Not one of us has gone unscathed from and by the custom of dating. It does not matter what culture, gender or age, dating has had an impact upon us in some form of other. We see examples of it on the television, read about it in magazines and learn about it the classroom, locker room and on the street. Sociologists study it as do psychologists, behaviorists, educators and biologists.

The subject is pervasive. Dating with all its foibles is regular fodder for movies and television series. Books extol the art of dating and/or finding your “soul mate”. The ideology of romantic love, “true love” and the “ideal mate” are expounded page after page or in scene after scene. According to this approach, the first date is the start of this journey. In many movies and pulp fiction, the first date is where the hero and heroine start-off on their journey into the ultimate adventure of eternal happiness.