So, I have read today on threads about settling. The most recent one was asking if women felt similar like men. Men have the fear that they are being settled for, meaning said women will get together with said men not because they find them attractive but because they think of him as a purse, an ATM so to speak. I think this circumstance is being labeled as BB? Surely this is happening, I don't know in which magnitude though.

The OP of that thread had turned the question onto women "do women ever feel like they are being settled for?", meaning that men get together with said women just because they cannot do any better. Some women like to label this as "starter girlfriend/wife", this means he is only together with her until he can find a "better option" so to say.

As a side note, in both cases said men and women are being simply objectified and not treated as human beings.

Reading through the comments, it puzzled me that noone thought of the third option. Couldn't it be possible that he is being with you and he simply has no other options? I could imagine cases in which the man (I am speaking of the male perspective because I am male) finds her attractive and because he had no options he learnt to also appreciate and value other traits much higher than the purely shallow ones, for example being religious, moral values and humor.

I could very well imagine a guy who learns to value other less shallow character traits in women because he mostly has no options. Thus if he ends up with a woman, there is the possibility that he actually truly loves and finds her attractive despite everyone labeling him as someone "who just settled, who just couldn't get any better options".

What do you think?