How you 'feel' isn't always reality. I am not dating now, but it's a bit odd to suggest you can't put yourself out there because of the 'climate' or 'culture'. Who cares what the climate is, if you're being genuine and nice there is nothing to worry about.

If you're worried you will be perceived as a creep then you need to work on your delivery/how you approach strangers.

Members of the opposite sex are just people. They want to be treated normally. My most successful male friend(in terms of dating) just treats females like they're normal people. He pretty much never has trouble and he is a 6 at most with a shitbox car.

I used to think women only care about money etc; and That is true..for a certain subset of women. So many more don't care at all, and just want a nice loyal person who won't shit on them. And yes, you need to moderately TRY to look attractive. Go to the gym, get a proper haircut, stop wearing those shitty jeans and ugly shoes. YOU also need to put in effort, it's not just on the other gender.

In non-party social contexts consider becoming friends first approaching either sex with the same questions you'd ask people sharing the same interests. Then ask for contacts to share and receive opportunities for similar events. Then deepen your friendship and get to know each other better asking about events outside your groups' interests but more of pairwise mutual interest.

If you're only interested in talking to the person if they're a potential partner, you're going to have a lot of failures (unless it's something like a speed dating course).

You work on getting to know people as friends, some of whom you may consider dating.