While relatively new to TRP, I'm drawn to the ideas here because they ring true. I guess I've suspected a lot of RP for some time but wrote it off as being just how I dealt with this or that "crazy" woman but the reinforcement here is making me realise, no, AWALT.

I wanted to share something that happened a month or so ago when I was out with a gay buddy of mine. I was lucky to study in a really liberated town and have always had non-camp gay friends, who incidentally make excellent wingmen, so after drinks I was happy enough to tag along for dinner with a gang of his mates before heading out to a club with other people. The group was pretty standard 20 to 40 year-old crowd of friends and while some of them were educated professional people there were some younger dipshits being slightly annoying and seeking attention by camping it up and making noise instead of contributing. One kid in particular, an airline steward no less, was being a real prick but nobody wanted to say anything because his 38 year-old boyfriend was sat right next to him, incidentally making no effort to control the kid but just looking more and more mortified. It was really fucking awkward, every time the boyfriend tried to calm him down the steward was calling him out, whinging, stepping way out of line..

..and suddenly it hit me that he was behaving like a hot 20 year-old girl with a pussy pass. I'd been blinded to it by the fact that he was a dude. I generally take men far more seriously than women (particularly young women) and his behaviour was utterly perplexing in that context. As soon as it clicked that he was shit-testing like a girl, I waded in, shut him down with a few sarcastic put-downs and, like fucking magic he calmed down, shut up and just clung onto his boyfriend until he had something of value to contribute (i.e. never).

(Aside: I'm guessing it didn't hurt that he knew I was straight which is about as pure a case of outcome independence as you can get.)

Ironically, this realisation made me realise the seemingly sexist nature of my attitude towards young women is actually a pragmatic reaction to the reality of how they behave and isn't just some kind of misogynistic excuse for acting like a domineering prick. Men do this crap too, and the same strategies work just fine.