CHANTAL ABITBOL

MEN may have long ago ditched wearing shaggy fur loincloths and arming themselves with rocks and cattle-bone clubs, but they’re still cavemen at heart. Or at least, that’s what dating columnist Samantha Brett believes.

And the quicker women accept this and indulge men’s cavemanish ways by submitting to the chase, she says, the better we’ll all be for it.

Sound old-fashioned? Perhaps. But in an age where there’s a “singles epidemic” going on, where single women outnumber men and are becoming increasingly desperate to snare a man, it’s one of the only tried and tested methods that gets the job done, Brett argues.

“It’s timeless. Men will always be the chasers,” the petite blonde, who has become known as something of a real-life Sex in the City Carrie Bradshaw Down Under, states unequivocally.

“The longer women can make them chase, and think that they’re the ‘catch’ and the ‘prize’,” she continues, “the happier they’ll be”.

Such is the premise of her latest book, aptly titled The Chase, which promises to give women everything they need to know about baiting and keeping a man.

Neatly packaged into 101 “lessons” for her target audience – women she affectionately nicknames SADFABs (Single And Desperate For a Boyfriend … or a baby) – she covers everything from the “casual sex con” to “the man chase-me plan”.

She even throws in a few “challenges” for her readers as well -– like the “30-day No Casual Sex Program” or, if called for, “The Ex Detox Diet”.

“There are such beautiful women everywhere – especially in the Jewish community – and then they go to these events and they’re in the corner huddling, desperate for men. The men can smell it,” she says. “I want that to stop.”

Brett admits that she sort of “fell into” doling out love-life advice after starting out as a freelance fashion and lifestyle writer for Vogue and various other women’s magazines.

At 21, a small publishing firm approached her to write a small manual about love and the modern phenomenon of texting and, somewhat of a surprise to Brett herself, it became a runaway hit, garnering the newcomer much publicity and subsequently a relationship column for The Sydney Morning Herald.

Six years later, she’s still dishing it out.

Some, however, have questioned her title as a “dating expert” given her young age -– she’s just 26 -– and lack of any formal degree in social psychology. It’s also common knowledge that she’s been in a serious relationship for much of her 20s -– something she’s not keen to discuss.

“It’s something that I keep separate and private from my work,” she says coyly.

But given that she doesn’t seem to bear any of the wounds of the truly tried and tested, many have been left to wonder whether she’s really in the position to be doling out advice to lonely 30-somethings.

She’s quick, however, to dismiss such doubts.

“After six years of talking to hundreds of people about dating every day, I feel like I’ve done three PhDs in every type of psychology, dating, sex, relationships, marriage, divorce, you name it.”

For The Chase, she interviewed more than 2000 men as part of an online survey titled “The Modern Man Survey”, querying them on everything from their expectations on the first date to their views on cheating and their biggest turn-offs.

She also spoke with experts, authors, psychologists and celebrities to find out their secrets on dating.

In the end, she says, her aim is for women to seize back the dating power.

“It’s got nothing to do about me. It’s not my life story. I just want to help the women of Australia realise what they’re doing wrong, and how to fix it.”

The Chase is available in all good bookstores.