Is money still an aphrodisiac?

Of course. When she's blabbing away about whatever, you gotta listen...but when "seducting," responding in a "loving" way can backfire, assuming you mean lots of compliments, and playing up to her.

The part about personality comes into play here. Make the conversation interesting and fun, instead of coddling her.

Australia, another very important thing: you have to, somehow, sincerely not care what happens when you go out. Get rejected, laugh about it. You have to not care if you meet someone or not. Women smell desperation, and it's a huge turnoff. This factors into the "money/success" thing that women like. A successful guy who's got it together doesn't act desperate and clingy around women, because he's already got everything he needs. This makes women intrigued. Not even women, people in general...I'm more attracted to women who are independent and confident, too.

Not that all this works ENOUGH for me, but it's a constant learning process.

Maybe, they are attracted to guys full of confidence as it is more of a challenge. A guy with no self esteem will be easier to pick up and less of a challenge. And maybe the greater the challenge the greater the perceived reward.

Money's probably still an aphrodisiac to many, but the question is whether you wanna be interested in the kind of women who are attracted by it ...

Not really. Probably too shallow. It would be interesting to know what most women look for.

Yeah, for sure. But then there's the whole self-depreciatory humor, (faux) shy Hugh Grant type stuff that also hauls in lots of women ... (in Europe, anyway ...)

Then again, part of the story there is you probably gotta be pretty self-confident in order to be effectively self-depreciatory ...

One thing you gotta give australia - and Lash, from an opposite perspective - its true, the male body has become more important I think ... having become financially independent and not feeling they should already be "grateful" for a stable man with his own resources, women are looking for more now ... and not just emotionally. It struck me when a friend of mine, who's a dancer/dance teacher, the other time said, "every day I dance with beautiful men - I feel like I'm not going to be satisfied with less in a partner now anymore either ... why should I?"

Sure its not the end all and be all (I havent got a trained body <ahem - at all - I'm a skinny bloke> and yet a handful of beautiful girls <and a couple of less beautiful ones..> fell in love with me), but - perhaps more important than it used to be ...

All kinds of different things, probly ... each of 'em is looking for something different again. And for something different at different points in their life.

Example: friend of mine did the party circuit for much of a decade ... much clubbing, drugs ... and she came home with all the "wrong" guys. Guys who woke up in the morning and had to get out in a hurry in order to walk their pitbulls - and called back later cause they'd forgotten that all-important necklace their gf had given him at her place. She lived together with this Moroccan guy for a few years - nice guy, friendly if a bit gruff (and a drug dealer who ended up in jail). In short: she went for tough guys, and needed them to take the initiative - and thus wondered in some incomprehension about the (Dutch, PC) softies she saw her student friends come home with.

But, ten years on, she finally found her true love ... and he's not just Dutch and a university grad, but actually a child therapist or social worker or something ... he has some stuff in his past too, so he's not entirely an innocent in comparison, but still ... a completely different type.

Not just different wishes and needs from woman to woman, but even from moment in life to moment in life ...

If you're looking for the secret key I'm betting it doesnt exist - unless you happen to be handsome, rich/powerful, charming/witty, intelligent and kind ... ;-)

man I gotta go to BED ...

Maybe it is because of the different generations. The baby boomers philosophy was hard work, financial wealth etc, so maybe for the woman in this era, financial wealth or future prospects was important. But my generation(the generation x era), the philosophy is live for the moment. Things like travel and lifestyle is much more important. That could be one reason why the guys body has become more of a priority.

Nah, baby boomers invented live for the moment.

I think the part about male bodies becoming more important has to do with a) gay culture and b) marketing, c) cycle of fashion. Men, for reasons of nature, nurture, or both, are very visual when it comes to sex. So toned bodies, good grooming and all of that is going to get a gay guy more action -- but meanwhile, the women are noticing. Marketers see an opening, pounce on that. And the moment is right for whatever reason; male dandyism (or whatever you want to call it) has waxed and waned historically.

Men will do what they need to do to get laid, and that becomes self-perpetuating -- if one guy who isn't doing so well starts working out and using skin products and then starts doing better, the bar is raised and other guys have to do the same thing if they want a chance. And on it goes, aided and abetted by gyms and skin product lines (not to mention clothes companies and shoe companies and hair salons and...) who want the $$$.

I don't object, overall. I like the idea of men and women having the same opportunities and the same barriers, and it's interesting to see men dealing with the body image issues and such that women have for a long time. ("Does my butt look big in these jeans?" "Is this haircut right for my face?", etc.) I don't so much see the body image issues as being good, but the part about understanding each other a little better as men and women both experience similar things.

(Can ya tell I just jumped into this thread without reading the whole thing? Sorry. Nimh's post 1075202 right on this page says something similar.)

its a good theory sozobe.

For instance, I fart, pick my nose, and watch football, like a real man. But I also own a couple pairs of Diesel jeans, and spend more than $0.99 on hair gel.

Money is sort of a turn off for me. I mean, if you're a nice person, then it doesn't matter, but I really don't like people who throw money around.

I don't like it when people throw money around either.

Unless she's putting it in my g-string.

yeehaw

I put an ad in an internet dating site once. "Multi millionaire, age 30, blond hair, blue eyes, travel the world". In a year I only got one reply from a 47 divorced woman with 2 kids.

Speaking From Personal Knowledge
From personal experience being a millionaire myself, women from most of the western world don't care about money. In the 1950s, movies such as "how to marry a millionaire" were popular. Today is different. The culture has changed to reflect the better economy and women's new position. I have had women say to me that they are just like men nowadays. They are very motivated by looks! The rest is just conversation.

The only consolation for poor rich boys such as myself (everyone laugh) is that money and power were important for most of western history. The rest of the world continues to follow the old model as you can observe Asian ladies dating older gentlemen with money. You can also find women in US and Latin America who follow the old model. But as far as Australia, Canada, Europe, and Russia (only want green cards) are concerned, money won't get you anywhere and if you flaunt it it just turns them off.

Even though I don't have a babe on my arm (which every geek dreams about when and if he gets that elusive money) I do enjoy not reporting to a boss and would rather be rich than poor!

same here canada