Wednesday, July 27, 2016

How Can Powerful Women Attract Men

No one has ever called Bill Clinton “uxorious”… until last night. Maureen Dowd, not a great Clinton fan, applied it to the Big Dog, himself.

Unsubtly, she added that the Big Dog was using up all his reserves of estrogen and perhaps even empathy, to pay his wife back for all of the insults and injuries he inflicted on her.

A man who feels a woman’s pain can be the world’s greatest seducer… if he wants above all to bed as many women as possible.

As one would expect, Big Dog’s story of picking up the unattractive girl in law school offended feminist heroine Rachel Maddow. But, Maddow might be right. The effort to normalize the Bill/Hillary relationship is transparently false. For all we know, the Big Dog might have thought of Hillary Rodham as a great challenge. Surely, he did not see her as a hot chick. A great seducer is always looking out for challenges. In Hillary Bill found one.

But that assumes that we know who was seducing whom? A minimum understanding of human nature tells us that we cannot be very sure about that.

Last night, Big Dog tried to humanize, but also to feminize Hillary. He was not quite up to that task, but he did give it the old college try.

And yet, it brings Marissa Mayer to mind. And it allows me to raise a point that I failed to mention in yesterday’s post about MM.

Why did Mayer make such a point about being feminine, even decadently so? To be Shakespearean, we can ask whether she had a darker purpose or whether there was method in the madness.

At the least, the Mayer example shows why more men exercise power and authority in the world. More importantly, it shows why more women do not want to do so. They are afraid that if they become more powerful men will lose interest in them. 

The reason is: given the choice, most women do not aspire to be the CEO. They have other priorities and other things in mind. It is basic to any Darwinian study of sexual attraction… any study that goes beyond hormones and looks at the influence of status.

The higher a man rises on a status hierarchy the more attractive he is to women. But, the higher a woman rises on a status hierarchy, especially on a male status hierarchy, the less attractive she is to men.

Yes, I know, the feminist indoctrination squad has told you that the only reason why the board room and the executive suite is not divided evenly between men and women is that we have not seen enough sit-coms where the genders share power. And that we have not seen enough women in charge—like Angela Merkel.

If feminists think that men and women will ever reach parity in the executive suite they are tilting at windmills. Or better, they are denying human nature, to the point where the only way they will be able to achieve their absurd goal will be legislation.

Without trying to embarrass anyone, how many women were lusting after the Big Dog? How many offered to perform all manner sexual services for the leader of the free world?

Then, ask yourself this: how many men are lusting after Hillary? How many men want to marry a woman just like Hillary? You might even ask how many mothers want their sons to marry a woman like Hillary?

See the point? See why so many young women, women for whom attracting a man is an important issue, are turned off by Hillary.

Which brings us to Marissa Mayer, not as CEO, but as culture warrior, as a woman making a statement about leadership.

Wasn’t Mayer, with her over-the-top Gatsbyesque party, with her Aphrodite on a throne image, trying to overcome the notion that powerful women are not attractive to men? Wasn’t she saying that a woman could exercise power and still be in touch with her inner vamp?

And yet, considering how hard she was trying, Mayer seems also to have been demonstrating that powerful women have to try harder, a lot harder to attract men, no matter how beautiful they are.

10 comments:

Ares Olympus said...

Stuart: Without trying to embarrass anyone, how many women were lusting after the Big Dog? How many offered to perform all manner sexual services for the leader of the free world? Then, ask yourself this: how many men are lusting after Hillary? How many men want to marry a woman just like Hillary? You might even ask how many mothers want their sons to marry a woman like Hillary?

Its a rather silly comparison, at least we have to look at ages. Bill Clinton was 37 years old when he became governor, and 46 when he became president. In comparison Hillary was about 54 when she was elected to the Senate, 62 when she became Secretary of State, and now is a grandmotherly near-70 if she's elected president.

Perhaps there are 24 year old women right now lusting after near-70 year old Bill, but it seem hard to imagine.

In terms of grandma Hillary, I'd say she looks and talks very similar to my childhood friend's mother. I was never scared of her, but I did learn very early that she wasn't afraid of questioning my "facts", and when I made assertions with all my best 8-year old logic, I found out quickly that I was probably premature in my conclusions, and it made me more careful to think things through.

So I imagine Hillary has a similar level of intelligence, someone you don't want to start a debate with, unless you got your facts straight before hand.

Of course maybe that's just me. I don't like being wrong in public. So my style of debate is pretty mild - assert my best ambiguous effort at truth, and see what someone else says, and then spend a few days reassessing if that changes my view on things.

