this post was submitted on 07 May 2026
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I'm a healthy outdoorsy athletic woman, never touched drugs or alcohol or junk food, a lifestyle which is intentional & ESSENTIAL criteria I work hard for.

So WHY the only men who approach me with amorous intentions are unhealthy, cigarette, alcohol, junk food men??

Update: Thank you for your thoughtful responses & the humorous ones too. I upvoted my favorites & laughed at the funnies and you've given me plenty to think about & work on.

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[–] blarghly@lemmy.world 105 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Two reasons.

I think /u/trem gives a reasonable statitical explaination. But it likely goes farther than that. The reality is, these days it is generally considered impolite to start a conversation with a stranger without pretense, and especially so to start a conversation with a woman with romantic intentions. The zeitgeist of our time is that women, by default, are not interested in men's advances, and that making an advance on a woman for no reason other than her physical appearance (which is all you can know before approaching) is chauvinistic. Thus, almost all intelligent, pro-social men have been trained not to make advances on women they might be interested in in public. So who are you left with? The dumb, not-forward-thinking, idgaf crowd. The kind that spend every night at the bar, and then don't care if anyone thinks they are a trashy peice of shit. And so that's who approaches you.

The second reason is probably something about the vibe you are giving off. Reading your post here, and a few of your other comments on lemmy, I get the impression that you are walking around with an expression like you have a smear of shit under your nose. Like, I get that you aren't interested in these men - but the way you say it, you sound like a very judgemental person who believes she is better than everyone else because she doesn't eat fast food or something. And the problem with this vibe you are giving off is that it is going to repel the guys you want to attract - healthy, ambitious, intelligent, nice guys who want a healthy, ambitious, intelligent, nice girl. Maybe they interact with you a bit and think "oh, she's judgemental, I don't want to date her." Or maybe they simply see the default look on your face and say "hmm, she looks pissed - I bet she'd yell at me if I tried to talk to her." The girls who get lots of attention from attractive guys are the ones with golden retriever energy - they love meeting everyone, which means the attractive guys feel less nervous about striking up a conversation and asking them out. It reassures them that, even if this girl isn't interested, she will at least be nice about it.

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[–] CombatWombat@feddit.online 95 points 1 week ago

I suspect what you're finding is that the kind of men who make amorous advances aren't the kind of men you're interested in, and the kind of men you're interested in don't make amorous advances. Have you tried amorously approaching a man who you're interested in?

[–] trem@lemmy.blahaj.zone 93 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Not sure, if you're actually looking for an explanation or rather just want to rant and/or hope for dating tips, but maybe still helpful to be aware of:

Diagram of a normal distribution

With your specific expectations, you're somewhere to the far left or far right, whichever way you want to read it.
For example, this graph could be applied to alcohol consumption, with 0 on the left and lots on the right. Then you're on the far left.

The Y-axis shows how many people exist in that range. There's some median alcohol consumption, which is going to be in the center of this diagram, where most people are. At 0 alcohol consumption, there's very few people, because it's an extreme.

Obviously, this simplifies a lot. In a real survey, there's probably actually somewhat of a bump at 0 alcohol, because certain religions prohibit consumption.
But yeah, in general, you're hoping for relatively many extremes, so the number of people that match that are quite low. You will naturally get magnitudes more romantic interest from Average Joes, because there's just magnitudes more of them.

As somebody else already said, try to find groups that naturally attract folks from the extremes that you look for, like outdoor sports groups.
Online dating, as problematic as it is, can also be rather good at finding very specific extremes.

[–] HeroicBillyBishop@lemmy.ca 49 points 1 week ago (1 children)

A stats lesson in response to a dating question?! Awesome

Thank you for taking the time to write that

[–] Triumph@fedia.io 14 points 1 week ago (2 children)
[–] pipe@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago

Especially lies and damn lies 😆

(Not the case this time though, nice breakdown by trem)

[–] bradorsomething@ttrpg.network 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

86.9% of all statistics are made up on the spot.

