Rejecting the Mr Colins’ of the world
So funny story, one of my friends let me read her texts between her and a guy, because she was struggling with how to respond to his romantic advances. No joke, this guy was genuinely modern-day Mr Colins!
Just everything, oh my goodness, even down to the way he spoke, he genuinely used the term ‘courtship’, asked if he could have her permission to ask her fathers permission ask her out on a date (we’re in our late 20s, I feel we’re past needing parental permission for dating), implied he was asking her out because he had been advised by someone he respected that he should find himself a wife, and when he finally did ask her out on a date genuinely gave her an agenda of discussion items.
Anyway, she had tried rejecting him politely several times and it had gone completely over his head. He was just so much Mr. Colin’s, down to the kind of phrasing and language he was using that I suggested we slightly edit Elizabeth Bennet’s refusal of Mr. Colins and send it to him.
So we did. He got the message. It was a girl bonding experience. It was marvellous.
