The Politics Of Bill Splitting On A Date

Apparently "You asked, you pay" is a thing.
When you reach for your wallet as if you actually have any intention to pay. 😏
When you reach for your wallet as if you actually have any intention to pay. 😏
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This week the question of who should pay on a first date came up in the office. For starters, I couldn't believe we're still having this conversation in 2017.

Personally, my policy has always been to split the bill. After all, what sort of precedent does it set if you let someone start paying for the pleasure of your company from the get-go? With more women becoming employed and staking their claim as equal partners in relationships, clearly we should be splitting the bill. But I was also clearly outnumbered in our little office discussion. My colleague Lee-Anne was adamant: "He asked me out, he should pay."

There are other views on how this should play out. Some think the guy should at least offer to pay, or that the wealthier partner should pay, or that since men still earn more than women (even for doing the same job) they should foot the bill.

(One big no-no, everyone agrees, is to dash to the bathroom after the plates have been cleared. "This gives the impression that you're automatically sticking your date with the bill in a not-so-subtle way," write's Vogue's Patricia Garcia.)

To settle the argument, we decided to open the question up to our readers. The results were decisive.

@HuffPostSA / Twitter

While a small number of people thought the girl should pay, and a fair proportion of people thought that either the guy should pay or the bill should be split, it turns out, most people agreed with Lee-Anne. Guess that's how we roll now. You asked, you pay.

And that's fair enough, but let's be honest here — how often does the girl ask for the date? Despite how far we've come in gender relations, more often than not, in heterosexual relationships it's the guy that asks for the date. Until we sort that out, I still think we should split the bill.

But if "you asked, you pay" is happening now, alright.

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