The linked wiki has a suggestion that makes sense: // that men "abandoned their claim to be considered beautiful" and "henceforth aimed at being only useful".

The linked wiki has a suggestion that makes sense: // that men "abandoned their claim to be considered beautiful" and "henceforth aimed at being only useful". This resonates. I am around 40 and was born in Eastern Europe and the environment I grew up in was all about “man is valued as a good provider / defender “ and looks matter less for us. Obviously it’s better to be handsome than gross, but it’s better to be useful but gross vs pretty but useless. So to this day, it rubs me the wrong way when a man puts too much effort into looks vs “quality.” So this theory resonates as a historical thing