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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 19, 2026

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I was catching up on the quality contribution threads for last month (yes, I'm very late...) and I ran across this post from @Amadan.

I found this part specifically was interesting in the broader context of the discussion:

Assuming, of course, that their standards are not too high... You don't want fat Sally the checkout clerk or carousel-riding Cathy, fine. You insist on a 20-something slim attractive virgin who is agreeable and submissive? Hmm, good luck if you're not a 6/6/6. (Or a Mormon.)

One of these things is not like the other.

For men:

  • Six figures: quite difficult to do. Statistically only a fourth of the men in the US achieve this (and of course this assumes that the requirement won't change if all men achieved this).
  • Six feet: mostly driven by genetics and childhood nutrition. And only achieved by 14.5% of men in the US (according to Google).
  • Six pack: this presumably any man could achieve with sufficient exercise (and diet control) though it might be difficult to do concurrently with a six figure job.

For women:

  • 20-something: every woman will be a 20-something for ten years of her life.
  • Slim/attractive (they're mostly the same thing): partially driven by genetics? But still, exercise and diet go a long way here.
  • Virgin who is agreeable and submissive: these are all completely within the median woman's control. As they say, manners cost nothing.

Is it just me or is this scale a bit tilted?

(Apologies for responding so late and in a top-level comment; I didn't want this getting buried in a weeks old thread.)

Six pack: this presumably any man could achieve with sufficient exercise (and diet control) though it might be difficult to do concurrently with a six figure job.

Wasn't it a six-inch penis? Which makes your claim about the dice being loaded against men even stronger.

On a tangential note, I recently learned about the "average SEC couple" meme, which shows that not all hope is lost for those who don't meet the standard.

The "average SEC couple" meme is interesting. The reaction I've seen from some quarters is "What the heck is going on down there? Why are all these average looking dudes paired up with these dolled up 9/10s?" As anyone who went to school in the SEC knows, you can have a dumb or average looking face but if you've got some attitude ,swagger, a nice truck, and the right friends you can absolutely pull a girl who looks like that. Dudes are allowed to be dudes, you don't have to be what used to be called "metrosexual" to get laid. The other part is that the majority of girls actually just look like that, they go out of their way to wear feminine clothing and lots of makeup so they looks better** than your average frumpy non-SEC girl.

**according to the taste of many but not all -- personally I'm not a fan of the look though I can imagine the appeal