My Favourite Five: While Lori and I cruise Alaska, I am rerunning a few of what I think are my best posts from the first six months of this blog back in 2013 and 2014. 

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“Ginger or Mary Ann?” 

Any man in the USofA who is in his 40’s or 50’s has heard that question many times in his life. We don’t need an explanation; we understand we’re being asked which of the ladies from Gilligan’s Island we would rather be with. Ginger was “the movie star” – a red-headed Marilyn Monroe knock-off, while Mary Ann was a “girl next door” farm girl from Kansas. 

Would you be surprised to know Mary Ann wins in every poll I can find? The best showing I can find for Ginger is a third, with 20% and lower being more common. If men are all about beauty, why do they choose the farm girl over the glamorous sex symbol? Psychologists both professional and amateur have given all manner of answers to that. I think the primary reason was expressed by every man in a group of half a dozen of my friends when this question came up recently: Ginger is high maintenance. 

I’m going to let you in on a secret. Most men want a peaceful life with a nice woman far more than they want a smoking hot woman. Not all men, but the vast majority. What’s more, the number who choose a peaceful life goes up as men get older (and wiser). Most of us learned early on that “smoking hot” women are usually high maintenance. There are exceptions, but it does seem to be the norm. In part, this is because being smoking hot is more than just natural beauty – it requires a huge amount of effort and caring a great deal about appearance. Being “smoking hot” is a high maintenance choice for a woman, and she usually passes that on.

All of this is to show that once men get past the testosterone poisoning of puberty they tend to see more than just a woman’s body. We notice “smoking hot women” because they catch our attention, but that does not mean we want those women. Once we figure out that women are package deals, we look at thing very differently. Things like personality, sense of humour, and intelligence become far more important than looks. 

~ Paul – I’m XY and I got me a Mary Ann!

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