More on Women's Attraction to Male Power and Prestige

In my last post I pointed out an important difference between men and women: while men have a tendency to be attracted to a woman for her looks, women are more often attracted to men for their power, status, or prestige.

The statement about men needs no explanation. There are of course many exceptions. Some of them I would like to talk about. They will be subjects for future posts.

Today I will focus on the women's attraction to male power. I want to make this point clear. By "power" or "status" I do not mean just economic, political, or physical power--though those obvious kinds of power can help a man to succeed in finding sexual partners.  There are many, many sorts of male power that attract women.

In certain situations, a drug dealer has power. In others, a guy in a successful rock band gets the attention. There are men who achieve a kind of status through being a clown or "cool." Even being a certain type loner or underdog can suggest power.

There are women who will brag about how they are attracted to "nerds," usually meaning "computer geeks."   It's not surprising. Computers play an important part in all of our lives, and those "geeks" make a lot of money.  Nerds have power too, and power attracts women.   
 
When I was first starting out as a writer I had to take low-paying, part-time jobs to make ends meet. I was a file clerk. I was an office boy. I was a lone male receptionist surrounded by female receptionists--all of whom despised me because I was only a receptionist.   I even delivered pizza at one point.  When I was working such jobs, I was beneath women's notice.

If I took a teaching job, suddenly I became visible.  If I went to a writer's conference, especially if it was somewhat exclusive, women even found me desirable.  But as soon as I returned to another temp office job I became the invisible man again.

In this way I came to understand that my desirability as a man was directly related to my position in a given sphere. I came to see that unless I had a certain status, I was nothing as far women were concerned.

Men who have never been through that--men who find a place for themselves and keep it--have a hard time understanding just how important their position is. Most women refuse to believe this fact of male existence at all.

Women have a hard time imagining this because their own sexual worth (as well as other sorts of worth) is more constant. Whether a woman works as a business executive or a maid in a hotel, men will find her attractive, if she is attractive in any way at all. 

 One of the biggest differences between women and men is that women have a sexual power that men simply do not.  This sexual power is extremely important, but it is being denied. 

  Why? This will be the subject of future posts.