Married men are healthier than single men, wealthier, they live longer and happier lives, they have more sex. They have somebody who knows them, and tolerates them anyway. – Frank Pittman
That quote is from the article “Why men drag their feet down the aisle” by Karen Peterson in USA TODAY… a follow-up on the study I wrote about earlier this week. Pittman contends that “We have not done a good job of selling marriage to men. They don’t know all the good things that will change their lives.”
I tend to agree about all the good things, including “Free sex for life!” (which Men’s Health magazine sometimes shouts as a teaser on their web site). But I doubt that “selling” is the main problem. It’s primarily the poor example that dads as husbands tend to set. And it generally ain’t considered cool to brag about one’s marriage… to your sons or your buddies.
A man just wants a wife ”to look good, provide great sex, join in his recreational activities and tell him he is wonderful,” says Willard Harley Jr, a marital therapist based in White Bear Lake, Minn. Women’s requirements are much broader, he says. ”They want affection. They want to feel loved. They want a great conversationalist, a man who is funny, a good father for their kids, someone who is attractive, a good sexual partner, a man who is ambitious and successful. And most men are simply not” all these things, he says.
I think it’s a crock of shit to say we’re simple beasts. Men might SAY and THINK that that’s all they need and want in a woman. But that doesn’t mean its true. Cultural conditioning has a lot to do with that.
More on Why buy the cow if you can get the milk for free? My buddy Curt sent me a link to a Women’s Quarterly archived article titled Daughters of the Sexual Revolution. Gotta catch up on my reading!