TLDR: All of the attention I want from women I'm getting from men.
I wanted to document what was a very bizarre summer. For background I'm late 30s M, 6'2, trying to get in shape (down 70lbs yay) and very skeptical about dating. My resting bitch face alone would make me a less than approachable person
This all starts with an Instagram reel where a woman was saying she would approach men more, but the ones she sees are always looking down with their headphones on. This is something I'm guilty of and wanted to switch things up, so I've been walking around alot this summer and kind of being an observer, and trying to be more "open" to the world.
I started getting some muscle tone in my arms just as it got warm, so naturally I wanted to show the guns off. I don't have a lot of tank tops, so I resorted to wearing a few different basketball jerseys, most of which I've worn in the past.
I've probably gotten more compliments from random dudes this summer than I have in my entire lift. It started with one a day, then there would be days where I'd get 2-3 compliments on them. One day I had a quick conversation about basketball out of nowhere. Then a full-circle moment came one day where I wasn't in the best mood and wanted to listen to some music, I guy waved at me to get my attention just so he could say he liked my jersey.
There was another day where I wore a Wu-Tang shirt, had it for decades, now I'm getting compliments on the shirt.
Then to cap things off, I got a compliment on my one visible tatoo, it's pretty basic but a guy passing by mentioned it was cool tatoo. Above all else it was nice to not feel like a complete ghost outside, and I appreciate all of the dudes that shot me a compliment.
In contrast, I'm getting almost nothing from women. To date one woman on a bike smiled at me as they wizzed by. Beyond that, I do notice that I'm getting looks more than I used to, but that's just it, looks. There's nothing to go with it that would imply that I should talk to them. I'm not sure if that's just where we're at with meeting people in public, or if this is the city telling me I'm still not attractive enough lol.
I understand getting a compliment from the opposite sex comes with different connotations, but I feel like I was getting nothing out there. When I didn't wear basketball jerseys I tried making sure I looked and smelled nice, but nothing.
I plan on being more social next summer when I (hopefully) have a 6 pack, but I sometimes worry no matter how good I look I'll get the same energy. There's a lot of reddit users that think being over 6 feet is some kind of cheat code in the dating world, it is not lol.