Take Advantage of Your Looks

Nearly everyone in the United States has given his opinion on the Eliot Spitzer affair. I couldn’t help but give mine. I want to discuss just one topic raised by this episode. No doubt most of us were stunned when we read that guys were spending thousands of dollars for an hour of sex with one of these girls (and way more for time with two of these girls, but that’s a topic for another day).

The call girl, Kristin (I think her name is actually Ashley, but I’ll refer to her as Kristin because I like the name better), is extraordinarily attractive.

 

It’s not surprising that beautiful women use their beauty to make money. In most occupations few people complain when beautiful women use their beauty to make lots of money. Few people carp and complain about beautiful models getting paid thousands of dollars a day just to pose for pictures.

And for those models who may comment huffily that it’s way more than just standing there, I realize you might have to get up very early in the morning to go to a photo shoot, sit there while makeup is applied to you, etc. But it ain’t exactly like being a coal miner or a roofer in Florida in the summer heat. So don’t complain to me. You might get a more sympathetic ear if you complain to Mr. Practical though. He’s very empathetic to models.

The same thing occurs with actors and actresses. While there are unattractive actresses, for the most part they are in much less demand than Angelina Jolie or Eva Longoria. The same phenomenon is at work even in fields other than entertainment. Take a look at CNN’s or MSNBC’s websites to get a look at their on-air anchors and reporters. They look even better than most actresses.

Few people complain that pharmaceutical sales reps are almost always very good-looking. It’s no accident that the pharmaceutical companies hire good-looking people, who seem to be good at getting in to see doctors and pitch their products. Picture this, you have two sales reps trying to get an appointment with a busy doctor. One of them is an 8 on a scale of 1 through 10 and one of them is a 5. Which one is more likely to get in to see the doctor, all other things being equal. Attractive people are given preference for all of these occupations.

But I wonder why attractive women don’t take advantage of their looks even more often. Specifically, I wonder why very attractive women date and marry guys who don’t have much money when they could be dating and marrying guys who make enough money to support them comfortably.

I don’t mean that women should marry only for money. I mean that the guy’s ability to provide security and an easier life should be an important factor for a woman to consider when determining which guys to date. To a great extent this factor does play a role in dating choices, but I wonder why it doesn’t play an even greater role.

Consider this hypothetical situation. An extremely attractive 25 year old woman has the opportunity to date many men. She could, let’s say, date a musician, a male model, a dermatologist, an ex-football player who coaches for a high-school football team. Let’s further assume that the musician, the model, and the coach are doing ok financially but give no signs that they will ever make more than middle-income. And the dermatologist makes $300,000 - $350,000 a year. To keep from cluttering up this hypothetical, let’s further assume that all of these guys would seem to treat her well, and none suffers from any huge drawbacks.

If the woman marries the dermatologist, she will live in a very comfortable house in a nice neighborhood. She’ll never really have to worry about how she is going to pay for her children’s braces, or whether she will be able to retire on much beyond social security benefits. She’ll always be driving a fairly new, safe car. If it breaks down she’ll never have to worry about whether her family has enough money to pay for an expensive repair. She’ll never have to go without medical checkups because she’ll always have good medical insurance and money to pay copays.

And she’ll be able, if she chooses, to stay home with her children when they come into the world. She won’t have to take them to daycare Monday through Friday and wonder how they are doing. If the kids want to take piano lessons, she won’t even have to think about how she could rearrange the family budget to pay for them. If they clamor to go to Disney World, she’ll just have to go online and make the arrangements to fly to Orlando for the week.

In contrast, if she marries the male model or the coach, she might have to worry about all these things. She might well not be able to afford to stay home with her small children. Her husband will be unusually good-looking, but her life will potentially be filled with lots more worry and anxiety.

Some of you might respond that if you love the coach or the model, that should be enough. But my point is why shouldn’t you take into consideration the lifestyle and comfort that your husband to be could provide. Of course, many women do this, but it strikes me that most 25 year old women don’t take it into consideration as much as would be good for them.