Home | New Members | Expert Answers | How To Videos | Our Blog | Sign Up | Sign In
Invite Friends
 
GirlsAskGuys.com GirlsAskGuys.com
  Chat Flirting Dating Relationships Sexuality Break-Up Behavior Style Other
Home > Articles > Flirting Articles > Romance In Other Cultures
martyfellow
Written By martyfellow

Romance In Other Cultures

 
Average Rating: Rate Article:  
MiserableBoringEnjoyableInterestingFascinating
 
Posted More than a year ago Views 769 Comments 7 Category Flirting
More and more here in the US we have a lot of options in terms of the different cultures that coexist in much of our society. I married a Colombian woman, for example, and had several girl friends who hailed from different parts of the world, or whose parents did.

Every culture has its own ideas about the proper way to look for a mate, and while most people sort of adapt to the dominant essentially English cultural norms of the mainstream United States,a lot of people are unwilling to do so in the very intimate realms of love and sex. I have found that some seemingly very 'modern' women turn out to have VERY 'old country' ideas when it comes do dating and sex, and often their families try with varying success to IMPOSE them even on people born and raised here.

For example, our 'pair' dating is often unaccepted at a young age by many Asian and Middle Eastern cultures, who only allow group dating if any at all before marriage.

It took me a long time to adjust to my wife's family which has only recently come from Colombia. They are very strict about their young daughters and will not allow them to date anyone they haven't met and interrogated! Interrogated at length. And there are always strict curfews involved, with real punishment for not meeting them and sometimes physical aggression against their daughters' boy friends if they get out of line. At least one of their daughter's boy friends was too frightened to see her any more because of the threats he received from her father when he brought her home late and a little disheveled...

At first I was pretty shocked at this but after I heard what happens to Colombian girls who assume guys will treat them respectfully...I can sympathize with this father.

Often their friendliness and willingness to start conversations with anyone at almost any time is misinterpreted in the US culture...or taken as a sign of weakness. Unfortuantely being cold and stand-offish is often the 'proper' behavior for women in our modern culture until people have become friends or they have been introduced. Any real warmth or friendliness from women is taken to mean they are 'easy.' One guy actually tried to drag her into his car by force and when the police talked to him he said with a straight face that she had led him to believe she would go with him because she had talked with him for over 20 minutes!!

Can you imagine? 20 minutes!

Other guys got really mad at her for turning down dates. Again, her friendliness to them meant that agreeing on a date was automatic and they were actually shocked when she said she couldn't go out with them until they had met her family.

And the Colombians are more relaxed on the whole than a lot of my Asian or Middle Eastern friends' families. Some of them won't let their daughters date at all or not in pairs until they are formally engaged.

We shouldn't assume people who won't date are necessarily unfriendly or shy. They may just have to obey norms we don't understand and they are unwilling to explain them to outsiders.

On the other hand, there are often almost no restrictions put on male children in some of these cultures and in fact some of the Middle Eastern guys see women outside their culture as
'fair game' and don't have any compunction about lying to them about where they are taking them and what their plans are. These guys assume that because the US women are free to date that there are NO limits on what they can do to them.

And they aren't shy about trying almost anything, I can tell you.

So while there is great fascination in dating people from other cultures, there are also a LOT of potential pitfalls!! I still regret how some of my dates were punished for my bringing them home to late or just for where I had taken them...not that anything really 'bad' had happened.

Comment on "Romance In Other Cultures"


You have 500 characters left
Submit Comment
Email Friend  Email Friend
 Share on Facebook

Article Comments

 
landoan I'm Vietnamese and mostly we're not allowed to date as couples. The one time I was allowed to do so my date flirted with my sister openly in front of the whole family.

I was terribly embarrassed even though he thought it was funny...in our culture this just isn't considered something you can make a joke about.

I was so angry I decided to do what we would do in our culture. Women who are insulted have the right to use a punishment in such a situtation. That is what I did. - More than a year ago
daherbint Coming from a minority culture in the US, most of my romances have been with people not sharing my value system...it is more challenging than romantic for me, actually, maybe because the guy's culture is not usually so ''exotic' as mine...Arab and Muslim... - More than a year ago
christined Yes, for those of us in minority cultures ALL relationships outside our own communities have to take cultural differences as a primary problem..or fascination!!! - More than a year ago
Akikosmile As a woman there's nothing more important than a man respecting the fact that I am Japanese and have a completely different outlook on life than people born and raised here in the US.

While dating someone from another culture can be an adventure it is fraught with problems especially for people in the US who tend to assume that their way is the ONLY way and won't take a different set of values seriously.. - More than a year ago
Infogirl This is true-there are many cultural differences in dating and manners. I am half latina and half American and have dated both. I do wish more Americans were stricter with their daughters-but many are in single-parent houses and they just don't have the time and patience to get to know who their daughters are hanging around - 10 months ago
dasouthernicon Good article, since lotsa people are dating folk from other nations now - 10 months ago
mochamix I do understand and I can relate,im middle eastern,my parents know I might like some guys, but they would never let me date,however I do behind their backs, as bad as it sounds, but I think its right,they expect me to fall for guys within my own culture and within my own religious circle,its challenging and I used 2 rebel against the within the culture thing, but then I find it sometimes hard to relate 2 them or vice versa, it can b challenging but fun, it just depends on how much you like them - 9 months ago
 
Join GirlsAskGuys
Members earn points to get Expert Advice on Video, Amazon & iTunes Gift Cards, books and more!
Male Female
What do you guys think is better, being single or being in a relationship?
Jpalms56 asked Yesterday

Single

In A Relationship

Flirting Articles
 
●  How Live Chat Lead Me to the Love of My Life
by  norway
Believe me when I tell you that meeting the man of my dreams was a notion I had given up on after my second divorce. Meeting and falling in love on the Internet? Oh Please! Only tragic losers who were...
●  The Wonderous Flirty Eyes
by  Aditya
Just a few weeks into joining this site, I saw most of the questions posted are more to do on reading those invisible lines that people think might be flirting, and to top it all to make aggressive...
Ask a Question
1. Question 110/110 characters
2. Details
Ask Anonymously
Disclaimer: GirlsAskGuys cannot guarantee the accuracy of answers, opinions and advice submitted by members. Please use common sense when following or omitting any content on GirlsAskGuys.com
Browse Categories: Flirting  |   Dating  |   Relationships  |   Sexuality  |   Break-Up  |   Behavior  |   Style  |   Other                                         Home Top
  Site Links     About GirlsAskGuys     GirlsAskGuys Widgets     Help Us Improve!   RSS Feeds
Home
Videos
Partners
Search Questions
Terms of Use, Privacy
Help, New Members
About Us
Contact Us, Send Feedback
Sitemap
Advertise With Us
Resources
Post your questions on your blog, website, or any social networking page. You can embed into MySpace, Facebook and more. Click here for more info.
Have a suggestion? See a problem on the site? Click here to give feedback and suggestions on the new GirlsAskGuys, and help us give you a better experience. Visit our blog here
 Subscribe
Add to My AOL
Add to Google Reader or Homepage
©2009 girlsaskguys.com™. All Rights Reserved.