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Just heard that a song of mine will be performed on March 11 in Minneapolis! (The song was premiered in Austin and is slated for a Chicago performance.) Rodney, We are pleased to inform you that we have selected your piece, “When Matter Touches Antimatter,” to be performed at our New Arias on Tap performance on Sunday March 11th at Honey in Minneapolis, MN at 6:30 pm. Please let us know if you’re able to be present at the performance. I’ll be sending out a separate e-mail to introduce you to the singer performing your piece. The rehearsal dates with our accompanist are are Sunday March 4th in the afternoon and Monday March 5th in the evening. Once we’ve worked out a rehearsal time we’ll let you know and you can let us know if you’re able to attend in person or via Skype/Google chat/Facetime. In the meantime, if you could please e-mail the following: … [photo, bio, etc.] Thank you for being a part of our collaboration! We look forward to working with you! Eryn Tvete Managing Director Opera on Tap Twin Cities

According to Objectivism, romantic valuation is unaffected by social status. This flies in the face of countless scientific studies (one good overview here) done on the subject, which show humans (particularly women) do take socio-economic factors into account, and at every stage of the courtship process (from dating to sex to marriage). This effect is most visible on "celebrity" blogs and gossip sites observing who dates who. Notice the higher the status of the man, the more beautiful (and more numerous) his sexual and romantic partners tend to be. Nevermind the other health and social benefits indirectly related social status not related to romance, that people of high status enjoy in human societies. Objectivism ignores this altoghether as well. Ayn Rand herself seems to contradict herself at various times, at one point saying romance is a "response to (character) values" and at another point saying women desire to "look up to" a man (which could be an indirect reference to social status). In any case, it is unclear what she actually means by her words. In her novels, the most accomplished, socially desirable men (Wynand, Galt, Rearden etc) are often the sole romantic focus of the female protogonists. Lesser men (i.e. less money and status), such as Eddie Willers, are not even a consideration. This is one of the most intriguing features of her fiction. So my question is, is Objectivism simply wrong or just unclear about the nature of social status and romantic connection?