Women Tell Lies Online, Too!

(NOTE: Jim's blog is now devoted to answering relationship questions submitted by readers. Please send any questions you may have to jim@attorneyatlove.com).

DEAR JIM: You made it sound like the only liars, losers, and scam artists in online dating are men [see previous Q&A dated January 4, 2011]. What about the women who post pictures showing all sorts of cleavage, and then act offended when you mention sex? Or the women who will order the most expensive things on the menu and have no intention of ever seeing you again? Or the women who spend hours putting down their ex, or talk only about themselves? I think you owe an apology to men. ("Disgusted")

DEAR DISGUSTED: The purpose of this column is to answer specific questions submitted by specific readers. The woman who wrote to me was asking about "red flags" that she might encounter in her online dealings with men, and I told her. If a man had asked me the same question, I would have given him a different answer (and then some woman would probably have complained that I was being too easy on men).

Yes, some women do mislead men, or take advantage of their generosity or gullibility, or are totally wrapped up in themselves or consumed with the need to get revenge on an ex. Women are definitely not perfect, but very few people active in online dating---male or female---are innocent when it comes to revealing the entire truth about themselves or their motivations.

Both men and women will lie in their profiles about their age or weight or education. Both men and women are often guilty of self-deception; they cling to an image of themselves that has no basis in reality. And, even if they do have a degree of self-awareness, both women and men are fearful that no one will write to them unless they present themselves in the best possible light, which can lead to all sorts of exaggerations and half-truths.

I've written before about how men need to be careful about over-committing emotionally to women they haven't even met in person, or over-spending on first dates, or reading too much into the fact that a woman's picture shows some cleavage. Men need to be both optimistic but realistic, and---just as women should---they need to pay attention to red flags.

On a first date, a man should never have to spend hours listening to a woman drone on about herself or her ex, because a first date shouldn't last for hours (unless both people are hitting it off tremendously). Nor should a man be fretting about the big bar or restaurant charges the woman is running up. A first date should be in a casual, inexpensive setting such as a coffee shop, where it won't be difficult for either person to cut the date short if things are clearly going badly. And a first date should carry no expectations whatsoever of sex happening that day---no matter how flirtatious the e-mails have been or how much skin the pictures showed.

I hope that you can put your negative experiences into perspective, and not lose hope of meeting the right woman. She's out there somewhere, but you'll never meet her if you view all women with mistrust.

Good luck!