This “100% genius” hack will get 50/50 cheapos in check.
Splitting the bill on a first date has become a topic of contention amongst singletons online with dissenting views on whether a guy should be solely responsible for picking up the tab during the inaugural outing.
But one shady dater has devised a deliciously devious trick that’s sure to leave tightfisted fellas with egg on their faces.
“When a man wants to go 50/50 with you on a date, do this,” began going-out guru Pearl Botts, an aspiring singer from Los Angeles, in a trending TikTok how-to, advising all the singles ladies on best practices for politely jabbing a prospective partner who expects them to pay.
“Oh my god, I’m so embarrassed right now,” said the millennial, feigning shock as if she’d just been asked to go Dutch treat in the clip, which has stockpiled over 7.1 million views.
“Wait, you wanted to just be friends?” she asked condescendingly. “I’m so confused. This entire time I thought this was a date. I’m so sorry, here’s my card.”
The brunette’s buzzy comeback — meant to neatly place penny-pinching lover boys in the friend zone — rendered rave reviews from women who’ve awkwardly found themselves on the receiving end of the first date foul play.
“Wait 10000% yes. This is perfect. I’m also using the ‘My bad bro’ instead of sorry,” whooped an inspired sweetie.
“Please people, do this. Genius. No more scrubs,” cheered another impressed fan, referring to R&B group TLC’s 2000s classic “No Scrubs” as a call to action against deadbeats and cheapskates.
“You can’t pay for the first date? Yeah we’re friends,” added an equally perturbed belle. “Nothing to do with money, it’s about the effort and the investment in me.”
But unbending men sorely disagreed.
“[This is] Manipulation and gaslighting 101,” wrote a finger-wagging guy.
“I presume you are putting out after,” said another, suggesting that the only way he’d cover the full cost of dinner and drinks is with the promise of guaranteed sex.
Women in favor of footing first date funds, too, insisted that dudes shouldn’t be on the hook for the whole bill, with some saying: “I work … I can pay my dinner … especially on a first date when you don’t know the other person … I work I can pay my dinner.”
Botts, however, argued that allowing men to cough up the cash for a night on the town is an “honor” and “gift” that women shouldn’t withhold.
“It is disrespectful and emasculating to the man to pay for yourself on a date,” she asserted in a subsequent TikTok share.
“When you let a man have the great honor of taking care of you, you’re making space and giving room for him to step into his divine masculinity,” Botts continued. “It has nothing to do with my own capability to provide and protect for myself.”
“It is a gift to a man to allow him to take care of you.”
And Botts isn’t in a courting class by herself.
Self-crowned “gold digger” Ella Freimann, 24, from New York, previously went viral for refusing to crack open her wallet while out with a wannabe boyfriend.
“By splitting the bill, I’m agreeing to form a connection with a man who doesn’t know his role in a relationship and expects me to be 50% of the man he’s not,” said the gutsy Gen Z. “I’ve learned that men who split the bill don’t value the time and effort a woman puts into herself to look her best for that man.”
And on Valentine’s Day 2023, a social media-famous couple came clean about how their first date bill-splitting fiasco set the tone of their relationship.
“On our first date I asked her to split the check,” penned an influencer known as @TheSephew, in the closed captions of a popular video post. “She agreed, but then after we paid she took my phone when I was in the restroom and Venmo’d her half of the bill back to herself.”
“She wrote, ‘Real girls don’t split the bill,’ he added. “We’ve been together ever since.”