It’s no surprise that “A Bud for the Ladies” is one of the most emailed articles of the day on the Post’s website. Younger readers in particular must be sending it to each other asking why, if wingmen have been around so long, its worthy of such a lengthy feature today.
Maybe it’s simply to point out that once this year’s college graduates start work and join the real world, “They may actually have to ask women out on dates, take them to dinner. Wingman skills will still be needed, but not as often. Bummer.” Yet go into any bar whose clientele is over 22 and you’d see that plenty of wingmen are still working overtime, years after graduation.
Why doesn’t the Style section train its eye to focus on newer trends as opposed to chestnuts of the pick-up scene? Writer Laura Sessions Stepp mentions one in her piece: “Exams are over, graduation is approaching and each of them has several young women on his year end wish-list. (Some senior women, by the way, keep similar lists).” What about exploring whether Wing Women have migrated south? Or whether some men memorize Neil Strauss’ more elaborate pickup schemes from 2005’s The Game or have moved on to try out the next big thing?
“A Bud for the Ladies” is a lob at hipness that may make some readers wince the same way Nationals fans did when they were swept by the Mets in their home opener series. And, frankly, it reinforces the stereotype that D.C. is the town for geeks. No wonder that Rebecca Dane wrote such a withering commentary on our city in “D.C. Hotter Than Brooklyn: What’s In? Plame, Foosball, Bistrot Du Coin, Celibacy!” in the New York Observer last week. Read one article after the other and it may appear that D.C. is a town for tone deaf, socially awkward, fashion challenged wonks. Luckily, this isn’t the case.
Why did editors at the Post dress something old as something new? Perhaps for the same reasons the Post is phasing out its Food, Health and Home sections in favor of more emphasis on spirituality and parenting. Because the powers-that-be are repackaging it for more socially conservative, practical, older readers, while the Express evolves into its replacement for hipper, younger ones. We knew all along that the Express isn’t just about speed and convenience. “A Bud for the Ladies” reinforces it.
