The NY Times has an article about deal breakers, qualities a potential mate has that would disqualify him or her from future consideration. First, take a look at the picture of the really awkward looking man holding the stuffed seal. Do you want to know what he does for a living? He writes dating advice. And you wonder why we're having problems. The article gives several examples of deal breakers, mostly of women dumping men.

“I take her to my apartment, go into the bedroom, and fling back the sheets, and she said, ‘My husband had these sheets and he was a mean-hearted son of a bitch and you must be like him and I'm leaving.’” 2. “He didn't even seem sorry that he lived in a 12-year-old boy's room, this was like normal behavior. It said to me, this person is not grown up yet. It was frightening. He's lived his whole life in the attic.” 3. “He was very cute, but then I realized he was totally unsuccessful.”

The only deal breaker anyone should have is HIV. That's it. Even if a girl tells me she has HPV or herpes, I would do a detailed cost-benefit analysis before making a decision. The deal breaker concept is most likely to be held by picky, neurotic women who are single and over 25 years old. I've never heard a man use this term before. Having automatic responses to small behaviors or situations like his toilet was kinda dirty is a sign that you are not ready for adult relationships.

The irony in all this is that a woman's propensity to have deal breakers is correlated to her increasing infertility. The older she gets, the more likely things like ear hair make the list. I got plenty of ear hair—my loss I guess! Her inability to connect the dots will ensure her genes are weeded out, which means the deal breaker term will disappear in one generation. This biological consequence creates a natural selection mechanism against overly picky dating behavior.