potentially illuminating passages.are undermined by the fact that Roberson does not have much sustained experience with men and seems to be getting her information from a combination of romantic comedies, friends’ anecdotes, and ambient women’s-magazine wisdom. The product of an online culture that prizes saying anything over having something to say, Roberson’s bland mix of bratty overconfidence, insincere misandry, and not quite believable self-deprecation would be at home on the kind of women’s website that is run by a man recently made hip to the click-ability of feminist catchphrasing. The humor here mainly consists of overusing 'like,' offering am-I-right-ladies style laments about modern men, recycling Twitter jokes about the author’s love of music made for teenagers (she is twenty-seven), and expressing disdain for great works of literature by men that she hasn’t read. In the end, Roberson’s insistence on feeling her pain and keeping it makes How to Date Men When You Hate Men a more radical text than it claims to be. Roberson’s achievement in remaining funny while excavating her pain is just straightforwardly heroic. it’s akin to watching a young woman coming to political consciousness in her personal relationships. How to Date Men When You Hate Men is extremely funny but also a document of timeless agony. The book proposes to advise a young reader how to navigate the political and practical problems of female heterosexuality, but ends up eviscerating Roberson’s own difficult romantic experiences and celebrating the sense of self she has won while on that journey. Roberson writes with scathing self-deprecation and ambitious analytical flair. In that sense it’s a contribution to the genre of satirical feminist prose. With sections like Real Interviews With Men About Whether Or Not It Was A Date Good Flirts That Work Bad Flirts That Do Not Work and Definitive Proof That Tom Hanks Is The Villain Of You’ve Got Mail, How to Date Men When You Hate Men is a one stop shop for dating advice when you love men but don't like them.It’s written in a slightly hyperventilating style, full of all-caps emphasis and exclamation marks. And really, was that date even a date in the first place? She collects her crushes like ill cared-for pets, skewers her own suspect decisions, and assures readers that any date you can mess up, she can top tenfold.

From New Yorker and Onion writer and comedian Blythe Roberson, How to Date Men When You Hate Men is a comedy philosophy book aimed at interrogating what it means to date men within the trappings of modern society.īlythe Roberson’s sharp observational humor is met by her open-hearted willingness to revel in the ugliest warts and shimmering highs of choosing to live our lives amongst other humans.

How to date men when you hate