men and women tend to view how attractive a persons partner is with social status.

I agree, but I would consider those people shallow, and shallow people focus on a lot of stupid stuff in life. I like to think they aren't the majority, and are an extreme minority... but maybe I'm wrong. A guy can dream.

I don't care if my friends are dating "ugly girls", or have significant others that are "overweight", it doesn't matter to me. I don't lose respect for a peer or someone I admire when I find out their wives or girlfriends aren't attractive. That would make me the dick. So yeah it matters to some people for social status. But who are we talking about, the people who frequent the club scene and spend more on clothes than they do on rent? Like you said, the people who like expensive cars and big houses? I guess I really don't look to them as the role model for how society as a whole should act or does act.

For clarity I don't care if people have big houses or nice cares, as I enjoy nice things too, but when what they drive is more important in life than what they do and give back or how they spend their life, then I'm not a fan of those people and would consider them shallow. IE; The guy who spends more than half his monthly earnings so he can rock a BMW M3 but lives in a shitty apartment in the ghetto... I bet that dude pulls ladies at the club every weekend and has a high social status within his group of other people who care about material stuff and makeup-laden women, but try and get me to care what they think.

I guess I just don't care about those types of people that would be that judgmental over something so superficial.