Splitting the Check

This Maureen Dowd article appeared in the New York Times in late 2005. In it, Dowd gave her account of what "modern girls" do in dating. I found the following passage to be quite disturbing:

"After Googling and Bikramming to get ready for a first dinner date, a modern girl will end the evening with the Offering, an insincere bid to help pay the check. 'They make like they are heading into their bag after a meal, but it is a dodge,' Marc Santora, a 30-year-old Metro reporter for The Times, says. 'They know you will stop them before a credit card can be drawn. If you don't, they hold it against you.'

One of my girlfriends, a TV producer in New York, told me much the same thing: 'If you offer, and they accept, then it's over.'"

This state of affairs seems to be the worst of both worlds. Not only is does it revert to a prefeminist notion of gender roles, it smacks of dishonesty to me.

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