a man wants you, he will do whatever it takes to get you and to keep you. You should relax and wait on your fairy tale to happen.

But that was then and this is now. And as the “now” progresses, the days of fairy tale romances are few and far between. The new age dating scene doesn’t require much more than a swipe to the right and a straight to DVD movie on Netflix. Nonetheless, the traditional option is still available but, unfortunately, it does put you in a position of waiting in a now fast paced society – waiting for him to approach you, waiting to him to call, waiting for him to asking you on a date (or to  “chill”), waiting for him to make the relationship official, and ultimately waiting for him to make you a wife.

The advice of Disney and our elders seems to rapidly be going out of style and a few millennial women have taken matters into their own hands – literally. These ladies are literally taking the hand of the man they love as they bow on bended knee and pop the question. Pretty extreme to me, hey, but to each her own.

Even if most of us aren’t quite ready to ask for his hand in marriage, should we start taking more charge of our love lives? Is the traditional waiting game null and void in 2015? Do men prefer an aggressive woman or is the thrill of the chase still alive and well? Does a woman pursing a man ultimately change the dynamic of a relationship?