Pigs and Pussies (Bang Bang, Part 2)

Last time I tried this I didn't solve anything.

I started out trying to explain why a person you've just met would go out of his/her way to tell you they are not available, that they are taken, that they are not in the market. This led to my confession that I always took this kind of thing as a personal attack, which got me thinking that maybe I see a lot of women as possible sex partners, and so of course they want to shoot me down, although now I can't see the logic in this thinking.

Anyway, it should come as no surprise that others are wondering about these and related issues, which can be summed up as

The Mystery Dance: What guidelines can we use
to understand The Game of Love?
How can we tell if the object of our lust is similarly interested in us?

This is so important that if you knew the answer, you could -- dare we say it? -- rule the fucking world. At least I'm pretty sure I could. Evidently the studliest warrior and the ringin'est belle are not much more enlightened on this subject than anyone else. They may be getting it more than most of us (or, actually, they may not), but they still don't have a clue how the system works.

I noticed that there's a guy named Dallas who has a crude theory that he uses to explain everyone's behavior. His theory is that we all automatically put everyone we meet into a hierarchy of fuckability. All of us do this. To everyone we meet. He states his case in a mildly amusing way, but he's wrong, of course. Go read about it. Go now, if you like. I'll wait. Warning: This theory is a little bitter.
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Dallas has created an elaborate web site to explain his theory, and give him a hand for all his work. If you don't want to read all 12 pages of it for yourself, here's what he says: When a man meets a woman, he subconsciously decides how much he wants to have sex with her, and places her on a rung of his "ladder" in a position corresponding to his desire for her. He's always looking to get it on with someone as high up on his ladder as possible, and will drop someone lower if someone higher enters his life or becomes available. Women do the same, only they have two ladders. The second one is for guys they like but will never fuck -- the "friends" ladder.

Everyone does this, and they make their judgements based on the, er, basest of criteria. Men go almost entirely for physical hotness and sexual availability, and women are looking mainly for guys with a lot of money, although hotness counts somewhat. Oh yeah: anyone who says they are looking for intellectual stimulation, good sense of humor, stability, etc. is just flat out lying.

Personally I think this is kind of a scary way to look at what is, essentially, Life, and I instinctively back away from it. I have jokingly said here that all men are pigs (or maybe someone else said it?), and in a way that statement kind of helps to understand The Dance. It brushes aside nuance and lets us focus on the fundamentals, so we can cope with what's happening. But I hope no one thinks I really believe there is no nuance or free will in our interactions. I don't know if there is a sure-fire way to know what that cutie-pie across the room might be thinking about you. You have to try to turn off the filters, let the truth flow into you, and then you have to act on what you think. The chance that you might be wrong is where the excitement comes from. And maybe the hope that you might be right is the reason for living.

Looking at Dallas' web site, I can see that Dallas (and maybe a few friends), over many cocktails, had a lot of fun putting his ladder theory together and coming up with examples of how it works in real life. But just because you have diagrams, graphs and charts does not make your premise true, especially if the research that generated the graphs comes from one guy's opinions. I think he should stop theorizing pretty soon, and go out and find a girl.