Have you ever dated anyone you consider far outside the social norms around which you were reared?

Dated a human once. Did not work out.
Had to flush him out the airlock after he objected to me cooking his 10 year old son for a feast.
All the other attendants said he tasted delicious!

Nope, lusted over a few though.

Yes, twice.

The first time didn’t work out because we were teenagers and had no clue how to get beyond some of the complications that come with any relationship, let alone one with cultural differences.

The second time didn’t work out because I had no idea the depth of the differences between our worlds. Once I figured that out, and realized that neither of us was likely to change enough to make it work, the relationship fizzled out on its own.

Sure, and lots of them. I grew up in a very white, very Christian, and fairly racist family. Fortunately for me, I also grew up in a very diverse area (family was from Missouri, but moved to a Washington, DC suburb before I was born), which counteracted a lot of that family influence.

About the only kind of person outside my social norm that I didn’t date was another girl, and probably only because I never thought of it, haha! I had (and have) no preference for any particular race, physical type, religious background, or age (as long as it’s a reasonable gap). My choices are driven by the person being a good human being, being interesting, and that magic ingredient: chemistry.

I dated guys of similar backgrounds to mine, and just about every other nationality, skin color, immigration status, religion and physical type, too, with great success and much enjoyment. The only negative things that happened were my mother trying to forbid me from dating my first black boyfriend (I won that battle, and she ended up loving him), and that same boyfriend getting beat up by a bunch of rednecks who saw us holding hands at the local fair (this was in the ‘80s). While the boyfriend wasn’t surprised, that beating was a huge eye-opener to me, but only made me stronger in my convictions.

Most of this was during my teenage years, so most of those relationships didn’t last…but never because of cultural issues. I ended up marrying a Jewish man, and we had very few problems with our differing traditions. If either of us were actively religious, it might have caused more problems, but we just celebrated the cultural traditions from both religions. We had three wonderful children and were together for 20 years before we divorced.

Bottom line, date whoever makes you happy. <3

Good to hear from you!

LOL. Lots of times. I’ve never really bothered much with social “norms”. Probably the most important thing that I learned in high school is that the herd is often wrong and tends to gravitate to the lowest common denominator. Because of this, they are inherently incompetent in most cases. And sometimes can become dangerous.

I’ve had girlfriends of all cultures, religions and colors, sometimes within cultures which didn’t respect them. I once married a Swede I was dating because her B2 visa ran out and I felt the government had no right to fuck with my personal life. My .personal affairs die a natural death, no outside force has the right to end them prematurely.

When it comes to my personal life, nobody but me has a say in it. This includes close friends, family and governments.

Nice to see you again, @augustlan. Did you bring your whip, baby? Or are we just having dinner tonight?

Yes. I grew up poor and married into a wealthy family.