Rollo Tomassi
Master Don Juan
I know, I know, Nice Guy vs. Jerk has been done into the ground many times, but I just did a consult with a young man about this and I thought you all might like to read my take on it.
You can sift back through any number of pages in this thread and read me over and over agin telling young men to "get in touch with their inner A-Hole." In any of my posts, never do I state to in fact become an A-Hole. The 2 most common questions I get asked advice for is "Why do girls love Jerks so much?" and the "Lets Just Be Friends" line. Both of these illustrate different ends of a spectrum. Think of it this way - on one end of the scale you have the consumate Jerk, he's obnoxious, an A-Hole, borders on abusivenes, but women flock to the guy in droves. On the opposite end of the scale we have the ultimate Nice Guy who does and embodies everything any girl has ever told him he needs to become in order to achieve their intimacy and has internalized this doormat conditioning into his own personality. This is the guy who'll spend countless hours on the phone being 'friends' with a girl or spend fortunes on gifts for her in order to buy her approval.
Most guys are socialized and conditioned to err on the Nice Guy side of the spectrum by their girl-'friends', their sisters, their female aquaintances, and yes, even their mothers. They are constantly told that men need to "get in touch with their feminine sides" and identify more with women (in effect to become more like women) in order to attract and better please them. This sounds like pretty efficient, deductive logic to guys: I want sex + Women have the sex I want + Ask women what conditions must be met to get sex + Meet said conditions = I get sex. The problem is, while this is a pragmatic approach to solving a problem, it rarely plays out that what women say they require as conditions for their intimacy ever matches their behavior when giving their intimacy. How often have I read or listened to these symp Nice Guys complain about how their female 'Friends' cry and moan to them on the phone for hours about their A-Hole boyfriends only to go fvck the guy 10 minutes after she hangs up with him? The Jerk is successful with women, because he doesn't do what women claim they want in the 'perfect boyfriend', he is a challenge, he is a mystery, he is a project for her to work on and as long as he remains so she will readily give him her intimacy.
We only chase what runs away from us.
It's important to bear this in mind while you're trying to understand the Jerk - Nice Guy dynamic. The Nice Guy gives everything away for free, his attention, his time, his effort - he'll gladly alter his life's ambitions and cater his very personality to better his odds with a single, solitary target woman and once he's exhausted all possibility of intimacy with his target, he moves on to another target with the same methodology and getting the same results. He is everything the Jerk is not and believes he's correct in compromising and supplicating himself because he thinks that women perceive him as "not like those other guys." The Jerk on the other hand gives nothing away. He is self-concerned and often self-centered, he'd never think of compromising any aspect of himself in order to better please a woman because, unbeknownst to even himself, his attitude has always attracted women to him and if one doesn't want to chase him he knows that other women seem to want to often enough. He naturally exudes confidence, though he may not be aware of it, and he is what women love (but _say they hate) as they show in their behavior over and over again - a 'Bad Boy'. He's untamed and his attention is a commodity, not only for them, but any girl they may be competing for it as well.
So where does that leave you? As I said, most guys tend to lean towards the Nice side of this spectrum, either to mask a deficit in their own abilities to attract women or becasue they've been conditioned for so long by women (and other men so conditioned) to sublimate their natural masculinity. Ooh, and now I've gone and used the 'M' word, masculinity. For far too long guys have been conditioned by popular culture and understandably complacent women to think that anything even bordering on masculinity is something to be shunned or ridiculed. In the same effort feminized culture would like us to get in touch with our feminine side, they likewise would sublimate any masculine characteristic as being negative or in need of female corrective measures. Simply put young men not only don't know how to postively become men, they're conditioned to interpret anything masculine as something to be repressed. Ergo we have this prevalence of Nice Guys ready to "take anything they can get" and doing "whatever it takes" to achieve female intimacy and compromising very important aspects of their own personalities and ambitions to do so. Consequently they become frustrated with women and their inconsistencies in belief and behavior and either become very bitter with them (leaning all the way over to the Jerk side) or they pass them off as "just being women" and unknowable or illogical in order to help them cope with persistent rejection and confusion.
My stance on this whole thing is for guys to get back in touch with their inner A-Hole and not to fear or demonize masculinity. Nice Guys are too familiar with their feminine (which I think is Carl Jung pop-psychology nonsense to begin with) sides and need to explore without shame or guilt or fear of ridicule what it means to be a guy. There are far too many Nice Guy fathers teaching their sons to better supplicate to the desires of women rather than becoming great Men - to be uncompromising and to make themselves the PRIZE to be competed for. The reason the Jerk is so attractive is just this; He has the confidence to put himself and his ambitions before women. Women are a compliment to his life, not the focus of it. Start to lean your personality over to the Jerk side of the spectrum, not all the way of course and falling into the traps of being a Jerk, but instead tapping into the positive aspects of what makes the Jerk not only desirable by women (that's secondary), but the self-concern that makes him successful in other aspects of life. Women naturally want to be associated with this success, they want to be a part of a guy with prospect. By erring on the side of the Jerk you maintain your identity and maintain a woman's respect for you. How many Nice Guy/Friends do you think women really respect and show this in their behaviors?
And that's how I'll conclude this - Behavior is all. Behavior is how a man or woman manifests their true motivations; we're all hypocrites to some degree. I know so many Nice Guys that will excuse a woman's blatantly contradictory behaviors in respect to what they state because they have a sexual interest in them. The first step towards becoming the PRIZE should be adopting an attitude of zero tolerance for this and developing the confidence to walk away from less than optimal situations. Your attention is the strongest reinforcer for a woman, if by her behavior she contradicts herself, remove it! By excusing it, you reward her for it and reinforce it for the next instance.
