I'm a guy. when I posted gym shirtless dude bro pics, I got way more attention. Often from women who said on their profiles they 'weren't into guys who most gym selfies'.
People's behavior is what matters. People will chase what gets them rewards. In dating the point is to get sexual attention.
Lots of studies show this, but people on reddit/lemmy seem to live in alternative world I guess. I got zero attention when I was a skinny unmuscled guy, once I started workout out and show it off, I got way more attention. Just like when I point out I went to Harvard, women give me way more attention than if I don't.
Women are people. People are shallow and mostly care about appearances before everything else, and often it's all they care about.
Agreed thought, it's going to get way way worse. Women and men are moving towards these gender extremes the past decade, that have been extremely normalized and seem completely weird compared to how people conceived of gender 20 years ago. Social media is the culprit. A lot of folks increasingly are in this desperation spiral of gender performance and seeing the opposite sex as an enemy they must conquer and control through manipulation and 'value' displays.