While women have won the battle for equality in the workplace, they have suffered a setback in the relational realm. Women in modern America  are often given two poor choices: "hooking up" or being "joined at the hip". The "hook up", practiced by 40% of college women, is friends with benefits, meaning sex without commitment. The other option is "joined at the hip", where a couple that doesn't know each other very well commits to a sexual relationship and spends all their time together.

Neither "hooking up" nor being "joined at the hip" are leading American women to their goal of an intelligent, long-term committed relationship that might lead to marriage and family. But both methods of modern love are custom made for the  single man's romantic self interests. 

Mirage men who want to base a relationship on physical attraction, charm and approval-seeking love the immediate physical bonding of the "hook up"  or being "joined at the hip." But for women, the romantic fantasy of flying away with their dream lover  is bound by the laws of gravity. When the thrill of the honeymoon phase inevitably begins to wane, the woman often discovers her Prince Charming is just a wide mouthed frog.