I do not consider an unsolicited comment on how someone else compares to the rest of their group to be a compliment
Thank you for the clarification Bewilderness that might be what you meant but that’s not actually quite the same as what you said in your post at 05:18 which is why I framed my response as I did.
And as far as “moving the goal posts all over the field” by “inserting a silly reference to my children”, this is what I actually said:
I make positive comments about my friends, children, family members and DH’s physical appearance quite regularly.
I didn’t only mention my children, I mentioned a number of close personal relationships which might be considered as similar in emotional nature to bf/gf. You were the one that picked out my children as the focus of that list.
I didn’t “tell you what you think” I responded to you, quoting your own words. I’m rather at a loss to understand why that should offend you.
That does not change the simple fact that sharing an unsolicited opinion on a person’s looks is a dominance display
It is not a “fact”. It is your opinion. One that no one else on this thread has agreed with on the evidence given.
It may be a dominance act in certain circumstances, one of which I gave an example of in an earlier post on this thread.
I see however little basis for insisting that the behaviour described in the OP was a dominance display.
Dominance behaviour in humans is far more complex that that and all sorts of other factors need to be considered. The literature in this area is actually very interesting.
I see that my use of the word silly has upset you. This was the comment I referred to as silly:
Do you actually tell your child that they are more attractive than their siblings
Given that not one but two other posters immediately jumped in to point out the ridiculousness of this suggestion I do feel that it was a legitimate use of the word.