I've been absorbing TRP content for awhile now, and I've really begun to wonder if women are really hypergamous by nature, or if it's taught by culture?

It seems nearly all mainstream entertainment targeted towards women 18-35 is FILLED with hypergamy and cheating, often on the woman's part. It's very prevalent in TV (Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy) and Books (Twilight, Something Borrowed, etc) as well as movies and even some music.

The real kicker is, rarely do these occurrences end badly for the woman -- sure, big "drama" will occur, but it almost always "works out in the end". (Meanwhile men that exhibit the same behaviors are portrayed as bad and ostracized, and "get what they deserve" in the end)

I was recently at the movies with a girl and saw a trailer for movie called "The Lunchbox". The basic premise is it's set in India (where women regular make hot lunches for their husbands and have them delivered via dabbawala), and the main character, who is clearly dissatisfied with her marriage, begins an affair with another man after her husband's lunch is misdelivered.

After the movie we were seeing had ended, the girl commented "That lunchbox movie looked sooo cute!" I was actually fairly taken aback by this and said "Really? Instead of communicating with her husband to fix her relationship, she starts an affair instead via lunch pail? That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard."

My point is, are women really s "hypergamous by nature" as is so often pointed out here? Or has our culture just taught them that it's ok? That if you're unhappy with your boyfriend/husband you should just go find another man because you deserve to be happy and everything will work out okay?