Nice Guys

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VintagePunk

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I'm posting this because of a discussion that came out of another thread. It's an essay from back in 2002 offering a perspective on the stereotypical "nice guy." As I said in the other thread, while I don't agree with every word of it, I think there is some truth to it. At least it offers a different perspective, and hopefully will elicit some discussion! I'll add some thoughts later.


Heartless Bitches International - Why "Nice Guys" are often such LOSERS


Why "Nice Guys" are often such LOSERS

You hear it all the time: "He was such a NICE Guy, and she's such a Heartless Bitch for dumping him."

I get letters from self-professed Nice Guys, complaining that women must WANT to be treated like shit, because THEY, the "Nice Guy" have failed repeatedly in relationships. This is akin to the false logic that "Whales are mammals. Whales live in the sea. Therefore, all mammals live in the sea."

If you have one bad relationship after another, the only common denominator is YOU. Think about it.

What's wrong with Nice Guys? The biggest problem is that most Nice Guys (tm) are hideously insecure. They are so anxious to be liked and loved that they do things for other people to gain acceptance and attention, rather than for the simply pleasure of giving. You never know if a Nice Guy really likes you for who you are, or if he has glommed onto you out of desperation because you actually paid some kind of attention to him.

Nice Guys exude insecurity -- a big red target for the predators of the world. There are women out there who are "users" -- just looking for a sucker to take advantage of. Users home-in on "Nice Guys", stroke their egos, take them for a ride, add a notch to their belts, and move on. It's no wonder so many Nice Guys complain about women being horrible, when the so often the kind of woman that gets attracted to them is the lowest form of life...

Self-confident, caring, decent-hearted women find "Nice Guys" to be too clingy, self-abasing, and insecure.

Nice Guys go overboard. They bring roses to a "lets get together for coffee" date. They try to buy her affections with presents and fancy things. They think they know about romance, but their timing is all wrong, and they either come-on too strong, too hard and too fast, OR, they are so shy and unassertive, that they hang around pretending to be "friends", in the hope that somehow, someway, they will get the courage up to ask her out for a "date".

They are so desperate to please that they put aside their own needs, and place the object of their desire on a pedestal. Instead of appreciating her, they worship her. We are only human, and pedestals are narrow, confining places to be -- not to mention the fact that we tend to fall off of them.

They cling to her, and want to be "one" with her for fear that if she is out of sight, she may disappear or become attracted to someone else. A Nice Guy often has trouble with emotional intimacy, because he believes that if she learns about the REAL person inside, she will no longer love him.

Nice Guys are always asking HER to make the decisions. They think it's being equitable, but it puts an unfair burden of responsibility on her, and gives him the opportunity to blame her if the decision was an unwise one.

Nice Guys rarely speak up when something bothers them, and rarely state clearly what it is they want, need and expect. They fear that any kind of conflict might spell the end of the relationship. Instead of comprimising and negotiating, they repeatedly "give in". When she doesn't appreciate their sacrifice, they will complain that, "Everything I did, I did for her.", as if this somehow elevates them to the status of martyrs. A woman doesn't want a martyr. She wants an equal, caring, adult partner.

Nice Guys think that they will never meet anyone as special as she is. They use their adoration as a foundation for claiming that "no one will ever love her as much as I do." Instead of being a profound statement of their devotion, this is a subtle, but nasty insult. It is akin to saying to her: "You are a difficult person, and only *I* can ever truly love you, so be thankful I'm here."

The nice guy -needs- to believe that he is the best person for the object of his desires, because otherwise his insecurities will overrun him with jealousies and fear. The truth of the matter is that there are many people out there who can be a good match for her. We rarely stop loving people we truly care about. Even if we no longer continue the relationship, the feelings will continue... But love isn't mutually exclusive. We can (and do) love many people in our lives, and romantic love is really no different. Though he may love her immensely, there will likely be other people who have loved her just as much in her past, and will love her just as much in the future. The irony of it all is: "Who would want to go out with someone who was inherintly unlovable anyways?"

