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Wow, this thread is an interesting cultural window onto something. So many hostile comments about women.

Though it sounds like the writer of that book was on target.

There are certain truisms based on biology. Men look for a woman who is fertile--thus probably your 25-35. After 35 we know women's fertility starts to decline a bit.

Women look for a man who can provide security--thus is successful and has money. Otherwise her offspring may be at risk.

So--men look for pretty young women and women look for powerful rich men. The age of the man doesn't matter as much as his ability to provide security; the more security, the less he has to have of other "good" qualities.

The changes in society have caused a lot of disruption and things haven't settled into a "better" pattern. Women are expected to work in two career marriages, so....if they don't build a career in their 20's and early 30's-----then what? It's a more demanding world financially these days. On the other hand, women's relative freedom, financial security and mobility, are threatening to men. Now they often compete for the same jobs. As a result men are feeling more hostile and insecure. On the other hand, as that writer points out, the women are more interesting and more of them are available. How many men have I met who think it's fine to go dutch on the first date, or soon after. I don't know a woman, no matter how successful, who likes that.

Did you guys watch The Bachelor? I found the psychology of that interesting. He did choose the one who, relatively speaking, was independent, intelligent, and had her own career. She wasn't a rocket scientist by any means, but he preferred her to the blond bimbo who was just finishing college.

Just some thots.

You mention that there are many hostile comments about women. I think you are correct, and I think the comments are warranted. In point of fact it hasn't been that long that women were taught some basics of life (such as what was mentioned by one poster above). Women threw it away hand-over-fist, and are now crying the blues because they cannot get a man. Ultimately it is the woman's responsibility to make herself "saleable," if you will. By "saleable" I mean attractive enough to induce the committment of resources and time and energy that marriage entails. Most women do not do this until it is too late. (Inducing a man to have sex with you is much easier, as you may suspect.)

By too late I mean early thirties. You stated that "after 35 we know women's fertility starts to decline a bit." Actually, by 30 a woman's fertility starts to decline dramatically. The caveat here is the time of first conception. Women who started having children young are, on the main, more fertile throughout their lifetimes (meaning that they ovulate more regularly, have more regular periods, produce more viable eggs, and remain fertile through their 40's, etc.). Women who wait until after 30 to conceive for the first time have many more problems than women who had their first child in their early to mid-20's.

You may ask why I am harping on this. It is simply that by the time that these professional women begin to want hearth and home (because they have spent the first 10 years on their career), it is too late to find husbands and start the families. These women think of themselves as being catches but in reality they are damaged goods. They have usually had one or more abortions, they have political and ideological beliefs that are inimicable to a happy home-life, and they are "past the expiration date," age-wise.

Did you guys watch The Bachelor? ... He did choose the one who, relatively speaking, was independent, intelligent, and had her own career. She wasn't a rocket scientist by any means, but he preferred her to the blond bimbo who was just finishing college

He totally blew it. He should have picked Brooke. Brooke is not a bimbo -- she's just young. And she strikes me as a much more honest, old-fashioned, down-home girl than the other one. (My wife says the same... she thinks he's an idiot for not picking Brooke.)

BTW... why the "blond" crack? Are you prejudiced against people whose ancestors got trapped between the glaciers, thousands of years ago? Why is it acceptable to say "blond bimbo", but not "brunette bimbo" or "black bimbo"?