Putting harassing street behaviour aside for a moment. Please consider how ‘out there’, a man puts himself, to approach a woman to ask for a date, it’s a vulnerable position. And dudes love to fall back on, ‘Easy for y’all, you don’t have to do the asking!’ But in reality it is just as emotionally vulnerable to repeatedly, smilingly, decline those inquiries, through out day after day. And it comes with the bonus of frequent verbal push back of the ‘Well, your loss!’, variety, and a side of ‘you may be in physical peril’ as well.
Now add that street harassment, back into the mix. Now, you’re starting to get the picture.
Yes, physical beauty has benefits, male or female. And a pretty girl doesn’t wait long for aid if her car gets a flat. But that comes along with the very real 24/7 that every stranger encounter may be perilous.
That kind of “power” would only be helpful if it came with the power to physically decimate any guy who can’t take no for an answer. Bonus if the power works at a distance to knock out catcallers and stalkers and follow you everywhere creeps too.
I used to work with a bunch of strippers–they had day jobs in my call center and took shifts on the pole to augment their income. You guys would be crushed to know the absolute, abject contempt they had for their customers–their gullibility, their infinite ability to fool themselves into thinking the stripper is really interested in them aside from how much money they have in their pocket at the moment, their indiscriminate lust that has nothing to do with THAT stripper because he’ll be just as rock hard for the next three or four girls who hit the stage. They’d laugh about those pornsick idiots trying to date them and impress them and just count their cash and yearn for the day when they could drop that side gig because it’s pretty much a gross and nasty way to make money–but it’s a lot of money so that is the one and only enticement to continue. I’ve met very few strippers who were actually all that positive about it, and most of the ones who were liked it because they were really good on the pole and it’s an amazingly good exercise routine.
Guys who go see strippers are just wallets with legs to them. Chumps. And who the fuck cares if they have “power” over some chump loser who spends his paycheck to watch some random woman take off her clothes?
At the time in my life where I had that kind of power (as a 16-23 yr old, say), I didn’t necessarily realise I had it, or that it was benefiting me. I’m not especially attractive, but I used to hang out with predominantly male groups, so I got a certain amount of special treatment. I just sorta thought that it was easy to find dates, and most men are usually nice (although some of them are a bit weird). I enjoyed the pleasant interactions, but I didn’t really feel a sense of power or anything.
Just from watching reality TV, it’s obvious there are women out there who are aware of they have some power over (some) men, and enjoy that fact. There are significant downsides though, Women who use their sexuality too overtly get socially shamed for it. Also, any plusses to people’s assessment of your attractiveness, convert to minusses when assessing intelligence, competence or general ability.
Which is another frequent confusion: not only does “woman” get confused with “attractive woman”, but “attractive woman” gets confused with “made up, fashion-selling*, usually uncomfotably-dressed, hairbrushed into impossibility image.”
Which in turn comes in two main flavors: one where even rips in her clothes are tailored very, very carefully, and that other one where if you actually look at the way the clothes fall, or the way the shoes fit on the model you see that neither are the right size.