Chapter 453, in which I am a hardass

OK, I normally don't do this, but this week, I had to be a hardass.

I'd been briefly emailing someone who'd caught my eye on Match. Yes, for better or worse, I'm poking around on there again, though it's discouraging and serves only to give me more reason to try to work something out with Melody. This woman listed herself as 43, never married, but there was something a little "off" about her pictures and writeup, something I couldn't quite place.

Anyway, the other day she sends me an email offering to meet, and includes an oh-by-the-way: "I'm actually going to turn 50 next week. I hope that's not a problem."

Well, this time, it was. I've had a peeve for a while about what appears to be a double standard on Match, wherein guys who stretch the facts of their profile even a little are made out to be duplicious sleazes, but women who do the same are "just embellishing things a little." I've always disliked that, and at the core of my dislike of it is the realization that no matter what you are, somebody out there wants it. Thus, there's no real need to knock 50 pounds off your weight, add five inches to your height, or diddle seven years off your age to "attract" someone. There's no need to do it, and it's obnoxious to do so, because you spoil the trust that people have to have in the system in order for the whole thing to work.

So, I basically sent her an email saying, yes, it's a pretty damn big problem. 44 can get away with saying "43," I told her, and maybe 45, but 50 cannot, and she's spoiling it for the other women on there. I told her it'd have been no problem with her BEING 50 if she'd just said so, but where some women list themselves as a younger age to catch the search engines, but admit in their profile writeup that they're actually older or younger, this woman made no such indication and left it for several rounds of email before she casually mentioned it.

I then blocked her from emailing or messaging me. I checked back later, and noticed that she had grudgingly adjusted her age up from 43 to 48... still lying, but at least closer to being in the ballpark.

I don't really give a shit what anyone does. I do give a shit if they lie to me about it.

And yet when I call them on it, suddenly I'm being the hardass.

Tough shit.

My hearing is slowly coming back. Melody has a friend visiting from far away, and either she's too busy to email me, or she's deliberately ignoring me. I'm not going to worry about it for a while.