For background: there were many articles written within the last 10 years or so where women complained about the lack of "economically attractive" men available for marriage. Here's one study:

Mismatches in the Marriage Market - Lichter - 2020 - Journal of Marriage and Family - Wiley Online Library Additionally, if you're a man who is asking "why are there few attractive women on OLD", realize that a lot of the objectively attractive women flocked to Sugar Baby websites and/or use other social media apps to match with wealthier/higher status men.

Back to the main point,

Previous generations of men would see the very attractive women their age work at front-facing industries like Hooters and/or become strippers to earn some extra moolah. Not saying women shouldn't monetize their looks/beauty. It is what it is. Although some of the women in these industries did some shady backroom stuff, most men back then didn't see women their age group monetize sex/their bodies. So a lot of those men were still oblivious to what women did for money behind closed doors.

Nowadays, younger (Gen Z and Millennial) men are seeing the attractive women (i.e., 8/10, 9/10,10/10) in their age group go the Sugar Baby, escort, Only Fan route as a side hustle. And women are promoting this openly. Youtube has many videos where younger women are giving advice on how to be an effective sugar baby. Even on TikTok, younger women openly flaunt how they make a ton of money selling feet pictures on OnlyFans and/or going the Sugar Baby route.

Which makes me curious of what kind of message that sends to younger men: "Attractive women are for sale."

Let's face it: most (i.e., average) men build themselves up so that they can get an attractive and exclusive romantic partner. That's why Trophy Wives are a term. Rich men don't typically wife up old, fat, and/or ugly women.

So if you're an average or slightly above average woman in terms of physical attractiveness, you still have a small chance at getting commitment from that man who's now rich/successful later in life (e.g., 35+).

But what happens when:

  • Young, average-earning men decide to opt out of the dating market because they cannot afford a reasonably attractive woman and
  • Young, economically attractive men have seen attractive women sell themselves. More than likely he is going to find himself able to date Sugar Babies / escorts instead of women who used to be that. And given that he's economically attractive, he's less likely to choose a physically less attractive woman.

Does this worry women in terms of having fewer "economically attractive" men available when they are older?