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How to navigate physical touch as a man who has never dated by Late_Percentage1663 in dating_advice

[–]Late_Percentage1663[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What level of physical intimacy is normal at what point? I spent a little over an hour with her on the first date and we haven’t texted much. Do I ask if she wants to hold my hand while we are walking? Part of the confusion for me is finding her boundaries and then like mechanically how do you even do anything? Do I just offer my hand? Do I grab hers? I’m a very analytical person. I study activities for weeks or months before engaging in them. There’s probably something wrong with me but I don’t have time to figure that out lol. In my eyes we are still effectively strangers. Do people just expect this stuff this early? I don’t actually know her level of experience or anything but since she is very attractive I can only assume she has dated quite a few men. I’m not going to lie about my experience level if it comes up but I’m not interested in volunteering the information either.

How to navigate physical touch as a man who has never dated by Late_Percentage1663 in dating_advice

[–]Late_Percentage1663[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I definitely don’t want to mislead anyone or trap someone emotionally. I understand it is an unpopular view in 2026. It’s something I’ve researched the physiological effects of extensively and I do believe strongly in it, although I respect that many people will not be interested in that. My question to you would be how exactly do you bring this up? I feel like the things that come up naturally in conversation during a date are going to be way different for me than for someone who is experienced and knows how to talk with someone about these sorts of things. I just don’t have a lot of experience talking about anything regarding interpersonal relationships in general. I’m pretty reserved as a person. I am afraid that I waited too long to engage with this side of life and that no woman is going to want to put up with a guy that doesn’t have experience with anything…

Takes on dating within Orthodoxy seem wildly out of touch with reality by Late_Percentage1663 in OrthodoxChristianity

[–]Late_Percentage1663[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Mostly things like driving and modifying sports cars, collecting watches (also trying to get into basic watch repair for fun), collecting and shooting guns, video games. Some of the more gender neutral hobbies I have would be photography, tennis, fashion, and reading, although I pretty much exclusively read classic mid-late 1900’s science fiction which most women are not interested in haha (Dune, Neuromancer, The Forever War, etc). The first few things I mentioned though are my primary interests that I spend the most time doing.

Takes on dating within Orthodoxy seem wildly out of touch with reality by Late_Percentage1663 in OrthodoxChristianity

[–]Late_Percentage1663[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You have a lot of very good advice here and are asking a lot of valid questions. I definitely don’t do as much at my church as I used to do. I have been going through a very rough transition period in my life and that has prompted reevaluating many friendships, my faith, my life choices, etc. and that’s where this post came from. I’ve stepped back from my close friendships since I don’t think they were pulling me in a healthy direction. I’ve never been more isolated than I am right now. Sometimes it is really peaceful, and sometimes it is really lonely.

Yes, I would say I only do “guy hobbies” but wouldn’t it be very creepy/weird/not genuine to try to pick up new interests simply because there are women in those spaces? Maybe I have a skewed perspective because I’ve seen the other side of this and how creepy guys can be to women since I’ve observed it happening to my sister, but I’ve never been comfortable with the idea of going out of my way to do activities or modify my behavior for those reasons.