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The phrase “attract a mate” is used more for animals than people. When you use it to talk about yourself, it has a tone of referring to the person you’re lookin
by travisjungroth 9y ago
The phrase “attract a mate” is used more for animals than people. When you use it to talk about yourself, it has a tone of referring to the person you’re looking for like an animal. (Same for “breed” and “female”).
If you said “find a partner”, “find a match”, “attract a partner”, “get a boyfriend/girlfriend”, it wouldn’t have the same meaning and would be less off-putting.
- lurr 9y agoI don't think saying "find a mate" on hacker news is the problem. Why nitpick trivial things like this on someone you have never met?
- wand3r 9y agoNot op. I think they were attempting to help by socializing them to common parlance. Potentially because IRL they mentioned they dont have a sognificant other it could be because of things like this. Dont know, not op. Think it was meant to be helpful
- Will_Parker 9y agoI have had girlfriends and significant others. What I really wanted to find was a mate. I.e. a pair bond for life with whom I could be myself, and not a social actor.
- travisjungroth 9y agoOnly because he asked: > Seriously, what's wrong with that? Maybe he was being rhetorical, but I didn't read it that way.