Tell me, is there a book somewhere that tells me exactly what I need to be picked up for a date? Something that makes it easier for me to make myself more appealing to the male or female audience.

  It dawned on me in the middle of my Family Psychology class, that students, at the highschool level, have some sort of preconceived idea of what they want when looking for someone to date. We had just completed an assignment where the entire class got to write a list of things of what they would look for in a guy or a girl. In my eyes it was all too offensive for the female side, listing things such as; being pretty, having a “nice booty”, cute face, and a kind heart. While for the guys, things included more toned down items such as; nice hair, athletic, and funny.

  In my short existence, I have encountered this problem, “how do I know when this is a good match for me?” Well for starters, how about compatability? Let me not be the only one who wrote that down or thought about it. Why are looks so important? It begged the question, “would I rather date someone who looks good but is abusive or date someone who is kindhearted but average looking?”

  When something is put in context to that extreme, many of you may just re-think what you wrote on that poster. But say the question was tweaked a little bit, “would you rather date an average looking guy with a kind heart or an athletic ‘sexy’ guy who treats you like a princess but has possible anger issues?” Does your answer change? Of course this goes for both girls, guys, and whatever your sexual preference is.

All of this leading back to the checklist… why has our teen years made us believe in this concept of having a “checklist” when finding a date? Isn’t having someone who treats you right enough? It seems to go deeper, where the stereotypical guy wants the girl who has the “nice rack, pretty eyes, cute face, slim waist, and laughs at the cheesy jokes.” In some cases it may go even deeper for example, those eyes need to be blue and the hair must be blonde.

  I’m wondering where this idea of having a checklist stemmed from, I’m assuming it came from early childhood when we still had chore charts and to-do lists to help us get the gold star. In this case, the “gold star” would be our potential date and our “chores” or “things to do” would be the list in which we use to find our date.

  Dating already seems much like a game,  why add another factor like a check list? Tune in next time to Untold Injustices.