Tomorrow there's a public holiday in Germany so naturally I went public drinking with friends.

It started raining so we moved into a McDonald's, and one thing I noticed was that there wasn't a single fat person inside, even though we've spent like an hour there. Sure I saw some obese people, but not a single fat one.

Which made me think about some cultural differences that might explain why the experiences of TRPers and the theories of TRP sound so weird to me.

  • less obese people and less muscular people

To me as an outsider it looks like in the US a lot of people are either super fat or super fit. As if it's much more polarized and as if there's a higher threshold to be considered attractive.

Here most young people are just normal weight. Like I said even in a McDonald's I didn't see a single fat person. People rarely spent a lot of time in the gym, but many do take their bike to university or work, or go jogging regularly.

Is the 80/20 'rule' simply much more pronounced in the US where most people are obese and a few are buff, compared to somewhere where most people are at an okay weight and there's little variance?

  • less focus on wealth

I rarely ever hear anyone here complain about gold diggers, but it seems to be common in the US, but in the US you can easily get bankrupted by anything.

Here health care and education are basically free and people don't have to worry about ending up homeless all that much.

I think that's one of the reasons why it's more acceptable to have a normal income here.

  • public drinking / getting beer in McDonald's

I'm not sure if it's only illegal in a few states, but from what I've heard the US is strict about public drinking, being drunk in public and underage drinking.

Here you can buy beer at 16 and can drink it wherever you want. Even McDonald's sells beer and even some universities have beer dispensers.

No one cares if you are drunk and there's always a lot of young people drinking some beers in a public park or next to a river. A lot of people also smoke weed in public and no one cares. Sometimes I walked by cops with a lit joint in one hand and beer in the other.

To me it looks like in the US you always have to pay for overpriced drinks in loud clubs, and you've got to be 21+ to drink. That cuts you off of the most fun drinking years from 16-21 where you don't even get a hangover.

If you clicked on the images above you can probably imagine how much nicer this atmosphere is to meet new people.

  • drinking age

Everyone is awkward and shy when they start out in the dating scene, but if you have to wait until you are 21 to buy drinks you are missing out on the crucial teenage years.

Here 16 year olds can drink liquid courage which makes it much more easier to get the balls to approach someone. Two shy teenagers that are in love with each other can get drunk together to confess their feelings, which they probably would be afraid of doing sober.

  • puritanism

My girlfriend recently told me about a bad Reddit experience she has had. She was commenting that she lost her virginity at 14, drunk. People commented that she got raped and how horrible it is, so she complained to me what the fuck is up with the Americans on Reddit, as nothing in her comment hinted at rape or her feeling bad about it. She wanted him, and when she was drunk she got the courage to flirt with him and then they dated for a few years.

It seems like the concept of teenage love is frowned upon in the US, as if people are supposed to develop sexual and romantic feelings at 18 or 21.

While it's normal here that teens experiment around once they enter puberty. In fact you are encouraged by your peers and parents to do it.

Here the average age for the first kiss is 12, but in the US it's 15. Average of first relationship is 14, but in the US it's 17. At age 16 half the people had their first sexual experience, but in the US that's at 19. It's like teens in the US are three years late with anything.

  • cooties

This is actually the same point as the last one, but I thought it needed a new headline.

In media from the US there's this concept of cooties:

The metaphysical manifestation of the fear of social backlash resulting from association with the opposite sex during childhood.

In short, the other sex has them, you can get them, and you do not want them.

I think this ties in with teenage love being frowned upon in the US. Both seem to come from the idea that you shouldn't interact with the opposite sex until you are an adult.

Here it's much more normal for kids of different genders to be friends and for teens to have mixed groups of friends, which in my opinion probably makes dating much easier for everyone.

  • Summary

All in all I think that the drinking culture, acceptance of teenage love, lack of puritanism, mixed group of friends from childhood and less focus on physical looks (as most people are okay looking) make dating here easier, as people have more experience with the opposite sex and have less shame about anything sexual in general (due to less puritanism and more alcohol).