“Much as I love ‘er indoors, she’s really let herself go since giving birth. She’s piled on the pounds and doesn’t give a fig about my, ahem, needs any more. So I made her a deal: shed the flab – and in return I’ll occasionally watch EastEnders with you.

“Why do British women age so badly? With their bingo wings and mummy tummies, they all resemble roly-poly menopausals like Dawn French or Judy Finnigan. Sort it out, ladies!”

OK, I'll stop there. If I'd written those two paragraphs for real (and not in sly quotation marks), I’d expect a Twitter lynch mob to hound me out of my job by lunch.

"Women are becoming more critical of their partners – and pickier about their prospective dates – than ever before

Martin Daubney

Yet these words are a direct parody of a piece written by Tash Bell in Saturday’s Telegraph, called ‘Does your man pass the Kitemark quality test?’, in which she laments the sad demise of her husband's exercise regime.

I’d like to point out I’m not remotely offended by the piece for lambasting and body shaming all “bog standard” British men – I’m mainly relieved that, unlike Tash's hubby Mat, I don't have to hit the rowing machine to enjoy the pleasures of the marital bed.

Nevertheless, Tash’s (admittedly comedic) article is indicative of a seemingly growing modern trend: many women are becoming more critical of their partners – and pickier about their prospective dates – than ever before.

There are two bodies of recent proof that give this theory substantive credence.

A study revealed that the biggest turn off for women is a dishevelled appearance Credit: Alamy

Last week, a University of Western Sydney survey of 5,500 singletons aged 21-76 from around the world showed that women are now substantially pickier than men across 20 different categories.

“Deal breakers” for women included laziness, dishevelled appearance (that’s you, Mat), being too needy and, simply, “bad sex”. Men, in contrast, were only pickier about women who talked too much and had a low sex drive.

In a further twist of the knife that reduced men to mere sperm carriers, the study’s leader, Peter K. Jonason concluded, “Women are likely to be more selective about their relationship partners to avoid costly impregnation by low-quality mates”.

Which neatly brings us to our second piece of evidence. A recent American book, Date-onomics: How Dating Became a Lopsided Numbers Gameconcluded that not only is there now a “man deficit” of college-educated men (in America women graduates outnumber men 4/3), but millions of non-college educated men will be considered “unsuitable” by increasingly sniffy women.

I’ve observed this female fastidiousness in real life for some time now in serial singleton girlfriends who hold out for male perfection, only to be sorely disappointed – and increasingly bitter – when it fails to materialise.

A close female friend once told me her ideal partner would be “a 6-foot-plus Swedish architect,” and I thought, “good luck with that – you don’t get many of them in Norwich”.

Sorry, ladies: Prince Charming isn't real

The practice of women holding out for this sometimes-mythical Prince has been given a term by social psychologists: hypergamy, the centuries-old tradition where women “marry-up” the social ladder to better themselves.

But what happens when there aren’t enough “good men” to go around? Answer: you get millions of single women who refuse to “trade down” – and in the USA, according to Date-onomics, it’s already reaching crisis point.

"Many men who don’t feel they can match up to this fairy-tale perfection don’t bother trying at all. Instead, they watch porn, play video games and retreat to their man caves."

Martin Daubney

And as women now typically make up 60 per cent of students in British Universities, you can bet your annual Match.com subscription the same trend will be coming here.

A further problem for picky women is that “good” men who haven’t partnered off realise they are in a seller’s market, so they become commitment-phobic.

Increasingly, many other men who don’t feel they can match up to this fairy-tale perfection don’t bother trying at all. Instead, they watch porn, play video games and retreat to their man caves.

For women, laziness is the least attractive trait in a potential partner Credit: Alamy

So what ultimately happens to all the picky women?

When, approaching 40, they decide they’re ready to compromise for somebody who isn’t that FTSE100 CEO after all, they’re surprised that many men aren’t ready to jump at the chance to have kids in the next six months.

An increasing number of men are thinking: “am I Mr Right? Or merely Mr Right Now? If I do settle down, will she trade me in for a better model if one comes along?”

This takes on huge extra gravitas when men look to punitive divorce and family courts and ask themselves: ‘If I do settle down, what happens to the house and kids if she divorces me? After all, almost 70 per cent of UK divorces are now initiated by women.’

The big question is: does this obsession with holding out for Mr Perfect make any of us, and specifically women, happier?

Or will they look back and think “if only I’d have compromised a little more, like men do, might my life have been more fulfilling?”

As our biological clocks tick away, it’s a question some British women might choose to ask themselves with a matter of some urgency.