she prefers pining after guys to asking them out.
ISTM that the whole model where we think of "asking a stranger out" as the way to start a romantic relationship (or not a literal stranger, perhaps, but an acquaintance at best) is part of the disease. It seems to be a US-centric phenomenon, and one that many relationship experts seem to object to. Many of these experts put forth a very different model, where your initial goal is not to ask a person out on a "date", but to make the best case for yourself as an intriguing and engaging person. If the other person is interested, you can think about setting up a follow-on meeting. And even then, you're not "dating", you're just hanging out, and may or may not be starting a romantic/sexual relationship. The words "date" and "dating" are superfluous: they do not carve this reality at its joints.
The words "date" and "dating" are superfluous: they do not carve this reality at its joints.
For the subset of the population that has no friendly acquaintances that they might be interested in and therefore goes and meets people of the opposite gender specifically for romantic/sexual purposes, with neither party having plausible deniability that this is what they are doing, I think those words do carve reality at its joints. I agree that belonging to said subset is not an optimal situation, but I don't think people necessarily enter ...
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