Jordan Peterson cites A Billion Wicked Thoughts — which tries to establish what men and women desire based on their internet searches — to the effect that women are most attracted to the list of characters in the title of this post.
This guy says JP got it wrong, and he wrote his own (fairly interesting) review of the book.
I don’t know who has it right, but on a quick look it seems the reviewer is confusing “what women search for on the Internet” (what JP was talking about) with “most desirable professions in Harlequin romance novels.”
In any event, it’s interesting stuff.
I haven’t read A Billion Wicked Thoughts, and probably never will, so I don’t know if this is a fair criticism, but I think it’s very important to make a distinction between what people fantasize about — which might be reflected in search terms — and what they actually want.
There’s lots of things to consider. What people say they want; what they want other people to think they want; what they actually want, in the sense of feel a need for; what they think they want to have, which might not even match what they’re actually feeling (e.g. hunger and thirst are apparently often confused); what they like thinking about having; what, if they had, would make them feel satisfied; what would actually satisfy them.
People are complicated, I guess!
Yes, it’s not a simple thing.