Would you consider beauty for women as a currency?

I don't believe it should be,

but I think, where ever populations are dense enough, it often is.

Both men & women.  Modeling??? Prostitution??? Having a sugar daddy or a sugar mama???

While I think you are stating an observable empirical fact, I think your use of the word "currency" is a bit misplaced. Instead, I would call it a kind of social status. Social status comes in many forms:

--A donut shop might give the local police free donuts to curry their favor.

--Celebrities are often given gift bags for showing up to events (sometime the contents are valued in the thousands of dollars), even though the celebrities are quite wealthy and would show up to the event just for the positive publicity.

--Former NBA star David Robinson found it utterly bizarre that, while he was in the Naval Academy, he had to pay his own way (for meals, lodging, etc.). Once he was drafted by the San Antonio Spurs and a multimillionaire, suddenly everything was complimentary to him.

Of course, such social status markers can have negative consequences as well. Think of the celebrities whose private lives are pried into by a flock of papparazzi mostly so the reporters can feed the public desire for scandal and comeuppance.

OF COURSE.  WHATEVER WORKS.  I'VE GOTTEN RAPED FOR IT, WHY NOT CASH IN AS WELL?

There are lots of reasons why men give freebies to women, and vice versa.

- to feel helpful and generous, it gives us a feel-good glow.

- to suck in a mark for a con.

- to get rid of a surplus so it doesn't go to waste.

- to spread influence, such as in promotional materials and ideas or advertising samples.

- to curry favour and win good will or liking.

- to seduce or to woo a possible future lover.

Even if giving a feebie produces no immediate results,

it can generate a warm feeling, a predisposition to like, to want to return,

and the giver never knows what it may lead to in future.

Some men can be highly strategic thinkers.

They open many gambits in many games simultaneously,

in the hope that one of those might eventually reap rewards.

I don't mean this disparagingly -

I mean it as a description of not just human nature,

but of apes in general.

The male chimp or gorilla will offer fruit or offer to do baby sitting for a female,

in the hope that when she later comes in heat she will give him her favours.

And in ape society, she usually does.

And it's not because they have an economy or keep account books.

It's because the emotional ground of relationship has been well nurtured.

And because it instinctively nurtures the thriving of life.

The gentler and more tender the male is towards her, the more he gets.

We humans could learn a lot from our ape cousins.

So when men give freebies to pretty women more often than others,

consciously or unconsciously,

it's most likely to be because it feels good,

and it might win future favours or relationship.

For many men, just the flirting is inherently satifying.

How does this work as currency?

Currency is a medium of exchange.

If something is free there is no exchange.

But if something is given in the hope of a future exchange,

even if that hope is unspoken or unrecognised,

the intent of the giver is that its not quite free,

its more like extending credit.

This is where sexual politics gets complicated.

A liberated woman is wiser not to accept freebies,

or to openly discuss whether there are expectations,

and if so, what, before she accepts.

I really hope you're joking, Quantum.

I'd hate to think that really happened.

Would love to hear your responses to our responses.

And those very same women are going to be completely "broke" later in life too.  Anyone who takes something for nothing will find out later .. you get what you pay for.

of course it shouldn't be, but it IS....same for a really handsome man......

but you know, in a way I feel sorry for these people......imaging going thru life not knowing if people like you for YOU or just because you're so hot!!!!!

welllll.....guess that's something I"LL never have to worry about!!!!!!!!!!

LOL

:-D

Just a pet gripe of mine - nothing personal towards you, Ben.

I like to make a distinction between looking naturally attractive (ie, with no artifice), versus feeling desirous.

We have developed a fashion of calling an attractive person "hot," and with it goes an automatic assumption that they want lots of sex. This is a huge mistake.

Maybe there is some correlation, in that people who are in their youth tend to be much better looking and have raging hormones driving their brains.

But good looking people can also suffer from being viewed and treated as sex objects - which can have the effect of turning them off and making them quite hostile to casual approaches and feeling disgust and aversion to those who behave inappropriately. Taken far enough, it can turn them off to everyone completely.

On the other hand, they may be in a monogamous relationship, satisfied, and have no desire for others.

I think... if we say that we find a person attractive, the heat is on the inside of our own brains - not necessarily in the state of mind of the beauteous person beheld.