Why do Men and Women gravitate towards each other if...

[truthtripper]

I tend to agree.

I think when young everyone tends to want to conform to social stereotypes and having a partner is a seen as the norm. There are a similar number of men and women desperate for a partner.

 

But I think as people age and gain relationship experience good and bad, then there seems to me to be more single/divorced/widowed women happily doing their own thing with interests, creative projects, groups, volunteering, friends etc. with hardly a man in sight, than men. "If it happens it happens and if it doesn't I will cope quite well on my own." is the attitude.

 

I am generalising here, but in my perception.

Heterosexual men who find themselves suddenly on their own seem to want to be quickly "attached" to women, be that to women friends and relatives, to FWBs, to prostitutes, or to casual hookups, or they seem to NEED to be dating or in LTRs or marriage... They do not want to be seen to be womanless.

If truly on their own, they tend to get lonely, retreat from society, get bitter, depressed or turn to drink, none of which is attractive to women, so they tend to stay stuck in that rut.

 

Women tolerate physical pain better than men due the presence of estrogen, which increases the availability of pain killing endorphins to the brain. This would render women also better at dealing with emotional pain, grief, loss and life's troubles in general, hence their ability to be more independant than men.