We argue that male romantic dependency reflects a strategic response to structurally constrained emotional encounters, shaped by both evolutionary network dynamics and media-driven gender norms. Building on Wahring et al., we incorporate theories of population viscosity, reciprocal altruism, and media analysis to show how men's intimacy is centralized, women's is distributed, and emotional asymmetries are sustained.
Solouki et al. (Thu,) studied this question.