Cite?
I would be even more concerned if she showed up as requested. Then I’m out $500, which still would not make it the most expensive bad date I’ve been on, but I could buy a lot of good whiskey with that kind of money.
Stranger
Yo’ pays yo’ money and yo takes yo’ chances. It was (and will be) ever thus. 
Well, yes, exactly.
Reviews, ratings. Reviews from female reviewers. Popularity.
I worked at Borders, the Romance aisle was 99% female buying them.
This actually happened to me, as an adult. I was already thinking of asking a woman out when a mutual friend told me she was interested (we had never discussed her before). I called and asked her out, and she said “I don’t know”. I figured she wasn’t interested, and left it at that. Friend asked me if I asked her out, and I said “yeah, but she didn’t really seem interested.” I figured that was that. Then I hear “she wants to be pursued.” First, what are we; eighth graders? Second, and this was my response: “I don’t play games” The following weekend I met the future Ms. P, so that really was that.
I enjoy action movies. I enjoy watching fictional portrayals of people shooting at each other. I enjoy fictional combat. I find it fun and exciting (when it’s done well).
I was also in the Army. I never actually saw combat, but I knew some guys that did. I was in a couple of very tense situations that seemed like they were about to go south, fast. I was in a couple of situations where I thought it was highly probable my unit was about to be ambushed. Fortunately for me, that never happened. But those situations, and the prospect of actually being in combat, were not fun and exciting. It was fucking scary. I never want to actually experience a gunfight, first hand, in real life. I still watch action movies, though.
No, men do not need, as a matter of course, to be afraid of being falsely accused of rape by consensual partners who will lie about it afterwards.
FWIW, the only time I’ve ever gotten dating advice in my life “don’t take a woman’s no as no” was from…a female friend.
Not sure why.
Maybe they meant “maybe her hair actually was dirty, and if you ask again later about something different she might still have a chance of being interested.”
Asking about the same thing repeatedly, though, is somewhere between nagging and doing the same thing and expecting different results.
Is not being able to understand this all just a weird “nice guy” thing?
I really like action movies. The Raid is one of my favorite movies. But I’d rather not get in a desperate knife fight in real life TYVM. Movies aren’t real, and you shouldn’t pattern your life around them, especially escapist fare like rom-coms or action flicks.
It’s not just that it isn’t real. It’s also that this is our culture. Both women and men are raised and inculcated with the idea that a man “pursuing” a woman is romantic/hot/proper. Also that a woman pursuing a man, or to a certain extent, anything she wants, too vigorously is unnatural/a turn-off/wrong.
Men should be forceful, certain, and courageous. Women are weak, uncertain, and timid. Rom-coms show how that all plays out to everyone’s benefit. It’s satisfying to the part of your brain that recognizes the pattern that’s been ingrained.
But, it may not be satisfying if you engage your critical thinking about it. And it might even be repulsive, criminal, and traumatic if someone tried to play it out with you in real life.
What women?
Again, you miss the point. Yes, romcoms and such arent realistic. No one claimed they were. It is just that women find them romantic.
Reviews, ratings. Reviews from female reviewers. Popularity. (citation needed)
Also- the sun rises in the East. (citation needed).
The earth is round. (citation needed)
Jeebusfreekenkeeerist.
You are saying it like it is as obvious as the sun rising in the East. But you are not getting the fact that it not only isn’t that obvious or universal, but it is demonstrably false. It is a trope for a movie or a book. It isn’t truth. Reading a story or watching a movie does not translate to real life. FFS
Mind you, in most rom-coms the guy does not relentlessly pursue the women against her wishes. It certainly isn’t the case in any of them that are mentioned in this thread - You’ve Got Mail, Sleepless in Seattle, Splash , Big or Joe Versus The Volcano.
Maybe Groundhog Day, Moonstruck or 10 Things I Hate About You but generally it’s the woman doing the chasing.
I think you’re the one missing the point, because you’re the one who seemed puzzled about why “romcoms and such” even exist, given that they aren’t realistic:
Do you have a similarly difficult time understanding why movies about dragons or superheroes or elaborate bank heists exist? Those aren’t realistic either.
Some women, sometimes find them romantic. Some women can’t get enough of them. Some hate them. Some enjoy them when they’re in the right mood.
Again, the fact that some women sometimes find a fictional portrayal of a hot guy relentlessly pursuing a woman to be “romantic” does not mean that they would enjoy it in real life, anymore than the fact that I find fictional gunfights fun and exciting means that I find real life gunfights fun and exciting.