Note for mods: I am not advocating hopelessness or self-pity on account of unattractiveness. I am just trying to give an accurate assessment of the average guy's chances given the way much of the Western world works nowadays.

TL;DR: Status will increase your chances of getting laid, but don't expect it to work wonders if you're an average joe in your 20s, you're competing with people who have a huge leg-up due to what they were born with. Keep grinding (cliche, I know) and you'll be in a far better place in your 30s when the playing field evens out.

Often repeated to less-handsome guys on Redpill spaces and PC-friendly advice forums alike is the positive impact of status on a man's SMV. This is offered to unattractive men as a solution to their sexual frustration: become high status and girls will want to fuck. Noone along the red/blue spectrum wouldn't agree that increasing your status, through any means, will boost your individual capacity and total opportunities to get laid.

There is however a fair bit of obfuscation in the supposed efficacy of this scheme. I'm not saying no average joe 22 y.o disgruntled male couldn't bootstrap his way into high SMV through daily guitar lessons and cold showers, but this route doesn't offer equal opportunity to everyone, and in fact its presentation as an equal-opportunity panacea to sexual frustration is more the exception than the rule. Let me demonstrate:

Here are imo top 5 things that would confer a man high status among 18-32 y.o women and thus high SMV:

  1. Actor/musician
  2. Successful athlete
  3. Social media star
  4. Frat star (exclusive to college campuses)
  5. Prominent businessperson/wealthy playboy

and here are the top 5 things that require good looks/natural ability/inherited wealth to become successful in

  1. Actor/musician
  2. Successful athlete
  3. Social media star
  4. Frat star (exclusive to college campuses)
  5. Prominent businessperson/wealthy playboy

Don't these two lists look similar?

The promise of status to young men as a way to high value is simply an abstraction of the natural opportunities predetermined traits and inherited wealth offer in the sexual marketplace. Those capable of getting high status at a young age more often than not are just cashing out the things they were born with. If you're 18-32, your probability of being a millionaire due to inherited wealth is far higher than your probability of being self-made millionaire. Likewise any degree of high-status you attain around this age is far more likely a consequence of serendipitous pre-conditions than any amount of work you put in.

My advice is that no guy should expect to reach a favorably high status before their early-mid 30s without being in the top 5% of wealth/natural attributes. Focus on whatever you can improve now to build up whatever your top 5% is through concentrated effort/discipline.

Trying to compete with the "lucky ones" when you're still in your 20s is a losing game. It's best for men to take what they can get in LTRs but don't fret about not being a fuckboy if it never came natural to you. Competing with naturals when you're young is like trying to compete in a 400 meter dash with a 10-second delayed start. You have to look at the long route to easing your inadequacies as a marathon, where a 10 second delay won't matter much.