That bothered me too, the way all the women in the story throw themselves at him. But in all fairness I guess that's how the old west was. Women were cattle (as Mae points out). Marriage wasn't so much about love as it was about women's survival. We see a parallel in the way stray heifers get killed by mountain lions, twice in the movie. So I think it's implied that in the old west, women had to find a protector otherwise they wouldn't survive. Their attraction to Jubal wasn't physical, it was more like desperation. We saw what happened to Mae when her protectors were gone. Great movie but wow, pretty upsetting stuff. You wonder how anyone survived the old west.