ROBIN HANSON: The Male Gender-War Advantage.

Raising the status of some situation or action, and people will pay more to get it. Lower that status, and they’ll pay more to avoid it. For example, women can raise the price men pay for sex with women by lowering the status of promiscuous “sluts”, while men can raise the price women pay to “henpeck” men by lowering the status of such men.

However, men have a big advantage re this status strategy, as how much other men respect a man counts a lot more to women than how much other women respect a woman counts to men. (Data) So when men look down on hen-pecked men, those men look bad in both male and female eyes, while when women look down on a promiscuous woman, that woman doesn’t look so bad in male eyes.

Hmm.