BoumTAC

Urban Competition and Female Dynamism: The American Case

Published on August 25, 2025

Americans are reputed to be obese and poorly dressed. This is both true and completely false. This stereotype is real in "deep" America, but completely false in major cities. This is the experience I had visiting New York, Boston, Chicago, Nashville, and Minneapolis.

Big cities attract people.

There are far more opportunities in cities - this isn't something new. Bourdieu already spoke about women migrating from rural areas to cities to obtain a better life, leaving the countryside depleted of women. This is something we also see in France: the bigger the city, the more opportunities there are. Whether professional, social, romantic, or otherwise. Cities attract people.

We can clearly observe this difference in France by going to any metropolis. And the gap is even greater when going to Paris.

Just look at the clientele of a supermarket - everyone does their shopping - it's the place that best represents the local population.

Compare a rural supermarket with one in a metropolis and one in Paris. At each step, it's an upgrade. And it's the same when visiting an American Walmart or Target.

Why?

Cities bring competition between individuals. Whether to get a job, find love, or improve in your hobby, there are people. Competition forces you to become better. It's a virtuous circle.

When you have plenty of jobs available with good advancement prospects, it encourages you to work hard and not settle for the minimum. I see this in my industry: 90% of tech jobs are in Paris and 99% of interesting and well-paid jobs are in Paris.

In the dating market, when you have millions of people on Tinder in your city, it forces you to improve yourself to become attractive to the opposite sex. You can't dress in Quechua gear - you won't succeed.

Moreover, big cities are often more pedestrian-friendly than small towns. This accentuates visibility and encounters. You have to be ready at all times, unlike in smaller towns where people travel by car. You see fewer people, less competition, fewer possibilities.

The US - why is it so different?

In the United States, it's the same principle, but the culture is different.

US vs France age pyramid
US vs France age pyramid

The demographics are similar, with gaps by age group not exceeding 3%. With such a small gap, we can say it's identical. Walking around major American cities, there are many more working people and far fewer retirees - it's striking. But how can we explain this difference if the age pyramids are similar?

Students and retirees

For students and retirees, it's simple to explain. Studies in the US are expensive and last 4 years instead of 5 here. So students get involved in their studies and have to work on the side. They don't have time to hang around in town.

For retirees, they work - they don't have retirement at 60. They also don't put themselves in "pre-retirement" at 55, knowing that retirement is approaching and they can already start taking it easy. So they work, they're not on the street.

The streets in the United States are generally less crowded than in France. There's no magic - you don't become the world's leading power by twiddling your thumbs.

The number of women on the street

Something that shocked me in the United States was the number of adult women absolutely everywhere on the streets. Running along Lake Michigan, I realized there was gender parity among runners. Whereas when I run in Toulouse at Sesquières and along the canal, 90% of runners are men. How can we explain this astronomical difference?

I had the same experience in Houston running in a local park, but especially at the gym. There were more women than men in the gym. Maybe it was just chance, but I don't know if I've ever seen a Basic-Fit in France with a clientele composed of more than 30% women.

This video at Fulton Market, of a typical evening is impressive - there are even more women than men. This is unimaginable in France.

I'm not talking about "beauty" as if X was more beautiful than Y, because very beautiful people like very ugly people are rare. The majority of the population is average. This applies to both men and women everywhere in the world. What is striking here, however, is the male-female ratio.

The French equivalent would be composed of 70% men and would be composed mainly of students. Here, these are adults of fairly varied ages. Even though the majority are between 25 and 35 years old, there are quite a few people over 40.

Interesting point: the women are also all very well-groomed and the men much less so. In France, I think the level of grooming between men and women is more similar, but also much lower.

Cultural differences

In France, we have leveling down. It's impossible to earn more than €3,000. Sure, it's a nice sum, you don't starve at the end of the month - but it has nothing to do with a €3,000 salary from 15 years ago - inflation has passed through.

Just look at the difference in house sizes between our parents' generation and us: the surface area has been halved.

In the United States, a salary can easily triple between a low salary and a high salary. Compared to the French minimum wage + benefits (social housing, activity bonuses, etc.), a high salary doesn't even make ×2 over minimum wage. The pace of life isn't that different.

In the United States, the difference in lifestyle between a poor couple and a rich couple easily reaches a gap of $10,000. And there's no magic to making money - you have to be determined and this translates into all aspects of life: people get up early, they exercise, they're social, they show themselves in their best light, etc.

In dating, this changes everything. When you're looking for a partner, you take this criterion much more into account. Men being generally more ambitious than women, this has a great influence on them - that's why we see them much more active in daily life. We try to be visible and seen in our best light to please the opposite sex.

This video went viral in the United States. From my French perspective, I didn't initially understand the excitement about this video. It was after reflection that I understood that this problem didn't exist in France. I have never seen a group of thirty-something women so well-groomed going out. It doesn't exist in France - yet I saw them every day in Chicago.

The dynamic American culture is very different from our European culture.