Update: I mis-typed a rather crucial word in this post, thankfully caught by Amanda. Replaced and bolded.

Michael Williams's The Social Hierarchy reminds me of a common complaint I had about Clear Lake High School:

It seemed that the top 75% of girls would only go out with the top 25% of guys, and the top 75% of guys would only go out with the top 25% of girls. No one seem to notice the discrepency and yet they all complained about being single. This point became particularly clear during Prom season when I would hear both sides of the male/female partnering say something to the effect of "S/He's fine for prom, but I could really do better."

There's a reason that despite spending four years there, I never went out with a single Clear Lake female-type.

It also reminds me of something I've often said about young people and their love lifes: If you're ugly, you better hope you're a boy. If you're shy, you'd better hope you're a girl. It's much better to be a shy girl than an ugly girl and it's much better to be an ugly guy than a shy one. It's on a spectrum, of course. A social-phobic girl may have it worse than a moderately ugly guy and a super-ugly guy will probably have it worse than a moderately shy one.