And Casanova said "...you tell a beautiful woman she's intelligent and an intelligent woman she's beautiful."
The link is childish but has a lot of truth to it, like it or not. No it is not universal of course, but it is more universal than we think. I disagree with GG though (although I appreciate his thoughtful analysis). I think the theory applies even to ugly people and normal people. Remember, most people know what circle they move in. An ugly guy may wank to the local hottie, but he is making a play for a woman who's actually in his league. So, the circle of women he moves around in may not be supermodels, but they are, in his mind, rankable. His top rung may be your middle rung, etc. Same for the normal looking women. A fat girl who works at 7-11 doesn't put the lawyer who recently made partner, at the top of her ladder. She puts the shift supervisor at the steel mill at the top of her ladder (he has a pension plan and medical benefits and drives a Camaro and bosses people around, swoon). And everything flows from there.
Childish stuff, some may think, but its human nature. Although the level of discussion here may appear sophomoric, people get their doctorates for studying and writing about this shit.