Should women court men

Answer 1

They do, all the time, and very successfully. An old convention, going back to Shakespeare's time, suggested that the proper way to conduct a wooing was for the man to beg, plead, cajole, pretend to be sick and on the point of dying and for the woman to be cold and uncaring and only to give in under the most extreme pressure. The old Ballad Barbara Allen gives an example of this. Shakespeare was not convinced. In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo is conducting a wooing of this kind with Rosaline, but forgets about her when he meets up with Juliet who is not playing the game. Juliet famously apologises in the Balcony Scene for giving in too easily. "I should have been more strange I must confess, but that thou overheardst before I was ware, my true love's passion. Therefore pardon me and not impute this yeilding to light love which the dark night hath so discovered." But Juliet does not pursue Romeo, we must turn to another play for this. In Midsummer Night's Dream Helena is mad for Demetrius who doesn't want her. She chases after him into the forest, complaining about why she should have to chase him when he should be chasing her: "Fie, Demetrius! Your wrongs do set a scandal on our sex. We cannot fight for love as men may do; we should be wooed and were not meant to woo."

Even back in the day, Shakespeare knew that women did court men and that it worked out for them. It really wasn't until the late twentieth century that people acknowledged that it was socially proper to do so.