Can a Petersonian analysis of the trophy wife by application of the dominance hierarchy explain the phenomenon?
Tony Randall married his wife at 74 when she was 25. Tony died at age 84.
First, there’s the cynical analysis from the wife’s perspective, right? Her young. Him, a high status male with plenty of financial security (presumably) with the potential to set her up for life. That’s a strategy for security for her and her kids. No complaints or shade thrown from here. You gotta maximize your security, after all.
But what’s in it for him? Obviously, fucking a beautiful young woman one third your age, but how much of that’s really going on? At 46 I can barely be bothered to wash the car once a month but everybody’s different, right? I mean, if you got a Mustang Shelby GT 350 with 526 hp, you’re gonna wanna take it out on the track, maybe even pretty regular. So who knows, maybe Tony really was burning her rubber pretty regular at 82 years old.
What if too, at least, it was a matter of Tony flaunting his status in the dominance hierarchy? As a statement, more or less, of “look motherfuckers how I’ve crushed this thing called life. At 74 I got what anybody half my age would want. I got it as an old man. Most of you don’t have this even as young men. So fuck you. Game over. I win.”
So that puts Tony at top of the dominance hierarchy, right? The alpha-male lobster. But the alpha-lobster attains his status by achievement of goals. Power, fame, wealth. And as an expression of that, to flaunt himself as near the pinnacle, the trophy wife is part of that expression?
mrobins71 