Ah, the age-old debate: who should pay for the first meal?

First of all, it is (un)fortunately the norm - what society expects in general: "guys should pay for first meal". If you don't follow the norm, you'll stick out like a sore thumb. That said, I also do not agree that this means men are always on the losing side - please read on.

To me, intentions behind words/actions are important.
If a woman refuses to pay the first meal, she's a selfish bitch.
If a man refuses to pay the first meal, he's a stingy ass.
The art of socialising with another human is to play ping-pong on your intentions. Ideally to me, the story of first meal should go like this:
1. Man offers to pay first (the norm)
2. Woman is grateful and offers to pay for next meal/tea. (If first meetup already decided it's not a match then just split bill and call it a day)
3. Man is grateful and accepts her offer.
It's a give and take and everyone is happy. I love the art of give and take because I feel happy to be pampered, at the same time I'd love to let you feel the same way! By splitting bill all the time, you kill the opportunity.

Of course, I would hate to be with a gold digger or someone who doesn't appreciate / always takes but hardly gives, but the (sad) reality of life is that you're not always lucky with meeting people, and there are always people like that who would take advantage of others. When you take the initiative to be the "man" in step 1, you choose to be vulnerable to the "predators"/bitches. A good woman would recognise that and reciprocate your generosity. I have a friend of my age, she told me one of her online dating experience with a younger guy. She offered to pay first meal knowing he was new to the workforce and he let her. A few meetups from there, the man never offered once. She felt used and throughout their encounters, she was hardly enjoying her time with him because he never did anything nice for her. Eventually she called it off because she felt it was a one-sided friendship. He didn't say anything and it was over. Although she didn't really fall for him or anything, she still felt hurt because he didn't appreciate the relationship at all, even though it was still in the friendship stage. It's a rare case because women generally don't offer first, but my friend took it as an experiment to try to be different from the norm, and basically learned how guys normally feel when girls take advantage of them lol.

This is also why...
Guys, paying for the first meal is the easiest to filter out bitches
Ladies, offering to pay the next/split bill easily puts you above the bitches