More than loving the woman in his life, a Nice Guy NEEDS her. "She is my Life, my only source of happiness..." YECH! What kind of a burden is that to place on her? That SHE has to be responsible for YOUR happiness? Get a grip!

Another mistake Nice Guys make is to go after "hard luck" cases. They deliberately pick women with neuroses, problems, and personality disorders, because Nice Guys are "helpers". A Nice Guy thinks that by "helping" this woman, it will make him a better, more lovable person. He thinks it will give him a sense of accomplishment, and that she will appreciate and love him more, for all his efforts and sacrifice. He is usually disappointed by the results.

This ultimately boils down to the fact that Nice Guys don't like themselves. Is it any wonder women don't like them? In order to truly love someone else, you must first love yourself. Too often Nice Guys mistake obsession for "love".

Get this Guys: INSECURITY ISN'T SEXY. IT'S A TURNOFF.

You don't have to be an ego-inflated, arrogant jerk. You just have to LIKE yourself. You have to know what you want out of life, and go after it. Only then will you be attractive to the kind of woman with whom a long-term relationship is possible.
 
most of this is true, except i dont think its ALL the guy's fault. and not ALL "nice guys" are necessarily insecure or hate themselves.
 
I see it a little bit differently.

In my experience, the "nice guys" generally like to sit back and think that the fact they are nice guys is what will or at least, should, get them the girl in the end. They don't seem to realize that "nice" is not a personality, and it also isn't some fabulous selling point.
 
I think when reading this essay, you have to consider the source. The M.O. on that website seems to be brutal honesty, with emphasis on the brutal part. I'd also say that their description of a nice guy is an extreme one, most "nice guys" are on a less extreme part of the continuum.

Also, guys can be nice without ulterior motives, and I don't think that even those who do have ulterior motives do so consciously, necessarily. Sometimes they just assume that being nice will automatically elicit a positive reaction from the girl, and when it doesn't, they're disappointed and disillusioned. That doesn't mean they're dicks, but if the behaviour is repeated over and over, it does kind of make them doormats who really need to stop complaining, and change their approach.

Another point about this is that I don't believe the phenomenon they describe is gender specific, plenty of women have the same attributes they're talking about - women can be just as insecure, clingy, whiny, and - well - entitled, when it comes to expecting their "nice" behaviour to pay off.
 
a little story from my college days:

i went to my buddys house party one night. i just went there to drink and hang out, not expecting anything. i meet this girl, seemed like a nice, normal girl, not a "skank" or anything. at the time i wasnt a "nice guy" as depicted in this article AT ALL. so we were sitting on the couch drinking and talking, making her laugh and all that shit. i was just being myself, as i wasnt out to get anything or expecting anything. after a while she gets up and goes to talk to her "guy friend" who's there. i clearly hear him say something like "yeah i hope you go home with him" or something like that. and then she said "I DON'T KNOW, HE'S TOO NICE" :lmao:

i remember wondering what the hell that meant, cause if she went home with me she would've been waking up the neighbors :lol:

anyway, the night ended with me and her and a couple other people going to some other party and me getting too drunk and storming out of the place when they ran out of beer. :laugh::doh:

but ill never forget that "hes too nice" bullshit.
 
but ill never forget that "hes too nice" bullshit.

I don't think that you have to take it as BS though. For example, without being too stereotypical, sometimes there are people who seem like the sort of people who would go home with you at the end of the night or at a bar, and people who just seem like they are not at all the sort.

So if she assumed that you're just not the kind of guy who takes girls he just met home, that isn't bullshit, and it's not even really a negative thing. :shrug:
 
Thanks for posting this.

One of my all time pet peeves is so-called "nice guys" who bitch and moan about how women only want bad boys "who treat them like crap" because the alpha females they lust after prefer alpha males.

My biggest issue with this breed of guy is that they mistake "niceness" for being a doormat. I try to avoid generalizing, but I at least prefer a guy who argues with me, doesn't just blindly submit to everything I say, and has a personality that offers me a challenge.
 
my last bf felt like this. I read this with :| emotion. Its kind off true. It at least fits for me. The point is insecure guys never want to talk about their own feelings or about the girls feelings. and that doesn't help a relationship.
 
