Originally Posted by Supple Cow

I've been circling this thread, and honestly, I just don't know where to start. I might have started with answering the questions in the OP, but I think I'll get to those later when I can more clearly articulate my thoughts. For now, I just wanted to pick out this one thing that stood out to me:

I've noticed this feeling of entitlement as well and I really think the penis is to blame (in concert with the other major culprit: socialization). I say this because I'm a pretty moderate believer in physical/biological/physiological cues' ability to shape our thought processes. How does this explain why there's a trend among men to feel entitled to some arbitrary level of attractiveness (regardless of whether or not he considers himself attractive in comparable ways) in women? Because men are afraid their penises will get soft and this will make them lesser men. Why blame the penis when you can blame all those ugly chicks out there?

I know I just put down a whole big steaming bowl of unsupported assertion, but I can't help but feel that this is operating on some level... almost imperceptibly, but pervasively. To be sure, the way I phrased it would be insulting to most men I know (and probably most men I don't know)... but that's the point. It's not really as harsh or defined as being The Culprit, as I've rather cheekily referred to it already, but I think it's one of those forces out there in the mix. Add to that the concept of schadenfreude and a bunch of other people who are insecure in the same way and you've got yourself a room (real or virtual) full of men who think they have some kind of right to expect every woman to look like [insert favorite attractive famous woman here] to be worth anything.

I could say plenty more, but I think I'll stop here for now. Somebody probably has something to say to me about this. (And if this seems irrelevant... well, I promise this isn't a random threadjack. This is just a small piece of my very elaborate answer to the OP.)