filed in Sex and Dating
What Makes For a Good Match?
Roger Ebert once said, “never marry someone who doesn’t love the movies you love. Sooner or later, that person will leave you.” How important is shared cultural taste as a barometer for compatibility? Photo by Lucy Laucht
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10 comments for “What Makes For a Good Match?”
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I’ve wondered about this. I’ve had many 1st dates with people that I didn’t think “matched” me in terms of movies, books, music, food, wine, whatever else people use to measure compatibility. So it never went anywhere. But on the other hand, both of my sisters are married to wonderful men who are very opposite of them in many things on the “compatibility barometer”…so I just don’t know. 🙂
Lola, if I may ask…did it not go anywhere because you weren’t interested?
Wendy – In general, I was just not interested. I didn’t make a decision based on different preferences in music, but it did overall color the experience.
Chemistry can sometimes take care of such things, but only to a point.
If don’t love the same movies, you’ll hopefully enjoy a great conversations about why each of you loves what you love. It might provide great insight into the other person.
But it might make for some long evenings of comprising on what to watch…
It could lead to a good conversation and then again…
I think it is extremely important. The reason is that in the end as we age the only things we will have left will be things to do together and great conversation. And then eventually just conversation. If we don’t have conversation what is the point of being together? Over the years of being in relationships and maturing I have realized how key this is. Interests don’t have to match up exactly but cultural tastes close as possible. I don’t believe in opposites staying together for the long haul.
That’s why I find Roger Ebert’s line about the movies so interesting. Eventually the divide in cultural taste will rip a couple apart.
It’s not been all that important to me that a person have the same cultural taste as me but that if they don’t, at least be open-minded to it or have an interest that they want to share with me. I tend to like indie and foreign movies and I read quite a bit however lately I seem to be meeting nerdy scientists that have no idea what’s going on in pop culture and haven’t been to the movies in ages. But they do have interests outside of science. I’m OK with exploring that a little more and don’t immediate write them off.
Love nerdy scientists!!