Reply to Why are Rich Men always sought after?

Forum Index » Relationship Discussion (non-explicit)

Reply to "Why are Rich Men always sought after?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Patriarchy. For most of human history, women have not been permitted to acquire wealth, and so your best chance at survival was to marry a wealthy man. The cultural beliefs still persist - we raise girls on princess movies, which indoctrinates them early on that their value is based on the man they can attract.

I know for me, once I worked through these beliefs and learned how to become wealthy on my own, I lost all interest in rich men. [/quote]

I am not a woman so I won't speak for you but isn't some of this evolutionary? Like, women are attracted to men with power and ambition for which money is a stand-in? Just as men are attracted to youth and fertility?[/quote]

PP. I also happen to have a degree in biological anthropology :)

So the thing to keep in mind is:

1. Despite thousands of people doing it, sitting in a chair and thinking up what might be evolutionary advantageous is not science. You need actual data, not just what seems correct. Otherwise we'd all still think the world was flat.

2. Most data only looks at what are called WEIRD cultures (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic), which are actually the outlier when compared to world cultures and human history. For most of human history, we didn't have wealth - there was no way to acquire it and no need for it.

3. Most research is on white, Western college students age 18-21yo, because they are easily accessible by researchers. But clearly they don't represent a clear picture on all of humanity.

4. Most research until recently has been performed by white men, who are seeing data through their own biases. For example, it used to be "fact" that women had large glutes compared to other animals to be sexually appealing to men. Then science showed that, no, actually we have large glutes for bipedal walking, and sexual appeal is cultural.

When we look at other cultures, especially when they haven't been influenced by Western culture, we find very different data. For example, among hunter gatherers - which are generally accepted to be a more accurate representation of human history - both males and females rate the quality of "character" (being nice, kind, caring, an overall good person) as most important, and that males value "hard working" just as much as "beauty". That study also showed that only a small percentage of males rated "youth" as important. This is in direct contrast to what Western culture holds as the ideal partnership - a hunter gatherer male would have little use for a young, attractive female who refused to work and used up resources. Looking beautiful doesn't feed your children, and food is important in an environment where you're just a couple days away from starvation.

The takeaway is that what we are attracted to is most often cultural, and important for survival within that cultural. Which is really an overarching theme with humans - we rely far more on cultural adaptations than biological adaptations, which is what lead to our success as a species. BUT we can also change those cultural beliefs when they aren't serving us. Making my own wealth is far more beneficial for me and my children than trying to find a wealthy man.

[/quote]

So....Borat was right that he wanted a woman with plow experience![/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics