Sex Rank
Men are generally clueless about what women are thinking. One anonymous member of the British Women’s Auxiliary Air Force revealed some startling insights into her own thoughts about what she termed, “The Great Man-Chase.”
To get a man is not sufficient. It’s easy to get a man. In fact it’s difficult not to. The desirable qualities are rank, wings, looks, money, youth in that order. Rank is unbelievably important… the height of sex-rank is commission and wings. Higher commission, the better. Sergeant pilots and ground commissions tie for second place. This includes Army officers. Ground stripes come a poor third. In terms of “looks” I include charm, personality, etc. This counts only as a narrow comparison viz Pilot Officer A is better than Pilot Officer B because he is more charming, but we’d rather go out with Pilot Officer B who is not charming, than with Sergeant C who is(and he’s good looking too).329
It’s hard to know how serious these comments were meant to be. I tend to think that this young girl from a bygone era was having some fun with her readers. However, there is clearly some truth revealed in this little essay. In The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis also gives us some truth about sexual attraction in his own unique tongue-in-cheek fashion. We hear the older devil instructing his nephew on the physical type of woman best suited for his “patient”:
This question is decided for us by spirits far deeper down in the Lowerarchy than you and I. It is the business of these great masters to produce in every age a general misdirection of what may be called sexual “taste.” They do this by working through the small circle of popular artists, dressmakers, actresses, and advertisers who determine the fashionable type. The aim is to guide each sex away from those members of the other with whom spiritually helpful, happy, and fertile marriages are most likely.330
The ironic humor in this passage makes us laugh, until we realize the seriousness of the truth being presented. We have an adversary seeking to direct our attention away from those qualities in others most beneficial to our spiritual health and long-term happiness. When we are drawn to the superficial and trivial aspects of appearance and personality, we pass up the opportunity to find deeper relationships based on character. This insight is important in our friendships, but is absolutely critical to our selection of potential lifelong partners.
Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: “Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.” Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
—Proverbs 31:28–30