Can someone explain what “dating inflation” even is?

somethinlikeshieva · 2025-08-30T02:32:57+00:00

Meh working on yourself is pretty hard, I have to admit. I almost feel like a chick, keeping up with maintenance on every little thing

liftingnstuff · 2025-08-30T03:38:50+00:00

Dating inflation or "hoe inflation" as it's more commonly known refers to the inflation of women's standards as a result of social media/dating apps increasing women's optionality by a large degree and a lesser effect of women being a larger part of the labour market resulting in the percentage of men who out earn women going down.

Pre-social media/dating apps, a woman's options were limited to men in local community groups that she was a part of, whoever was in the bar/club at the same time as her, men at her work, and men she met through her social circle. Post-social media, a women has the same optionality as before + all the men she matches with on dating apps + men she can meet through social media. More attractive women also have access to men she can meet through social media in other cities/countries.

Greater optionality means greater ability to be more selective. However, while she does have greater optionality, and thus can choose higher quality men, the highest quality men also have greater optionality. The higher quality men can thus sleep around a lot without commitment, and thus can be selective about commitment.

Hoeflation refers to a woman who has slept with men out of her league, who may now believe that her new standard is higher, because she doesn't realize that the higher quality men are unwilling to commit to her because they don't believe she's up to their standards for commitment. So this woman may now reject men who are actually in her "league", who would happily commit to her, because she is used to a new standard.

FixAccomplished9993 · 2025-08-30T02:50:39+00:00

Basically

Demand for quality of men increased by historic proportions

Most men are confused because this put more demand on normie men who are now considered below average and typically above normie are now considered average.

Every girl wants to date the above average guys but then (As someone there) even then women are oddly fleeting because they think they can still do way better so they would tend to only sleep with you and then move on because they are all aiming for the top of the top.

TuxedoPinata · 2025-08-30T06:41:42+00:00

Based on what you write in comments, you sound above average so you shouldn’t really feel the effects of this. Actually you are benefiting from this.

Men who don’t meet the criteria are exponentially worse off. Of course people like you will just reflexively think that they are not working on themselves and you would be wrong in many cases. There are many things that block someone from going higher like certain traits in looks, how neurotypical they are, social anxiety just to name a few. These people feel the effects of having the rug pulled beneath them because they often have 0 options no matter the amount of work they put in. And trust me, many work on themselves a lot.

Matt-Choo · 2025-08-30T15:35:21+00:00

It’s getting harder to land higher value people because what they do differentiates themselves so much from the pack of mediocrity which is settling!

I put a lot of work into myself (and have room for even more) and every time I date a new partner I only date up. If I were to date down I’d be with someone who who brings me down, doesn’t exercise, chooses laziness over productivity, sloppy home, careless behaviors, makes bad eating choices, makes sloppy decisions that can bring down the whole team, and I work way too hard to let someone do that for something as low frequency as a few minutes of intimacy. Now look at the inverse of that, it correlates with a huge part of the dating app population, who complain that the apps don’t work.

Title	Can someone explain what “dating inflation” even is?
Author	Outside-Quarter-2866
Upvotes	5
Comments	16
Date	August 30, 2025 2:16 AM UTC (11 months ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/seduction
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/seduction/comments/1n3q1ru/can_someone_explain_what_dating_inflation_even_is/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/seduction/can-someone-explain-what-dating-inflation-even-is.1560853 https://theredarchive.com/post/1560853

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Demand for quality of men increased by historic proportions