What an amazing insight this thread has been, and what splendid entertainment!
at the posts about Jane Austen and time machines - which I agree with.
I find that a depressing proportion - though certainly by no means all - men tend to overrate themselves in terms of their attractiveness and desirability.
I've known very average-looking men without substantial financial resources who've only ever pursued very good-looking women, and, inevitably, had no success with them.
One such man I know ended up settling (temporarily) for someone he "liked" but "didn't really want", as he put it, who, objectively, was of a similar level of physical attractiveness, in a similar economic position and of a similar age, except he felt somehow that he was "dating down", as it were.
I also knew a very overweight man who once described a woman we knew as someone "who doesn't sweat much for a fat lass", and another - one of his friends, in fact, who said he "didn't fancy women over the age of 25". This man was 40, average looking (at best) and without significant financial resources. Yet he wasn't interested in any woman over 25.
Did he 'get' a woman of 25 or younger? No.
It seems that some men - though not all - want to "trade up". A (very successful) man once told me that "men were always in competition with each other" and judged their worldly success by comparing how prestigious their car was - and how good-looking their wife was - to those of their peers. (Almost as though the wife was just another luxury possession.)
It's interesting to hear what manohman has to say. It appears that, ultimately, women are coveted or discarded based on their sexual currency, and over a certain age our sexual currency is diminished.
Women may have changed but a certain breed of men haven't. His FFD acronym is a telling indication that, while modern women have made much progress compared to previous generations, we are still not considered equal to men, assessed primarily by our physical attributes and should be seen and not heard.
In fact the "pleasant disposition" remark reminds me of the Stepford Wives.
As manohman has so eloquently explained, women are considered to be of value if they look good, cater to men's needs and maintain a "pleasant disposition". Perhaps the feminist writer Kathy Lette is right - that ultimately we're little more than life support systems for breasts and vaginas.