It usually involves great effort for a man to find another woman, this was especially true in past times when people lived in small villages with very few unmarried attractive women. A woman on the other hand will not have much problems finding another male if she is good looking.
You’re not pointing out a symmetric situation here. You’re saying “Most men find it hard to attract good-looking women. However, good-looking women find it easy to attract men.” That is quite likely true; however, I suspect that the reverse is also true: “Most women find it hard to attract good-looking men. However, good-looking men find it easy to attract women.”
I think you’re right when you say that roland isn’t pointing out a symmetrical situation, but I also don’t think it’s quite accurate to say that good-looking men will find it easy to attract women, to the same extent that good looking women find it easy to attract men. Since men are more often expected to be the initiator in mating/dating contact, a good looking man who does not initiate or initiates ineptly will have less success than a good looking woman who does not attempt to or is inept at initiating.
I agree that there are other factors which break symmetry. Another potential factor is one I am well familiar with: in certain environments (such as math graduate school) there are a lot more men than women, so it is harder for a man to find women sharing the same interests than vice versa.
(This does not, incidentally, cause any of the men involved to lower their standards appreciably: the socially awkward and/or unattractive women are still single.)
Well, it is the example of two-place word EY used, but I do think that there’s a non-totally-arbitrary way to normalize it that makes it make sense to compare Sexiness(Admirer1, Entity1) with Sexiness(Admirer2, Entity2) even when Admirer1 != Admirer2. Think about how many straight men would be motivated to pursue the 70th-percentile straight woman, and how many straight women would be motivated to pursue the 70th-percentile straight man, for any given value of “motivated”.
Even by asking Admirer1 and Admirer2 to rate Entity1 and Entity2′s attractiveness respectively on a 0-to-5 scale you get the results mentioned in the article I’ve edited my comment to link to.
(You should probably link the OkCupid study, or whatever you’re using as the basis of this statement, which otherwise comes off as… contentious, to those who aren’t familiar with the research.)
That’s not the only piece of evidence I was thinking about, but it’s the only one that is neither just anecdotal nor likely to completely mind-kill the discussion, so… Edited it in.
You’re saying “Most men find it hard to attract good-looking women. However, good-looking women find it easy to attract men.” That is quite likely true; however, I suspect that the reverse is also true: “Most women find it hard to attract good-looking men. However, good-looking men find it easy to attract women.”
This is still not quite right since the most important think men look for in women is looks, whereas the most important thing women look for in men is status. Then said, women do find it hard to attract high status men.
That’s seems to be an oversimplification: Both genders consider status more important than looks for long-term relationships and looks more important than status for casual intercourse. Heterosexual men consider looks relatively more important than heterosexual women do.
You’re not pointing out a symmetric situation here. You’re saying “Most men find it hard to attract good-looking women. However, good-looking women find it easy to attract men.” That is quite likely true; however, I suspect that the reverse is also true: “Most women find it hard to attract good-looking men. However, good-looking men find it easy to attract women.”
I think you’re right when you say that roland isn’t pointing out a symmetrical situation, but I also don’t think it’s quite accurate to say that good-looking men will find it easy to attract women, to the same extent that good looking women find it easy to attract men. Since men are more often expected to be the initiator in mating/dating contact, a good looking man who does not initiate or initiates ineptly will have less success than a good looking woman who does not attempt to or is inept at initiating.
I agree that there are other factors which break symmetry. Another potential factor is one I am well familiar with: in certain environments (such as math graduate school) there are a lot more men than women, so it is harder for a man to find women sharing the same interests than vice versa.
(This does not, incidentally, cause any of the men involved to lower their standards appreciably: the socially awkward and/or unattractive women are still single.)
Yes. On the other hand, a greater fraction of women than of men are good-looking. (See this.)
Being good-looking is an absolute thing? I always assumed it meant something like “top 20%”.
Well, it is the example of two-place word EY used, but I do think that there’s a non-totally-arbitrary way to normalize it that makes it make sense to compare Sexiness(Admirer1, Entity1) with Sexiness(Admirer2, Entity2) even when Admirer1 != Admirer2. Think about how many straight men would be motivated to pursue the 70th-percentile straight woman, and how many straight women would be motivated to pursue the 70th-percentile straight man, for any given value of “motivated”.
Even by asking Admirer1 and Admirer2 to rate Entity1 and Entity2′s attractiveness respectively on a 0-to-5 scale you get the results mentioned in the article I’ve edited my comment to link to.
I would argue your statement in the grandparent was misleading since it made it seem like this was a property of the Entities and not the Admirers.
Is “gold is expensive” a property of gold, or of the market? If the latter, is “gold is expensive” misleading because it sounds like the former?
That is actually a popular way to be confused about economics: thinking “gold is expensive” is a property of gold.
(You should probably link the OkCupid study, or whatever you’re using as the basis of this statement, which otherwise comes off as… contentious, to those who aren’t familiar with the research.)
That’s not the only piece of evidence I was thinking about, but it’s the only one that is neither just anecdotal nor likely to completely mind-kill the discussion, so… Edited it in.
This is still not quite right since the most important think men look for in women is looks, whereas the most important thing women look for in men is status. Then said, women do find it hard to attract high status men.
That’s seems to be an oversimplification: Both genders consider status more important than looks for long-term relationships and looks more important than status for casual intercourse. Heterosexual men consider looks relatively more important than heterosexual women do.