You know, my initial reaction to this thread was like "oh gosh, another battle of the sexes rant." I really find the "nice guy vs jerk" argument tiring, because in reality things are never this black and white (not to mention, getting involved in the arguments themselves make women out to be some sort of divine beings), but I find myself actually agreeing to a lot of what was said. Lots of guys are like this and their excessive attatchment and romanticism is just downright pathetic. Although, we do have to understand that, yes, the description listed up there is very extreme... I'm not sure anyone I know has all those traits, because I would say that, even in its extremity, the article is pretty general. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure most guys do at least one thing listed there; I know I do. But there are guys I know that do possess a few of them that stand out and they really annoy me...especially with their Facebook status updates.

The article is pretty brutal though. It makes out these "nice guy" sorts to be very manipulative, but, really, I'm not sure they're consciously trying to be that way. It's their insecurity and "lack of experience" that confuses them (and those cheesy movies too). And, not to play the blame game or anything, but girls also tend to encourage this sort of personality. I'm editing this post too much now, but, I agree with Screwtape2 below me. I hope these sorts of articles don't convince anyone that any guy that's "nice" has to fit this manipulating "nice guy" personality. Many guys are genuinely nice and to think that if a guy ever does "x" would automatically label him one of those people described in the article is just downright wrong. Like I said before, real life is never this black and white. Stereotypes and generalizations are exactly what creates those people.

I wonder if there are actually girls out there who are actually attracted to this type of guy though. There's got to be just as many desperate girls as there are desperate guys. Anyway, God knows there are a lot of guys like this; look around in a high school and I bet 80% of them would fit the description. It's also pretty common knowledge that, when girls describes their "dream guy," a lot of the time he fits that "nice guy" description (and that, I bet, is the #1 cause of guys acting like this). I also wonder what stage of a relationship this article could be referring to. These "nice guy" traits don't seem to fare very well in the beginning, but what about later on, when a relationship becomes stable? Doesn't the game take a twist then? Wouldn't you want the other person to think your the greatest person in the world? And wouldn't compromise have to be occassionally used?

I would also take time to appreciate VintagePunk for trying to keep it neutral here :D I hate that "all girls do this" or "all guys do that" crap
 
I find their generalizations of "nice guys" to be fantasy and utter crap. Insecure and lacking emotional intimacy? Nice guys in the most basic definition can come in many forms. Kindness and caring about others is basic humanity. Issues of insecurity for example are based more on individual experience. There is such diversity in personalities that you have outgoing nice guys and quiet nice guys. Being nice isn't hard and it isn't reserved for specific personalities or people. It is a pathetic stereotype in this article. Whether it is their intention or not when you destroy the term "nice guy" it only pushes people to the other extreme. The article doesn't define in detail the middle so the only other way to be is a jerk. :down:

In the end, there is only one way that you should treat a woman and that is with respect and kindness. Being a jerk is demeaning to women and their intelligence. Playing games with women is insulting. So personally, I'd rather be alone knowing that I respected women and their intelligence than be with someone as a result of being a jerk or one these "games." :up:
 
I find their generalizations of "nice guys" to be fantasy and utter crap. Insecure and lacking emotional intimacy? Nice guys in the most basic definition can come in many forms. Kindness and caring about others is basic humanity. Issues of insecurity for example are based more on individual experience. There is such diversity in personalities that you have outgoing nice guys and quiet nice guys. Being nice isn't hard and it isn't reserved for specific personalities or people. It is a pathetic stereotype in this article. Whether it is their intention or not when you destroy the term "nice guy" it only pushes people to the other extreme. The article doesn't define in detail the middle so the only other way to be is a jerk. :down:

Yeah, the thing with these "nice guy" articles is that they don't emphasize the difference between "nice guys" and genuinely good guys who treat others with respect.
 
