Another from the great Evelyn Millis Duvall, this excerpt may help you sort out those funny feelings you get when looking at People magazine.
1967: The Date for You
It’s common knowledge that certain teen-age girls swoon over movie and TV stars. Through the years girls have formed strong emotional attachments to idols available only on TV and in their dreams. But few girls really expect to date such an idol. In fact, one of the functions of the celebrity is to serve as a focus for early infatuation without ever requiring the girl to do anything about it. It’s just as common for a fellow to daydream about a movie queen ~ and a good safe practice, because he will never be expected to court and win her.
Occasionally, however, a young person goes overboard in a crush on some unattainable person, so that he doesn’t make progress with those who are realistically available to him. It’s not just the movie or TV personality who’s unattainable. Many a young girl swoons over the football captain, the president of the senior class, or the most popular boy in the school, with whom she hasn’t the ghost of a chance. Indeed, she wouldn’t even know what to do on such a spectacular date if she had it. Similarily, an inexperienced boy will sometimes moon over a popular teacher, or the school queen ~ as unattainable for him as Miss Universe.
As long as these superromantic crushes prevail, the inexperienced boy or girl will probably make little progress in getting a date with anyone; for no real and available person can rival the “dream’s” charms and popularity.
Realistically, the beginning dater starts with someone who is not much more socially active that he is. The boy who has never dated courts rejection or failure by asking out the most popular girl in the class two years ahead of him. But he may make a good start with a friendly not-too-experienced girl a year or two younger than he is. A girl who wants to begin dating should look about for some pleasant, shy, interested fellow in her own grade (or a class or so beyond) rather than wistfully pine for an older, inaccessible man about town.
Source: Duvall, Evelyn Millis. The Art of Dating. New York: Association Press, 1967.
~ pp. 19-20 ~