Originally Posted by skier

Supple cow, I think you misinterpreted "devalue" from the (marginal) context of mbchill's statement. Or perhaps it's just because I understand the jargon

I believe the meaning was lost when he shortened devalue from lowering social value. It's not actually demeaning a woman, it's more about changing relative social mindframes that both you have and the person you're trying to attract has. Reading it over, it sounds like a complicated sentence... Let's say an average looking guy introduces himself to a beautiful woman. The guy knows he's average, and the girl knows she's beautiful. Her social value (say at a bar) would be very high- she probably has attractive friends, and lots of guys try to pick her up. The average guy needs to "level the playing field" in order to pique this girl's interest. He does so by demonstrating a higher value (which is different than saying he has higher value ie bragging) and also by lowering the social value of the girl he's talking to (perhaps by a deceptively well meant but slightly negative compliment- ex. "Wow, I love your hair, is that your real hair color? No? Well it still looks very nice.") While it's really not a very nice thing to do, it's more about getting the girl to think "Why isn't he all over me like the other guys? He must be different" than actually demeaning her and treating her badly.