Dear Journal,

Naturally, not everyone agrees that dating standards for men are increasing and that dating standards for women for decreasing, at least in respect to physical attractiveness. For example, in another study conducted by 60 Minutes, they reported that “fifty-seven percent of Americans agree with the statement ‘a good woman is hard to find'” with 48 percent of women and 35 percent of men disagreeing. This supports the idea that men experience a more difficult time finding that perfect, true love, possibly due to their unrealistically high standards.

Maybe it isn’t a battle of who has higher standards because everyone has similar standards to begin with, no matter if male or female. USA Today released an article on the the top things that men judge woman for and vice versa. Here were the results:

“Ten Things Men Judge Women Most On”

Teeth 58%, Grammar 55%, Hair 51%, Clothes 45%, Have/Not Having a Tattoo 40%,  Nails/Hands 37%, Their Accent 19%, Shoes 18%, Car 13%, and Electronics 9%

“Ten Things Women Judge Men Most On”

Teeth 71%, Grammar 69%, Clothes 58%, Hair 53%, Nails/Hands 52%, Have/Not Having a Tattoo 34%,  Shoes 29%, Car 24%,  Their Accent 22%, and Electronics 10%

See? Similar Standards… Although both sexes may have high standards, most argue that both women and men settle for someone that did not originally meet their expectations, especially of physical beauty. If this is so, then how does that change our interpretation of “get you a guy/girl that can do both” meme?

Maybe it’s saying that unlike in those 1990’s and 2000’s movies I mentioned earlier (Mean Girls, Clueless, A Cinderella Story), you don’t have to be just the “Sam Montgomery” or just the “Shelby Cummings” — You can be both. You aren’t limited to just one style, one persona.

Until next time, sweet memes & sleep tight,

Lexie