Many of us have our own checklists before going on a date. A favourite perfume, whitening our sneakers, an extra long shower to mentally prepare, or just checking that we don’t have any rogue leafy greens caught up in our pearly whites may be a few things on our personal agendas. However, for some people, a good old nose or throat swab might just make the pre-date cut.
What’s going on? Rapid Antigen Tests have entered dating culture norms for some.
Rapid Antigen Tests or RATS (a term of endearment now perhaps?) changed the world after their inception. Most of it has to do with social culture as event organisers finally had a fairly quick route to ensuring their concerts, music festivals or big gatherings had an actual form of COVID-19 checks in place beyond vaccination.
However, just when we thought the suitcase was jam-packed with COVID-19 test protocols, people are making room for it in another part of human interaction – dates.
An article by Tim Culpan for Bloomberg recently gave some thought to the latest add-in the dating dictionary: RAT Dating.
Culpan gives a nod to the benefits of RATs in that they are faster and give at least some sort of indication as to whether someone may or may not need to isolate. Although they aren’t the gold standard (reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction tests) they are something to go off of, even if they aren’t always accurate.
However, Culpan asks the ever-important question:
“Today the question is one of balance between returning to normal and restricting movement in order to protect populations.”
Is taking COVID testing to the dating world too far? The right step? Would enough people actually do it in the first place for it to hold any sort of weight?
And how heavy would the weight be anyway? In Cape Town at least, beaches have been overflowing with people, events have seen almost every locked away groovist in the country emerge, and even the hiking trails are populated with more boots than the last two years have known.
RAT dating is if anything, a personal comfort for some, in my opinion, writes Cape {town} Etc’s Ashleigh Nefdt.
On a positive note, it might offer a little security, and show you that your date really is going the extra mile for you.
Whether or not RAT dating becomes the norm under society’s discretion, and potential pressure is still as up in the air in the dating world as attempting to understand the dating culture of Generation Z (yes, I’m looking at those who got engaged but never ‘officially dated’).
But as for South Africa, all we can hope is that Uncle Cyril doesn’t initiate a love lockdown based on RAT dating.
Also read:
Table Mountain takes Valentine’s Day to new heights with its first speed-dating event
Picture: archzine.net