So I'm watching The Big Bang Theory and there's a cultural assumption that the third date means sex.

[HerBeatitude]

So does it? Is that the standard convention?

Just interested really.

we had sex before the first date - were friends first then fell into bed Chandler and Monica style and thought 'hmm this is nice'

Didn't go out on a date until about a month later

rofl Harpsichordcarrier

who said that riven

I guess a mundane could be a 'boring person'

or a predictable person p'raps

look here riven

I think sgb is referring to definition (2)

banal unimaginitive

as in sexually repressed and boring because you choose a conventional sex life

snap trin

sgb repeatedly calls all of us mundanes, who don't share her (allegedly) wild sex life

Yes there are various definitions of 'mundanes'. I tend to use it to mean 'people who who are desperate to be normal and fit in, and who need the tabloids or breakfast TV to tell them what to think.'
So actually taking the idea of a three date rule before you can have sex seriously would be mundane behaviour.

look at the thread, sgb

do you see anybody agreeing ith this "rule" ?

Did I address any individual on the thread as a mundane?
Look, when you have spent most of your adult life having your dress sense, friends, hobbies, passions and sex lives labelled as 'wierd' or 'sad' or 'disgusting' or 'ooer, well I wouldn't do it, what would the neighbours think?' by the mundane world, you tend to to think that disdain can work both ways and end up feeling mildly sorry for mundanes, who rarely seem to have much fun that they don't have to a) purchase and b) have explained to them.
Heteromongamy doesn't necessarily make you a mundane, nor does wearing Boden or car ownership. It's the belief that everyone has to be the same and those who can't or won't conform are mad, bad, incapable of it, just being 'difficult' or should be punished, that makes you a mundane.

Thing is, anyone over forty who is having unconventional sex and dressing out of the norm looks every bit of a saddo as the mundanes, tbh. Peter Stringfellow with his mullet and leopardskin thiong shagging page three girls? Nah...

It's not an assumption in real life but it is a well-known convention in fiction. Have you not come across this before?

Just as bad to be doing stuff you consider 'kinky' out of fear of being mundane. Some of us do 'normal' stuff because that's what we like.

Riven: Because most people are heteronormative. If you're heteromonogamous, you don't see it as much because when people ask about your 'partner' in polite smalltalk, you don't have to go into additional explanations, whereas if you are poly, bi or even just gay, you have to go into an extra level of self-disclosure - or lie.
EG - new acquaintance says, Are you here with your partner?
HN response is Yes (or no, if partner absent)
If not HN, if you are alone at the event then yes, you can just say,'No', otherwise you have to think about it 'One of them' or 'we're all here tonight' and then the NA is going to boggle and ask what you mean...

"there's a cultural assumption that the third date means sex"

Erm, have you noticed that the 'culture' is American? Doesn't mean that it necessarily applies here.

Well said trillian.

Riven: That you wouldn't makes you not a mundane.
To you, maybe, a mundane would be someone who asked a lot of rude and intrusive questions about your DD then said they didn't know how you cope and suggested you put her in a home because that's what they would do.

Lequeen: thanks for a fine example of mundane thinking there.

God I'd boggle if someone said that Riven. And then I'd make a right tit of myself asking loads of questions

Because while I have dealings with people who are not "heteronormative" every day, group marriage (as opposed to having a number of casual partners) - that I haven't come across.

But then I do live in a mundane world I guess.

I'm sure the first time I saw you use that expression SGB was in relation to having a car...