When A Man Calls You A Big Mac: Adventures in Online Dating

Blog Post: https://substack.com/home/post/p-170806444

Stay safe! Find resources below for your country and check with local law enforcement for more ways to protect yourself.

ClickFit: Romance Scams | Australian Federal Police. 6 Feb. 2026, https://www.afp.gov.au/news-centre/feature/clickfit-romance-scams.

Government of Canada, Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Relationship and Romance. 31 Jan. 2020, https://antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca/scams-fraudes/romance-rencontre-eng.htm.

How To Avoid Romance Scams | Banking Scams - HSBC UK. https://www.hsbc.co.uk/help/security-centre/how-to-avoid-romance-scams/. Accessed 7 Apr. 2026.

“Just the Facts: Romance Scams.” Royal Canadian Mounted Police, https://rcmp.ca/en/gazette/just-facts-romance-scams. Accessed 7 Apr. 2026.

“Romance Fraud.” Report Fraud, United Kingdom, https://www.reportfraud.police.uk/romance-fraud/. Accessed 7 Apr. 2026.

“Romance Scams.” Federal Bureau of Investigation, https://www.fbi.gov/how-we-can-help-you/scams-and-safety/common-frauds-and-scams/romance-scams. Accessed 7 Apr. 2026.

Romance Scams and How to Avoid Them. https://www.scotiabank.com:443/content/scotiabank/ca/en/personal/advice-plus/features/posts.romance-scams.html. Accessed 7 Apr. 2026.

Stay Safe Online: Avoid Romance Scams. https://www.secretservice.gov/investigations/romancescams. Accessed 7 Apr. 2026.

“What To Know About Romance Scams.” Consumer Advice, 5 June 2019, https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/what-know-about-romance-scams.

Show Notes

Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. With Christina Lupton and James Kinsley, 3rd ed, Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2020. Oxford World’s Classics Ser.

Ford, Susan Allen. “Mr. Collins Interrupted: Reading Fordyce’s Sermons with Pride and Prejudice.” The Jane Austen Society of North America, 2013, https://jasna.org/persuasions/on-line/vol34no1/ford.html?

hooks, bell. All About Love: New Visions. HarperCollinsPublishers, 2018.

“Jane Austen’s House.” Jane Austen’s House, https://janeaustens.house/. Accessed 6 Mar. 2026.

Merton, Thomas. Love And Living. Edited by Patrick Hart and Naomi Burton Stone, HarperOne, 2002.

Wilshere, Meredith. “It Turns Out Pride & Prejudice Fans Have Emma Thompson to Thank for This Now-Viral Line from the Film.” People, 2025, https://people.com/how-emma-thompson-helped-pride-and-prejudice-viral-moment-exclusive-11716425.

Blog Post: https://datingat40.substack.com/p/episode-two-the-full-big-mac-meal

Show Notes

Victims of the École Polytechnique Massacre (https://shorturl.at/j3PBv)

Geneviève Bergeron

Hélène Colgan

Nathalie Croteau

Barbara Daigneault

Anne-Marie Edward

Maud Haviernick

Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz

Maryse Laganière

Maryse Leclair

Anne-Marie Lemay

Sonia Pelletier

Michèle Richard

Annie St-Arneault

Annie Turcotte

Resources and Works Consulted

A Modest Proposal | Project Gutenberg. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1080/1080-h/1080-h.htm. Accessed 6 Jan. 2026.

Atwood, Margaret. The Edible Woman. McClelland and Stewart, 1969.

Ballantyne, R M. The Coral Island. T. Nelson & Sons, 1857.

Blake, Olivie. Girl Dinner. Tor, 2025.

École Polytechnique Tragedy (Montreal Massacre). https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/polytechnique-tragedy. Accessed 6 Jan. 2026.

Fresco, Victor, creator. Santa Clarita Diet. Garfield Grove Productions, 2017–2019. Netflix, www.netflix.com.

Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. Faber & Faber Fiction, 1973.

Lyle, Ashley, and Bart Nickerson, creators. Yellowjackets. 2021–present, Paramount+, www.paramountplus.com.

The Montreal Massacre - Femicide in Canada. 6 Sept. 2023, https://femicideincanada.ca/what-is-femicide/history/montreal-massacre/.

The National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. 18 Mar. 2024, https://www.canada.ca/en/women-gender-equality/commemorations-celebrations/16-days/national-day-remembrance.html.

Yoder, Rachel. Nightbitch. Anchor Books, 2022.

Resources and works consulted for this episode:

Han, Xiaoting, and Chenjun Yin. “Mapping the Manosphere. Categorization of Reactionary Masculinity Discourses in Digital Environment.” Feminist Media Studies, vol. 23, no. 5, 2023, pp. 1923–40, https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2021.1998185.

Lorde, Audre. “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle The Master’s House.” Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. Crossing Press, 2012.

Lorde, Audre. “Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power” Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. Crossing Press, 2012.

Willett, Cynthia, and Julie Willett. “Fumerism: Feminist Anger and Joy from Roseanne Barr to Margaret Cho and Wanda Sykes.” Uproarious, University of Minnesota Press, 2019, JSTOR, pp. 21–46, https://doi.org/10.5749/j.ctvr69540.4. How Feminists and Other Subversive Comics Speak Truth.