trading gender divisions for class ones

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/19/magazine/19wwln_idealab.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/19/magazine/19wwln_idealab.html?ex=1321592400&en=76ec89702499e283&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

"Are we [Americans] achieving more egalitarian marriages at the cost of a more egalitarian society?

Once, it was commonplace for doctors to marry nurses and executives to marry secretaries. Now the wedding pages are stocked with matched sets, men and women who share a tax bracket and even an alma mater. People, like other members of the animal kingdom, have always been prone to “assortative mating,” or choosing to have babies with a reassuringly similar partner. But observers like Geoffrey Miller, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of New Mexico and author of “The Mating Mind,” suggest that the innovations of modern society — from greater geographic mobility to specialized work environments to Internet dating — have made this matching process much more efficient. “Assortative mating is driven by our personal preferences, but also by whom we meet, and these days we have many more opportunities to meet others like ourselves,” he says.

The Jane Galt blogger mentioned the curious synchronization of class on wedding pages. But I don't know if the process is new.


"... Just as women have long sought to marry a good breadwinner, men, too, now find earning potential sexy.... 'Men are less interested in rescuing a woman from poverty. They want to find someone who will pull her weight.”"


I usually ask my prospects to do a pullup or a few pushups on the first date.