I admit if I was married to someone whom I had to always be on my toes, that it might get old, and perhaps that's the general argument against feminists (And laments like from the otherwise laid back Canadians "American woman, get away from me.")

But overall, I'd be proud if I was married to someone as intelligent as Hillary, and even uxorious. And I might wonder why she doesn't want to retire and enjoy her grandmotherhood, but I'd support her, and try to not say too many embarrassing things while I'm trying to embarrass her.

Admittingly I don't understand all the dynamics of married couples, but it seems like there's someone for almost anyone and I'd never advocate a woman hide her strengths to make men feel less insecure, even if it seems prudent in the early stages of a relationship.

David Foster said...

'And yet, considering how hard she was trying, Mayer seems also to have been demonstrating that powerful women have to try harder, a lot harder to attract men, no matter how beautiful they are."

But there's no evidence she had problems attracting men on a personal level; she's been married since 2009.

She did seem a bit over-the-top in her efforts to present a glamorous image...but there are male executives who have had themselves photographed lifting waits, posing with their fighter jets, etc. I knew one guy who actually had himself serenaded with 'hello, big spender!' after doing a bunch of acquisitions.

It is disappointing, though, that she now chooses to critique the media based on their gender-oriented stories. Surely she has worked with media enough to know that they are *always* going to want to run stories about something unique, something different, something 'first'....and she seemed to have no problem taking advantage of this.

btw, I was recently talking with a startup CEO who mentioned that he had lived across the hall from her in college. He said she was very much a loner--went to movies by herself, for example--but was also friendly.

David Foster said...

My sense is that Mayer has tended to be too much of a micromanager. Her companywide edict against telecommuting was IMO very unwise; this decision should have been left to her direct reports, who in turn should have had the ability to delegate it to their subordinate managers. If she didn't trust her Drs to make decisions like this properly, she should have gotten rid of them and put in new individuals in whom she had more confidence.

sestamibi said...

As loathsome as she is, I don't think she was all that unattractive when younger. Check this out:

https://lionoftheblogosphere.wordpress.com/2016/07/03/cute-hillary-clinton/

Sort of adorably dorky, so I see what Bill saw. I definitely would have done her back then

Anonymous said...

Big Dog. What a joke, if it weren't so true. The Clintons are unusually good liars. They're the people who've been getting "one last warning" their entire lives. Democrats don't care about women. Democrats care about power. Their upset and rage is phony.

Dennis said...

I would suggest that bright intelligent women never have trouble finding men if they are happy with themselves as women. It is the persona one presents with others that count. I used to work with a beautiful talented woman every so often. She was a joy to be around and a very nice person.
There is a problem that infects many beautiful, intelligent and talented women that sometimes they don't really develop a personality because looks gives them advantages that others do not get. They forget to respect the people around them.

Stuart Schneiderman said...

Sorry to have to say it, but all women worry about losing their sex appeal. Married or unmarried. I hope I don't have to explain. I am glad that someone has found one picture of Hillary looking attractive, but it's only one and no one has ever accused her of having any sex appeal whatever. She's probably the only woman the Big Dog does not want to blank.

Recruiting Animal said...

Hillary has a tendency to make herself up like a nerd but when she doesn't she's good looking.

NOT NERDY - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-namImCszCk&t=2m39s

NOT NERDY - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjmu-fswDsw&t=1m15s

NERDY - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bg_sEZg7-rk

I really like the pushback Stuart on this posting.

Anonymous said...

First off, Hillary is not that bright. She flunked the DC Bar Exam and never re-took it. She never got a job on her own hook, always through her husband's connections.

She is totally dishonest. She was fired from the House Democratic Watergate Committee for LYING and attempting to deprive people of their rights. She also claims to be working for women and children, yet when she defended a rapist, she got him off by attacking the character of the 14 yr. old female victim and later laughed about it! She has regularly lied about all manner of things, as James Comey recently proved.

She is personally bitchy and unpleasant, as many who have worked with her have written. She's foul-mouthed and obscene, she has a temper and shows it, she hates police and military types, as is well-known. She thinks she is entitled to whatever she gets. She is a grifter, have stolen several thousands of dollars of public property when she left the White House. She sold her influence as SecState, using the Clinton Foundation as the money laundering operation it truly is. Haitians hate her. Russians love her mercenary ways. She is venal, wearing $12,000 high fashion jackets while claiming she sypathizes with the working class.

Finally she allowed herself to get overly fat! That is a function of diet and lack of personal discipline. That is also impacting her health, She is a sick woman on top of everything else.

Adele said...
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