Yeah, I do spend a lot of time walking around with my kids, and I make it pretty obvious that I am not available. Also, I will admit that it may just be in my head, but there is no doubt that women have been a lot more open with me, now that I am married. And that's saying a lot because women have always been open with me.

Well that's the irony: if those same men had affairs with the women who find them so attractive, those women would pretty quickly stop finding them so attractive, because they would transform in a second from Guy Who Loves His Family to Guy Who Cheats On His Wife.

Take me for instance: I had a whopper of a crush on this guy who is smart, artistic, handsome, funny, and who works in juvenile law enforcement (interpretation: strong moral core) who married his highschool sweetheart, for god's sake! Can you get any more devoted than that? Oh man! But if he ever expressed any inclination in having an affair with me, that would have killed my attraction to him dead on the spot, because then he'd just be a run-of-the-mill dirtbag.

The other possibility is, since they know you're married they already know where they stand with you (i.e. nowhere), so they can relax around you, and be more friendly and open than they would if you were single and they were doing the potential-courtship Dance of Guarded Uncertainty.

whether it is in a commited relationship or not. Obviously there are limits to how much a man can be "improved" but almost any man is more attractive to women than he would otherwise be if women can see that another woman or women finds him worth bothering with.

That's just the Wingman Effect. If a woman can see a guy is out and about with another woman, then she knows that he probably isn't a) a toxic sleazeball or b) a complete social retard, and if the female wingman (wingwoman?) does her job well she will put enough space between them and be willing to talk to other nearby menfolk at random so that it's clear they are not "together".

Guys do this for each other all the time, as do women. Its probably less common to do this with a member of the opposite sex, and I don't know if it would work as well if a man tried to be a wingman for a female friend. I did this once for a friend of mine who isn't at all socially awkward but is kind of eccentric and not a Cassanova by any means, and he managed to get dates with three separate women in one evening.

Can laughing once a day improve a feminists outlook on life?

Tossing one off every day would, that's for sure. Will this spawn a similar study on women?

Are you Lightning Rod Anonymous? I miss my friend.

and if you add the possibility of the wingWOMAN suggesting that they guy is sexually hot I don't think there can really be any comparison in effectiveness

Oh see now I would view that as being a little too... communal. Obviously I know that any guy I am likely to become involved with has had sex with someone else, but I would be really squicked out by any kind of "recommendation" that girl had to offer. There would be way too much visualization going on, and probably some internal comparisons (of the 'her boobs/bum are bigger/perkier than mine, I bet he liked that better' variety) that would spoil it for me.

I'm referring to the usual situation where women can see that other women think that a a guy is worthwhile enough to have invested something in, this is what I am saying will raise the appeal of any guy higher than it would otherwise be. Obviously the "better" the women are who are making the "recommendation" the more meaningful it will be.

Sorry, I misunderstood. Yeah, I'll buy that. I think that wingmen serve the same function, though, in equal measure to women. You can come to understand a lot of a person's character by the company they keep; if guy is out with a shower of assholes, there's a good chance he is also an asshole. If he's out with a bunch of funny, fun, nice-to-be-around (not nice-boring!) guys then he is also probably funny, fun, and nice to be around.

Wingmen may be more effective in the end, anyway, because I figure with a wingwoman there's always the possibility that she's ostensibly there as "just friends" but somewhere in her heart of hearts she's thinking "I was here first so you better back the fuck up" and will proceed to cock-block you (by "you" I mean the girl trying to meet the guy) even while continuing to pretend that there's nothing there between them. I think the same would be true for a wingman and a woman, just because for the majority of really close opposite-sex friendships there is some element of attraction. Or maybe it's just me.

Come on, did you make that up?

Now if women would get that through their heads and stop seeing male masturbation as such a bad thing. As long as it's done discreetly and doesn't impair his normal sex life, why should a woman care if her husband or boyfriend jerks off? But too many do--seeing it as gross or compulsive or selfish or unfaithful behavior, instead of something natural that is harmless and has benefits. Whatever--they seriously need to lighten up!

Holla!

They could also learn that sometimes sex can be a spectator's sport, and get into the game themselves. It's certainly the safest kind of sex to be had...

Richard isn't synonymous with dick. A nickname for Richard is Dick, which I suppose is equivalent to dick.

I think she meant "Johnson", which makes an even more unfortunate name combo, "Dick Johnson".