To think a lot of women are “dating down” just to avoid being alone?

[ThatPeachLemur]

I’ve seen too many brilliant, beautiful women mothering dusty men and calling it love.

And to think that mumsnet sometimes gets criticised for being man-hating. I can't imagine where they get that idea from.

I’d rather not start a relationship, it always ends in the continual requesting of what we are going to do today and what shall we have for dinner. I’m quite happy with my cobwebs.

in my experience, young professional women in their late 20s are having a great time, wonderful female friends, lots of holidays and fun times. The lack of a male partner seems to be a non-issue. So different from my own experiences in the 1980s.

Yes and that’s part of the game, maybe they make up for it in other ways - financial over looks

Amen sister!

This really shows how our society has changed in the last 30 years, women now have pretty much everything until / if they want to start a family

Finances are not enough anymore.

Nope, look back in history and it was women who looked to “Marry Up” to gain financial and social status via marriage- it’s only in the last 40 years that this has stopped being the norm

In some ways. Look at Charlotte Lucas and Mr Collins in P&P. She married him because being married to him was better than being an old maid. Marriage to a stupid man was better than being single.

But he was clergyman, who would have had status and position in society at that time , along with his “patron” - it could be seen as favourably as good marriage for her - elevating her to a position she would have never have achieved otherwise

It’s an American slang term for someone who lacks ambition or drive- quite deliberately degrading , like calling a woman lazy

I am genuinely shocked to learn there are many women who find it creepy to be approached in a bar or club.

What makes you think that “ticks every box of the modern woman”? Do you view women as a monolith?

That is illogical.

99.5% of men being undateable doesn’t suggest “men are the prize.”

The data shows consistently that women do the lion share of domestic and emotional labour.

For me it’s just how tiring it is to find a man NOT seeking a bangmaid

Sure, and recognising that many men don't pull their weight in domestic and emotional labour in relationships is an entirely valid complaint. But that's very different to the claim that men as a group are "unable to clean themselves, their clothes, look after themselves, cook, exercise, family and friend responsibilities etc".

I have a friend in her mid 50s who doesn't want a serious relationship but still insists on going on dating websites. It never works out, and is always surprised that they just want a shag partner.

Yes I totally agree.

Unless men are systematically dustier and less brilliant and beautiful than women, your suggestion is arithmetically impossible unless either there is an equal number of blokes 'dating down' or all the most desirable men (who would be on a level with the most brilliant and beautiful women) are with female troglodytes. The proportion of people who vote that you are not being unreasonable implies that MN collectively thinks men are inferior to women, which plays to stereotype, I suppose.

This does not follow.

You can easily have an inbalance of useless men vs. useless women.

Precisely the first thing I wrote.

Yep I have to agree. I bet by the time I get to peri menopause/menopause, I will have even less interest 🤣

I am sure there are decent guys out there but none that have crossed my path and I am not settling just to appease society because they don’t like single women.

I am not settling just to appease society because they don’t like single women.

Amen to that.

You said it’s arithmetically impossible.

It’s not.