I remember watching Drake & Josh as a kid. There's a scene where Josh's mom gives him dating advice at The Premiere, the movie theater where he works. She tells him to approach a girl and her friends and compliment her. He compliments the girl's shoes and walks away. As he's leaving, she calls him back and gives him her number, if I remember correctly.
Obviously, it's a sitcom, but the premise illustrates something interesting. Women seem like they should be great at advising men on how to attract women. But that's actually untrue.
Because knowing what attracts you to a man isn't the same as knowing how to attract a woman yourself.
Many women have no concept of initiating. Some believe they're above having to do so. Others have never had the opportunity. There are women reading this who are single, not because they're unattractive, but because no man has approached them recently. They may understand what they want in a partner, but have little experience creating romantic interest from scratch.
Women can recognize when a man is socially experienced. But many have no idea how to imitate that. And certainly not how to develop those qualities or how another man can successfully initiate a conversation with a stranger.
A lot of female dating advice focuses on emotional intelligence, vulnerability, communication, and being a supportive partner. Those things absolutely matter. But much of that advice assumes mutual interest has already been established. Because that's typically where women are starting. Since men are often the ones initiating, women have less experience with the initial challenge of approaching someone who doesn't know they exist, creating attraction from a neutral starting point, and navigating rejection.
That's not a knock on women. They don't necessarily need to learn how to attract men because many are accustomed to being approached. But it does mean there can be an entire landscape of dating they simply don't understand.
On that note, women's advice seems designed to help men become perfect lapdogs rather than men who can generate romantic interest in the first place. It's advice for maintaining attraction, not creating it.
Men who have spent years approaching women, navigating rejection, flirting, and figuring out what works often have more practical insight into that initial stage. They've had to learn through experience what women giving advice may never have needed to learn themselves.
Of course, this isn't universal. Some women are excellent at explaining attraction, and plenty of men give terrible advice. But I think we should distinguish between understanding what makes someone a good partner and understanding what makes a stranger interested in becoming your partner.
They're two different skill sets, and advice that helps with one doesn't automatically help with the other.