What Hath Feminism Wrought?

Apparently, human nature is not very different in Australia.

The Sydney Morning Herald makes the point clearly in a long and detailed article on the plight of single women down under.

Entitled, “Why Women Lose the Dating Game” the article explains what happens when twenty-something women put career ahead of marriage and then, high-powered career in tow, they reach their thirties and decide that it's time to find a suitable mate.

As the article makes clear, this is not news. It is the modern woman’s dilemma. Or better, it is the insoluble dilemma faced by women who have followed the feminist life plan.

Since the article does not answer the question its title asks, allow me. Women are losing the dating game because they are acting like feminists.

They have bought the feminist illusion that a successful thirty-something career woman will naturally be more attractive to a man because she is less dependent on his support. As a fully actualized feminist she will, she has been led to believe, be loved for herself alone and not for some less important reason.

Unfortunately, more than a few women have discovered that this argument is snake oil.

As long as they allow themselves to be manipulated by feminists they will find themselves in this kind of predicament.

The reason is simple. Feminism ignores human biology. It has no use for Darwin and does not understand the biological realities that grant a woman more power in the marriage market when she is younger.

Think of it: feminism disempowers women. Who knew?

When successful, accomplished, attractive women in their mid-thirties go out looking for high-achieving men they discover that these men are not interested in marrying high-achieving older women. They are certainly not interested in women who are, functionally, ideological zealots.

When women are in their twenties, the Sydney Morning Herald explains, they can pick and choose among the best men.

Yet, there are only so many of these to go around. And besides, younger women are not looking to settle down anyway. They place more value on career than on relationship and expect to be treated as equals. This means that they are competing to be the number one concubine, not the number one wife. 

Thus, these women tend to share the same relatively small number of alpha males, leaving the beta and gamma males alone and embittered.

When they arrive in their thirties these same women discover that the alphas have turned their attention to the more current crop of twenty-somethings. They become bitter and resentful about having to settle for a beta, gamma, or even a delta.

Unfortunately for them, men have figured out the game. They can sniff out the desperation of women whose biological clock is ticking away, and who have suddenly discovered that these lesser men might be suitable.

These men recall the years when the same women would not give them a second look. The men feel bitter for having been ignored during their younger years and they decide that it’s time for payback.

Not only do thirty-something women have less control over the mating dance, but they are likely to find themselves being punished by men who had been previously rejected.

The SMH article explains that this has produced a new misogyny:

Greg, a 38-year-old writer from Melbourne, started adult life shy and lonely. ''In my 20s, the women had the total upper hand. They could make or break you with one look in a club or bar. They had the choice of men, sex was on tap and guys like me went home alone, red-faced, defeated and embarrassed. The girls only wanted to go for the cool guys, good looks, outgoing personalities, money, sporty types, the kind of guys who owned the room, while us quiet ones got ignored.''

He barely had a date through much of his 20s and gave up on women. But then he spent time overseas, gained more confidence, learnt how to dress well and hit his early 30s. ''I suddenly started to get asked out by women, aged 19 through to 40. The floodgates burst open for me. I actually dated five women at once, amazing my flatmates by often bedding three to four of my casual dates each week. It is a great time as a male in your 30s, when you start getting more female attention and sex than you could ever have dreamt of in your 20s.''

That's when some men start behaving very badly - as the manosphere clearly shows. These internet sites are not for the faint-hearted. The voices are often crude and misogynist. But they tell it as they see it. There is Greenlander, an apparently successful engineer in his late 30s. In his early adult life, he was unable to ''get the time of day from women''. Now he's interested only in women under 27.

Nothing about this should surprise anyone.

My only quarrel with the article is that it fails to give credit where credit is due: to contemporary feminism.