It's not a mystery

Women seem to have a very hard time understanding why men who are single in their 40s don't tend to prefer dating women who are in their 40s. But even if you are a heterosexual woman, which woman would you find more attractive if you were a man?

This woman? Or this one?

Just how spectacular and scintillating would the conversation have to be for you to prefer the company of the former to the latter? How much education, intelligence, and all-around fabulousness would compensate for the other's youthful pulchritude? The truth is, as even most women would have to admit, is that there is no comparison.

This doesn't mean that men are all inclined to dump their aging wives in favor of younger women; one of the benefits of love is that men are often predisposed to view their wives through a filter of their memory, assuming that she has not changed so dramatically that it is simply not possible. Also, the shared years together can create such a strong bond that even the hottest little swimsuit model could not break it.

But such bonds simply don't exist in the world of single forty-somethings. So, a woman in the position of the "bright, attractive, successful, fabulous", single, and forty-something Ms Pasternak should do what I advise all such women to do. Stop looking at the 40-something men and start looking at the 60-something ones.