Marriage Is Basically Affirmative Action For Men

The gist

1. Since the 1960s, deregulated dating has created winner-take-most dynamics where attention concentrates among a small share of men.
2. Even without social guardrails, most people still default to serial monogamy rather than pursuing multiple partners at once.
3. Hunter-gatherer data suggests only about 5% of first marriages last a lifetime, pointing to serial pair-bonding as the human baseline.
4. Williamson says women may resist re-regulating sexual norms because monogamous marriage limits their access to high-status partners.