Quote: (09-10-2015 06:22 PM)Sgt Wrote:
It's a good scene, and it's great that this is in a Hollywood movie, but I would not call his answer a philosophical one.
Younger women being nicer than older women is just one reason out of many, and it's a lower-ranking one compared to biological impulses. I also think he's not giving her a straight answer, but a white lie - or do you think that if the older woman would be just as agreeable as her daughter, that if he has a chance of being with the daughter, he would choose the mother over the daughter?
Yes, from an objective point-of-view, "niceness" seems like reason #32 on the checklist of why younger women are preferable.
But when you're older (ahem) and have to put up with the smug, arrogant, know-it-all "I want to talk to the manager" bullshit from the fortysomething set, niceness becomes reason #1, because you're coming from an emotional standpoint.
I had a friend in college who used to say he didn't value niceness because "anyone can be nice." But I've found that's not really true. Ego, competitiveness, ambition, and a bunch of other things make it difficult for a lot of people to be nice. They need to put you in your place and show you just who they are. Hmph!
This seems to especially be true of the menopausal set who seem more into "battling" people and "matching wits" with men than harmonizing with them. We all knew these women in high school. They were the teachers and administrators (or girlfriend's mothers) who would go out of their way to humiliate or belittle you. The good part was we weren't stuck dating them.
Until we found ourselves single at age 44 and realized we were, in fact, dating them. Oh sh*t! How did this happen?!
Suddenly, it hits you: How is it I'm buying dinner for an old bat who is completely rude and argumentative, but two decades ago when I did this with totally hot 18-year-old interns from my old job they were super nice? You'd think it would be the other way around.
Also: How is it that when I was a poverty-stricken 25-year-old who accomplished nada, women were nice, but I'm now a man who has accomplished a whole lot, and they're behaving towards me like I'm a total loser?
So I get why the guy in the clip says what he does to the haggard old Anne Archer character. I've thought it too. It's one reason I avoid shopping at the Yuppie place nearby and go to the trashy Food Lion near the trailer park. It's staffed with 18-year-olds who might not be too bright, but they sure are nice. That matters. Now if I could only pull off looking more like I did at 25, I'd be set...