27.3% of people know that

[–] jacksilver@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago

Haha, I came here to say the same thing. Basically the average person (at least in the US) will probably be overweight (4 in 10 adult men are obese in the US - https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data-and-statistics/adult-obesity-prevalence-maps.html)

Add in any other negative factor (smoking, drinking, misogynistic) and you're probably covering 60-70% of the men in the US!

I've made myself sad with data :(

[–] RBWells@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

This is the most likely explanation by far. You are looking for such a small subset of the available population, you are unlikely to hit on what you want by chance.

You would need to either increase your tolerance in some direction (need fit & active, don't mind some drinking, some junk food as long as they don't care you don't join in that).

One other thought, I am a lady but if I met a guy who was TOO clean living, I'd worry how he was in bed, does he consider sex a vice too? Some of those guys are kinda crazy.

Maybe ask your friends if they know anyone you might vibe with or try online dating apps.

[–] massive_bereavement@fedia.io 36 points 1 week ago (1 children)

unhealthy, cigarette, alcohol, junk food men sounds like an unsuccessful clone of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 23 points 1 week ago (2 children)

It was very successful and it was called Aqua Teen Hunger Force featuring Carl Brutananadilewski.

[–] Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

HEY! WHATCHU DOIN IN MY POOL AGAIN, FRY MAN?

SVETLANA! BABY?

[–] Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 33 points 1 week ago (1 children)

How are these guys supposed to know that without approaching you?

[–] sic_semper_tyrannis@lemmy.today 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Good point. Maybe she's suggesting she looks fit and healthy while these people don't

[–] Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 20 points 1 week ago

That's exactly why I'm a drugs and junk food kind of guy. I just got sick of constantly getting flocked by horny women.

[–] BorgDrone@feddit.nl 32 points 1 week ago

The outdoorsy athletic healthy men are too busy exercising at the gym to hit on you.

[–] disregardable@lemmy.zip 30 points 1 week ago (1 children)

There are more of them that are single than healthy men. Finding your person takes time and effort, but it is worth it.

[–] GrayBackgroundMusic@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 week ago

It's a survivorship bias.

[–] calcopiritus@lemmy.world 28 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Have you tried approaching men instead? That way you choose who to approach.

[–] dbtng@moist.catsweat.com 22 points 1 week ago (1 children)

We want to ruin your life too.

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Drag them down to our level.

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[–] herculeskan@lemmy.zip 19 points 1 week ago

Cause healthy good man already had woman

[–] iamericandre@lemmy.world 19 points 1 week ago

Maybe try joining a running club or something more suited to what you’re looking for.

[–] MintyFresh@lemmy.world 19 points 1 week ago

Maybe you're putting out junk food vibes? Like you have an aura of dorito dust and Marlboro smoke?

[–] MummifiedClient5000@feddit.dk 13 points 1 week ago

I don't know. Are you a beer?

[–] Delphia@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago

In my experience most guys who work out, eat clean and get lots of exercise are super conscious of not being "That guy" at their gym, running spots or wherever they go to get their workout on. They also dont tend to have to do a lot of work to meet women outside of that environment. If a guy is handsome, employed and is generally polite and friendly available women will make the advance because as you have found, theres a lot of (even if they are very nice people) guys that well... arent.

[–] j4k3@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (19 children)

Submissive om is a dead theory. I do not seek out anyone unless there is some indication of interest. In a truly egalitarian world, you are invited to someone's home. You do not show up unannounced or unsolicited.

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[–] THE_GR8_MIKE@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago

Because that's the majority of us. Gotta do something fun when every day is a nightmare.

[–] Deestan@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago

Hang around healthy men more.

[–] LH0ezVT@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 week ago

Have you seen my cigs? I left them somewhere between the burger and the vodka bottle. And maybe you'll find my weed while you are looking? Oh, by the way, can I have your number?

[–] favoredponcho@lemmy.zip 9 points 1 week ago (9 children)

You should give drugs a try though. They’re pretty great.

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[–] roofuskit@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Join a group that gets together to share your interests.

[–] zuckey78@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 week ago

Community, solidarity, and connection. Find a meetup. Find your people, then you’ll find your people.

[–] BreadOven@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Where's OP in the comments?

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[–] arin@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

What's worse is that some of them aren't even single. Go do the approaching yourself

No that's too hard

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