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Culture War Roundup for the week of August 21, 2023

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Another factor is polygyny, on top of the possible age and reporting differentials that have been mentioned in this thread.

Young women are sometimes, perhaps often, dating the same men. Whether wittingly or not, or somewhere in between due to preselection and female mate-choice copying, sometimes with a dose of willful obliviousness. "tee hee, my boyfriend is totally separated from his wife, but he's such a good father that he spends most of his time with them." Some are even more brazen and upfront about dating married men, or men with (a) girlfriend(s).

It's like a set-up for a Norm Macdonald (RIP) joke: "A recent report says that many more young women are in relationships than young men. Some of the men these young women are dating are even in a relationship with only them."

I genuinely don't understand women willing to have affairs with married men. Girl, he's already lying to and deceiving his wife, why do you think he's going to treat you any better or be faithful to you? "Oh he's going to leave her, oh it's her fault she won't divorce him, oh he's only staying for the kids" - no, you're the side piece except in the very rare cases where marriages do break up and the adulterers marry each other.

I do. Attraction is not a choice: For the most part, it's not a plan or anything, especially not initially. Men (including married men) who have credible signals that they have sexual access to other women in their lives induce more tingles than men who do not, just as tall men are more attractive than short men.

And, as the saying goes, the man who divorces his wife and marries his mistress leaves a job vacancy.

This is my best guess at the moment as well. I think the revealed preferences indicate that, for most women most of the time, being the 5th in line to a 9 or 10 is better than being the one and only to a 6 or 7. After all, generally the 6 or 7 is still an available option if the 9 or 10 doesn't work out.

Pretty much. Chicks often prefer being the n’th sidepiece of a Chad rather than having a whole Brad to themselves, especially if they can keep teasing enough crumbs to Brads to keep them orbiting as back-up plans.