Modern dating discourse treats hypergamy like manipulation, but biology tells a deeper story. What looks like exploitation is often a fallback protocol. What we call “hookup culture” may be nature's way of salvaging a future. This lecture-formatted essay maps the anatomy of extraction—and what it costs both men and women when coherence fails.

Across the industrialized world, reproductive law still operates on assumptions forged in the 1950s—when paternity was presumed from cohabitation, women had limited legal autonomy, and sexual activity was still filtered through slow courtship channels. The legal frameworks that govern child support, paternity assignment, and reproductive accountability have changed little since that era. But the world they seek to regulate has been radically restructured.