Last week I wrote an article entitled ‘Where are all the Male Dating Bloggers?’ One wit mailed me stating simply, “On the internet you div.”
Notwithstanding that I haven’t heard the word ‘div’ used since I was seven my response would have to be, well obviously, but where?
To clarify, my previous article wasn't a statement that there were no men based in London blogging about dating. Just that there were very few. Moreover, most male dating bloggers put themselves forward as ‘experts’ in the form of Pick-Up Artists (PUA’s) and derive the majority of their content from a brief reading of ‘The Game’ – Two things regular readers know I hold in great disdain.
However, the legitimate bloggers that are out there are really good. I mean, really good.
At the risk of sounding like a snob, the problem with blogging, any blogging, is that anyone can do it. While this may seem to be a progressive and democratic exercise in internet freedom, what invariably happens is that anyone does do it. Rather than a growing force for informed debate, revealing reportage and increasing democratisation of the media, what results is a cacophony of badly argued, terribly spelt and grammatically grotesque rubbish.
The bloggers 'I' have uncovered (thank you Charly Lester of 30datesblog.com fame) suffer no such lack of awareness or ability.
So allow me to introduce you a selection of London’s male dating bloggers of prominence.
Chris Rooney, Jordi Sinclair and Charles Rare.
What they lack in number they more than make up for in um… being male. And quality of writing. But being male was the first bit I thought of.
Chris Rooney’s Huffington Post by-line describes him as a “London born writer and small cog in a large corporate machine.” His posts discuss dating, relationships, a bit of philosophy, a bit more dating, a mix of all of the above and the occasional haircut.
The posts are satisfyingly lengthy and meatily verbose in a tuna steak rather than huge roast beef joint kind of way. You know you’re getting full and probably eating too much but it feels good for you. And he’s got a way of structuring argument that is sorely missing in the modern media.
Obviously this doesn’t tell you much about whether or not you’d like it. So I suggest you go and have a read you lazy buggers. You can find him here.
Next up we have Jordi Sinclair. I’m not sure if we can, strictly speaking, still call Jordi’s thirtysomethinglondon.com site a blog. It’s grown. A lot.
The focus tends to be more on events and venues for dates rather than analysing dating and relationships themselves but this is no bad thing. And as the site has grown he’s taken on some cracking contributors.
Regular updates and top 5 type lists make the site really accessible but it’s the laconic phrasing that works best for me. Relax and allow yourself be guided through such offerings as “The ‘Nerd Alert’ Date”, “The ‘We’re So In Love’ Date”, “The ‘I’m an Adventurous Foodie’ Date”… you get the picture.
You won’t be coming here for advice on your love life but you will be coming here to find out where to go to get it started.
And finally we have Charles Rare. Charles is indeed rare in that not only is he a guy in London blogging about relationships, he does so rather poetically.
Charles’ blog, Rare-Thoughts, is less concerned with documenting the dating process or finding great places to go and more, as he states, “…on relationships, love and the tools needed to understand and build something long lasting.”
It’s insightful to say the least and in many ways works as much as a self-help guide (the first time I’ve used that phrase in a positive way) as it does on ways in which we can find and establish strong relationships.
It’s very self-affirming and if you’re one for short, sharp pick-me-ups in the form of quotes there’s plenty to find here.
So there are indeed guys in London blogging about dating and relationships. Not many, granted, but from this small sample the quality is good, the breadth of topics sufficiently wide to cover most aspects of our desire for coupling and, perhaps most importantly, none of them describe themselves as Pick Up Artists or allude to ‘The Game’.
Thank blog for that.
If you think you have a blog worth mentioning – bearing in mind my pet hates – drop me a line and let’s see if we can’t get a few more of you out there.
In the meantime, fancy using some of the advice you’ve picked up in real life meetings? Come along to one of our events.
WORDS BY JOHN DAVIS