[dkarl]

While no man wants to limit his options in women, being in a relationship probably doesn't define his sense of self-worth the way it does with women.

I don't know if that's true, or if that's an incorrect assumption based on how often we do things that sabotage our chances of being in relationships. I'm thinking of high school, when I obsessed over girls and pretty much did consider myself a worthless failure for not being able to talk to girls and get them to like me, yet behaved in such a way that you would think I was bent on keeping them away from me. A big part of the reason I worked so hard on math and science was that I had a vague but deep-seated conviction that being really good at something would eventually impress some girl and help me get with her. Perhaps that notion is what girls need to be programmed with the way boys are.