“The most basic drives are for sex in a man and for security for herself and her children in a woman. Yes the guy in nice clothes and a Mercedes is better looking than the fellow in a 10 year old pickup truck with an off color dented fender. He appears to be better able to provide for a wife and children. A man’s notion of good looks is generally based on good health signals. In civilization there are other considerations more and more but those two things are the foundation of it all. Being cynical about it is nonconstructive.”
Of course, it is true that a woman would yearn for security but, 80% of the said guys, in their Camry’s, are likely nice people capable of supporting a wife in a similar fashion that she is accustomed to. Where do these unrealistic expectations originate? Television and other media are where. It takes 10-15 years for women to come in for a landing. It takes too long a time for them to realize that there are not enough prince’s to go around.They become time sensitive by their early thirties and the guys are frustrated to no end by then. Something is way out of kilter.
Not conscious expectations so much as, again, biology. The nice car, etc are signals of ability to support. It doesn’t work so much for most of the lower working class because they start with an expectation that the healthy woman or the prosperous man are out of reach from the start. 60 years ago when the prosperous young man was a rarer commodity and there was a higher ratio of successful craftsmen and even laborers (young, musculature was a brighter sign of ability to support a family than it is now.