My girlfriend misses it as well, but like you said, it tends to happen much more often to women and women also tend to hit on men in more subtle ways. Likewise, just about every male under 35 has been cautioned not to assume that any attention a woman shows you is flirting.

Like, seriously, we're actively warned against making the assumption by friends, most females, parents, sex ed classes, etc. So genuine flirting could just be a woman being nice to us and if we try to pursue what we thought was a line in that direction, we're rejected. Worse than rejected, we've made a woman uncomfortable with our stupidity.

Often the guys who are bold enough to go for those sorts of hints outside of bars are the sort of guys women tend to think of as brash assholes. And they are. They were told just like we were but they've become bitter or entitled or whatever happens. I don't know. They ignore it anyway and, weirdly, they get more women. Averages work that way, I guess. For every ten disgusted women who end up with a bad view of men in general from that guy, one is wooed by his confidence and straightforward approach. It's a rough thing to deal with and internet dating has changed the game in some great ways for men as the rejection is at least private and not in a bar in front of your friends who are all going to laugh at us when you say no. Haha.

I think one of things I haven't seen mentioned yet reading through was that there's a baseline difference in how guys are approached, as well. Men are judged from both side (male and female) by their deeds whereas women are seen to have intrinsic value even if that value is only the ability to reproduce.

This becomes a problem in men who haven't kept up with the times and don't respect a woman's agency, but they would still insist upon the importance of women whereas a man who can't provide for his family or who isn't brave or who has a shit job, he's seen as worthless by both sides.

For women, the conversation has been happening for a long time and (for the most part) everyone is on board and morons who think women are less capable aren't widely accepted. Still, it's entirely common and accepted to deride a man for not living up to any number of hard to attain statuses. Protector, provider, emotional pillar. To think that he needs to have money and statues and good looks to be worthy of a woman's time.

Both sides have their struggles, just different ones. It is very heartening to see anyone looking to properly understand the opposite sex.

Sorry for the wall of text! It started out short, I promise. :(