You can sift back through any number of pages in this thread and read me over and over agin telling young men to "get in touch with their inner A-Hole." In any of my posts, never do I state to in fact become an A-Hole. The 2 most common questions I get asked advice for is "Why do girls love Jerks so much?" and the "Lets Just Be Friends" line. Both of these illustrate different ends of a spectrum. Think of it this way - on one end of the scale you have the consumate Jerk, he's obnoxious, an A-Hole, borders on abusivenes, but women flock to the guy in droves. On the opposite end of the scale we have the ultimate Nice Guy who does and embodies everything any girl has ever told him he needs to become in order to achieve their intimacy and has internalized this doormat conditioning into his own personality. This is the guy who'll spend countless hours on the phone being 'friends' with a girl or spend fortunes on gifts for her in order to buy her approval.
Most guys are socialized and conditioned to err on the Nice Guy side of the spectrum by their girl-'friends', their sisters, their female aquaintances, and yes, even their mothers. They are constantly told that men need to "get in touch with their feminine sides" and identify more with women (in effect to become more like women) in order to attract and better please them. This sounds like pretty efficient, deductive logic to guys: I want sex + Women have the sex I want + Ask women what conditions must be met to get sex + Meet said conditions = I get sex. The problem is, while this is a pragmatic approach to solving a problem, it rarely plays out that what women say they require as conditions for their intimacy ever matches their behavior when giving their intimacy. How often have I read or listened to these symp Nice Guys complain about how their female 'Friends' cry and moan to them on the phone for hours about their A-Hole boyfriends only to go fvck the guy 10 minutes after she hangs up with him? The Jerk is successful with women, because he doesn't do what women claim they want in the 'perfect boyfriend', he is a challenge, he is a mystery, he is a project for her to work on and as long as he remains so she will readily give him her intimacy.
We only chase what runs away from us.
It's important to bear this in mind while you're trying to understand the Jerk - Nice Guy dynamic. The Nice Guy gives everything away for free, his attention, his time, his effort - he'll gladly alter his life's ambitions and cater his very personality to better his odds with a single, solitary target woman and once he's exhausted all possibility of intimacy with his target, he moves on to another target with the same methodology and getting the same results. He is everything the Jerk is not and believes he's correct in compromising and supplicating himself because he thinks that women perceive him as "not like those other guys." The Jerk on the other hand gives nothing away. He is self-concerned and often self-centered, he'd never think of compromising any aspect of himself in order to better please a woman because, unbeknownst to even himself, his attitude has always attracted women to him and if one doesn't want to chase him he knows that other women seem to want to often enough. He naturally exudes confidence, though he may not be aware of it, and he is what women love (but _say they hate) as they show in their behavior over and over again - a 'Bad Boy'. He's untamed and his attention is a commodity, not only for them, but any girl they may be competing for it as well.
So where does that leave you? As I said, most guys tend to lean towards the Nice side of this spectrum, either to mask a deficit in their own abilities to attract women or becasue they've been conditioned for so long by women (and other men so conditioned) to sublimate their natural masculinity. Ooh, and now I've gone and used the 'M' word, masculinity. For far too long guys have been conditioned by popular culture and understandably complacent women to think that anything even bordering on masculinity is something to be shunned or ridiculed. In the same effort feminized culture would like us to get in touch with our feminine side, they likewise would sublimate any masculine characteristic as being negative or in need of female corrective measures. Simply put young men not only don't know how to postively become men, they're conditioned to interpret anything masculine as something to be repressed. Ergo we have this prevalence of Nice Guys ready to "take anything they can get" and doing "whatever it takes" to achieve female intimacy and compromising very important aspects of their own personalities and ambitions to do so. Consequently they become frustrated with women and their inconsistencies in belief and behavior and either become very bitter with them (leaning all the way over to the Jerk side) or they pass them off as "just being women" and unknowable or illogical in order to help them cope with persistent rejection and confusion.
My stance on this whole thing is for guys to get back in touch with their inner A-Hole and not to fear or demonize masculinity. Nice Guys are too familiar with their feminine (which I think is Carl Jung pop-psychology nonsense to begin with) sides and need to explore without shame or guilt or fear of ridicule what it means to be a guy. There are far too many Nice Guy fathers teaching their sons to better supplicate to the desires of women rather than becoming great Men - to be uncompromising and to make themselves the PRIZE to be competed for. The reason the Jerk is so attractive is just this; He has the confidence to put himself and his ambitions before women. Women are a compliment to his life, not the focus of it. Start to lean your personality over to the Jerk side of the spectrum, not all the way of course and falling into the traps of being a Jerk, but instead tapping into the positive aspects of what makes the Jerk not only desirable by women (that's secondary), but the self-concern that makes him successful in other aspects of life. Women naturally want to be associated with this success, they want to be a part of a guy with prospect. By erring on the side of the Jerk you maintain your identity and maintain a woman's respect for you. How many Nice Guy/Friends do you think women really respect and show this in their behaviors?
And that's how I'll conclude this - Behavior is all. Behavior is how a man or woman manifests their true motivations; we're all hypocrites to some degree. I know so many Nice Guys that will excuse a woman's blatantly contradictory behaviors in respect to what they state because they have a sexual interest in them. The first step towards becoming the PRIZE should be adopting an attitude of zero tolerance for this and developing the confidence to walk away from less than optimal situations. Your attention is the strongest reinforcer for a woman, if by her behavior she contradicts herself, remove it! By excusing it, you reward her for it and reinforce it for the next instance.
