Do you want to know why you don’t have to follow all of “the rules”? It’s not because they aren’t helpful. They are in place for a reason, or rather, for people who cannot think for themselves at times. But for the most part, everyone has heard so much about “the rules”—and everyone knows that everyone else has heard all about the rules—that, if your date appears to be “breaking” one, you know he isn’t some dumb*ss who never heard of the rule. Rather, he has made his own decision on how to deal with that situation. He has learned that things don’t always go catastrophically wrong if you break a rule. And if you’re breaking one of the rules yourself, most men are smart enough to know that doesn’t automatically mean things are going to play out exactly like GQ said they would when this “rule” was broken. You’ll see what I mean:
