Statistically single

To the 52 percent of the campus who are females, I have a question: Why am I still single? (And don't answer this question based on my terrible picture in this column!)\nNow I am sure that the majority of you could think of several valid reasons, but statistically, it just shouldn't be.\nWhile there are pretty even numbers of men and women on this campus as a whole, the ratio is off where I spend my time. I'm a journalism education major. That means most of my classes are taken by journalism or education students, many of whom are female.\nIn fact, during the few minutes I wait in the hall before one of my journalism classes every Monday and Wednesday, I have noticed another class that is letting out must have all women. During the exodus from this large class, I can't help but sit in the second floor hallway of Ernie Pyle Hall watching in awe.\nWomen make up almost 75 percent of students in the School of Journalism and nearly 77 percent in the School of Education. By those numbers, I should have four girlfriends. But I'm not greedy. I just want one.\nThe thing is it's not about the stats. If it was because of the numbers, then statistically, there would be quite a few playas out there. I am single, in part, because I am a wimp. At least I am a wimp around women. Despite the fact that I am a 21-year-old man, I still sometimes feel like a timid teenager wondering if someone else "likes" me. \nThe problem is not only with me, though. A lot of my friends have the same issue. They don't know when or how to approach a woman. This led me to wonder about the reasons why this is the case (beyond the fact that we are all wimps).\nMuch of the problem is culturally based in relation to gender roles. Simply put, no one knows who is supposed to ask the other out. Traditionally, the men did the "hunting." We were the ones who initiated conversations. Today, women are playing more archetypally-held male roles in society (which is positive). However, it leaves us somewhat confused in the dating and relationship field.\nThis isn't just a problem for my male friends, either. Quite a few of my female friends have asked me if I think it appears too strong for a woman to ask out a man. At the same time one of these women ponders this, the man who she wants to ask out ponders something similar.\nThough the blurred gender roles that many of us play do still contribute to the problem, I will admit my situation probably goes back to the fact that I am a wimp.\nAnd I know that I am a wimp because as I am writing this column in the waiting room of an auto dealer's service department waiting for my crappy car to get fixed, there is an 80-year-old man asking a woman if she is from another planet because he thinks she is "out of this world." If he can spit the game, surely I can too. I need to overcome my wimpiness in my senior year at IU, not in my senior years of life.\nSo I am making an oath to all of you faithful Indiana Daily Student readers and particularly those female majorities mentioned earlier: I will be taking care of my wimpiness and asking some of you out. \nAnd by the way, I don't think it is inappropriate for a woman to ask out a man. So to that large group leaving the School of Journalism when I am sitting in the hallway, I am still statistically single.