MSN dating advice--how to set your standards

Today's haranguing at MSN scores the hat trick of bad advice columns--misguided advice, crappy writing, and a pointless swipe at feminism.  Today's topic is the usual admonishment--women, lower your standards!  This week, we learn not to money-grub and actually open our hearts up to the less endowed in the wallet department. 
And as usual, the advice isn't misguided because it's wrong so much as because it's so off-target.  This article is preaching to a common stereotype--shallow women who are more interested in a man's wallet than his good heart.  In the real world, there are far more women who try to avoid this stereotype so strenously that they aren't taking finances into consideration enough.  I don't know any women who turn their noses up to anyone who makes less than 100K a year, but I know lots of women who stifled their own uneasiness about  boyfriends' chronic money problems because they didn't want to be shallow and ended up straining their own finances taking care of those boyfriends.  There's nothing wrong with wanting a boyfriend who keeps his shit together and has enough money to go out once in awhile. 
But this writer, Randy Hecht, is a step above the usual hostile advice columnist on MSN.  For one thing, he is obsessed with the Dutch treat.  He claims that women read too much into whether a date pays for her dinner, making it the litmus to decide how interested he is.  (I always thought men who insisted on always paying were simply invested in the idea of chivalry, actually.)  But though he doesn't say it outright, Hecht seems to be the one with a litmus test--if a woman expects a man to cover her bill, she's shallow.  The Dutch treat--how to show you really care.  He likes the idea of the Dutch treat so much he refers to the struggle over the check at dinner four separate times.
Again, hostile and misguided.  Any woman with an ounce of manners reaches for her purse when the check comes, even if she is 100% sure he will insist on paying.  If the women that Hecht is taking out to dinner cross their arms and stare him down when the check arrives, well, he needs to quit taking Paris Hilton out to dinner. 
And of course, what advice article is complete without a pointless swipe at feminism?

Nobody likes a double-standard. No one can resist one, either, if it happens to work out in her favor....  On the one hand, you expect equal pay for equal work; if you learned your employer was paying higher salaries to men in your position just because they’re men, there’d be hell to pay, and rightly so. On the other hand, you expect your dates to pay the dinner check, the movie tickets, and so on. 
 
Women--always out for the cash.  Wanting equal salaries and free dinners. 

For contrast, we have an advice article addressed to men about having standards titled "She's great, but...."  Oh boy, do we finally have an article addressed to men about why they need to lower their standards if they're even going to catch a woman?  Not quite.  This article is about whether or not to dump a woman over an incompability.  Their answer--don't be ashamed of having standards.  If the flaw is irritating enough, dump her and move on.  (But what if the flaw is that she always wants to go Dutch and never wants to pay for his dinner?  Oh, dilemmas.)
To be fair, this article is not hostile to women at all.  The writer points out that it's nicer to dump somebody early for an incompatibility than take her on as a project and try to humiliate her into changing.  The writer also takes great pains to characterize the issue as one of incompatibility, and not one of flaws that women need to be correcting. 
Altogether, it's good advice.  If the incompability is a big one, end it.  If it's a small thing, deal with it.  And know the difference between big and small.  This advice should be aimed at both men and women and it's not.  Instead, for women we get an article trivializing a big thing--money, and that women usually make a lot less of it and therefore might have a good, solid reason to avoid dating men who might burden tight budgets.  Better woman-specific advice about dating and money might concentrate more on how to date without breaking the bank with clothes, make-up and yes, Dutch treats in expensive places.