Men “aging better” is a complete lie in the real life. : TwoXChromosomes

My neurodivergent reading on the whole dynamic goes thusly:

Everyone knows that a man who has traits like wealth , power , and confidence are attractive, but I don't think that's really the most basal description of what's going on. To me, it seems that women are genetically hard-wired to be attracted to men who display agency - they display the ability (or can convince the woman otherwise) to affect change to the world around them. This means in the physical sense (men who are fit can physically do things that a thin guy cannot), in the mental sense (they have the persistence to keep working on something), or the societal sense (men who have status can use that status to change what other people are doing, in a way that benefits his mate).

Most people aren't thinking in terms of our monkey brains though - only the most giga-sperg woman would say "omg his demonstration of agency is so hot" - thus the shorthand of saying they want a man who is smart/determined/rich/ripped etc. (and to be clear, I think this is generally fine - people don't always need to be technically as long as both parties involved understand the rules of the game).

For all the (justified) pooping on said futureless junkie , there are many facets in which a man can demonstrate agency, especially if both the man and woman have a low bar (i.e. they are poor). There's the old joke "a crackhead wakes up each morning with nothing in his pockets, and yet he'll still manage every day to make enough to get his fix". Despite how pathetic his life seems/is, he does prove that he has the tenacity to make things happen.

Because they said they were pretty