I'm a 23-year-old female college student whose life consists of going to class and going to the gym. I got hurt in my last relationship, so I've been staying away from dating for a while. I notice guys checking me out, but I'm afraid I come off as unapproachable.
I've noticed this fine guy at the gym. I can tell he's interested, but he hasn't approached me. We make a lot of eye contact while we work out, and some days he'll walk by my treadmill and awkwardly smile, but we've talked only once. Is he shy? Should I try to talk to him again? How can I come off as more approachable? I'm finding myself obsessing over him, but the more I do, the more pathetic I feel.
Pathetic Shy Girl With A Crush
We'll get to your issues in a moment, PSGWAC, but first ...
Don't you hate it when you have a horrible headache and you grab the bottle of pills from your suitcase -- a travel selection of Excedrins, Advils and 222s -- and you pick out a couple of 222s (they're the ones that don't have an "E" on them and aren't green) and you toss the 222s in your mouth and then nearly choke to death?
Don't you hate that?
And don't you hate it even more when you're wondering how you nearly choked to death on a couple of 222s -- they're skinny! You conquered that gag reflex in middle school! -- and then you remember that your boyfriend put four of his massive, easy-to-choke-on Vicodins in with your pills the last time he came along on a trip?
Don't you hate that?
OK, I had better get to it, huh? Soon I won't be fit to operate the remote for the TV, much less dole out sex advice. But my apologies to anyone unlucky enough to find their letter in this week's column.
PSGWAC, a lot of guys have been led to believe that hitting on girls who aren't in bars or on personals websites is tantamount to sexual harassment. They've been told that it's not nice to hit on girls at work, on the bus, at the gym or in class. Girls are still getting hit on at work, on the bus, at the gym and in class, of course -- just not by nice guys. The guys who approach girls at work, on the bus, etc., are, for the most part, assholes.
So I'm thinking Fine Boy is either a polite, clueless straight dude who doesn't want to make you feel uncomfortable, or he's a fag who is curious about what product you use in your hair.
Here's how you find out whether Fine Boy is straight and polite or gay and product-curious: Approach Fine Boy -- nothing makes you seem more approachable than approaching someone -- and tell him you'd love to hang out sometime outside the gym, outside your clothes, etc., and see what he says.
I'm gay but I'm just a normal guy. The most stereotypical gay thing about me is that I'm a musical-theater major. But I can fix a car, I hate the bar scene, and I never use the word "fabulous." I'm not attracted to faggy men. Can you assure me that there are nonfaggy gay men out there?
Straight Actor
There are no nonfaggy gay men out there.
Or there are no other nonfaggy gay men out there, I should say, because you're nonfaggy ... and there you are, all nonfaggy and majoring in musical theater! But you're the only fabulously masculine gay man in America! You're like Will Smith in I Am Legend, only you have to sing and dance and blow loads on guys instead of running and screaming and blowing away loads of zombies.
But there may be a few homos masculine enough to meet with your approval. Look around the tech department of your theater program, and if you see someone in paint-spattered jeans, carrying a power tool, with a pack of smokes tucked in a back pocket, ask that butch dyke out. She's your only hope.
I'm the type of guy who always has a lot to drink because I need to have the courage to hit on girls. However, when I end up with a girl in my bed, I can't get it up. Saying, "Let's wait till the morning" is not much fun.
It Does Work, I Swear
Advice Seeker: "Dan, Dan! My dick doesn't work when I go like this."
Advice Columnist: "Don't go like that."
I've been with my husband for nearly eight years. When we met, he weighed about 140 pounds. Since then, he's ballooned to 230 pounds! I know I should just tell him that it would improve our sex life if he lost the weight. The problem is I am a recovering anorexic. My husband knows and has been wonderful, understanding and caring about it. He would never make a disparaging comment about my weight -- so how can I make one about his? But his weight is killing my desire for him! I'm about to take up an invitation from an ex just so I can have sex with someone who doesn't have a belly.
Is it wrong for me to ask my husband to lose the weight?
Former Annie-Rexic
Presumably, your husband wouldn't hesitate to speak up if you began starving yourself to death again, so I don't -- in my condition -- see why you shouldn't hesitate to speak up now that he's eating himself to death. Unless, of course, that would tear open your food-related wounds.
So speak up. Thank him for the way he's supported your efforts to keep the weight on, and explain how you're going to support his efforts to take the weight off.
I have been in a happy hetero relationship for several years. My boyfriend has a foot fetish, and I have no problem doing what satisfies him. The problem is that the same is not true for him. He doesn't like sex at all, and he's barely even tried to go down on me. He has never come during intercourse. It's as if he is repulsed by my vagina. Is there anything I can do to make sex more enticing and enjoyable?
Starting To Get Fed Up
Have it with someone else.
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