How to date without getting sued

For the young heterosexual Spectator male, the dating world is beset with perplexities. It was all so different in his father’s era, when making a pass was not seen by women as harassment or assault but as par for the course on the romance-seeking circuit.

Lunging for kisses without invitation and even pressing girls against a wall were the normal codes of conduct until 2000. The perma-passion of the dance floor, where women and men moved in rhythm, held in each other’s arms, allowed for swifter interpretations and conclusions than any other flirting method. Indeed, some men were even taught by their mothers that it was ‘rude not to have an erection’ when dancing a slow waltz with a woman.

In olden days, these evidences of lust were not perceived as problematic, and women were not offended or traumatised by the overtures. We may have shuddered as we pushed the unfanciable lungers gently away; we may even have been stern with the ones we actually fancied, if we thought they were coming on too strongly or too suddenly.