^^I thought the last paragraph in the article did an OK job of making the distinction between being a pathetic, whiny, self-pitying "nice guy" and being self-confident without being a jerk. You can be self-confident and a person who is good to others as well. The two are not mutually exclusive.
 
Yeah, the thing with these "nice guy" articles is that they don't emphasize the difference between "nice guys" and genuinely good guys who treat others with respect.

^^I thought the last paragraph in the article did an OK job of making the distinction between being a pathetic, whiny, self-pitying "nice guy" and being self-confident without being a jerk. You can be self-confident and a person who is good to others as well. The two are not mutually exclusive.

Pretty much this.
 
I think there can be several levels of what depicts a "Nice Guy". I like a nice guy, but not one that's "too" nice.

There's also a lot to be said about liking onesself.
 
i notice one or two of these qualities in myself, got to get better obviously

i've become good friends straight away with a few girls, but nothing beyond that, one friend posted on facebook she loves a "sexy bad boy with charm" which about a million comments so :shrug:

but for some (me included) it's just not really in their nature to treat a girl like crap or be totally flippant
 
as it's already been said in the thread, there's definitely a grey area where guys aren't the nice guys mentioned in the article, but they're not jerks either. (i should know, i found one :D) however, i did find myself nodding in agreement with most of what was said. the super nice guys mentioned in the article who basically come on too strong and are too clingy are not just a turn off, they're a flashing siren telling you to run the other way. though of course the jerks are really just as bad, for other reasons.
 
guess they're after you? maybe they wonder what they're missing :hmm: :wink:

:lol: How'd you guess?

My last bf was like this, good lord it was annoying. He was a complete puppy, NEVER talking about stuff, just compliments and such. It made me quite sick. I could never argue with him, he'd always agree with me or just say nothing. Physically I was in charge too, which is a bad thing to me. Call me old skool but I prefer the guy to be the dominant factor. Both mentally and physically!

The worst was that I felt sorry for him so I didn't quite know how to break up. Then I figured it'd be more painful if I'd drag this on any longer, so I just told him I didn't see this going anywhere and that it'd be better to break up. :shrug:

And he didn't get it. :doh:

This was right before summer holidays, so when I first saw him on the first schoolday in september I wasn't quite nice to him. He suddenly started smoking and became an emo, black hair, black clothes, spikes, that kinda stuff. I just thought it was a sad way to gain attention and probably acted that way too. That afternoon he called me on my home phone, that he wanted to break up with me. :huh: I literally just asked him if he really thought there was something to break up. I think he got that hint.


Man I really sound like a bitch here. :uhoh:


There's nothign wrong with a guy that's genuinely nice, can stand up for himself and with whom you can have a normal conversation. It starts being wrong when the guy is just a wuss.
 
Boom tish!

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re: the serious topic, there's a difference between a decent guy who doesn't try to act like an asshole and a complete sissy who is utterly incapable of standing up for himself.
 
Nice guys aren't always what they seem to be either. But most people often aren't, in one way or another.

There are "nice girls" who can exhibit the same traits that this article ascribes to nice guys-but somehow there are still stereotypes/expectations that men have to live up to.

I see nothing wrong with insecurity-it's what makes us human. If someone's honest about things like insecurity, I find that attractive. Of course someone who comes across as the most arrogant jerk and not-a-nice-guy is often the most insecure.
 
I think some "nice guys" are probably young guys going through a phase and will be just fine when they get more mature and gain some perspective.

Then there are the ones who get into their 20s and 30s and still act like whiny tools when women reject them. I'm reminded one guy in particular who whined to one of my co-workers after I turned down his request for a date (because he bored me to tears and we had nothing in common - not that I told him that, naturally) and then the co-worker came to me and asked why I didn't want to date him because he was such a "nice guy." :angry:
 
I think some "nice guys" are probably young guys going through a phase and will be just fine when they get more mature and gain some perspective.

That was my problem, when I dated girls in high school and in my first year or two of college I was immature, didn't know what I wanted, and basically fit that description in the article to a perfect T. But that happens to a huge number of guys in high school, because nobody really knows anything about themselves at that age. Once I got some more life experience and learned to appreciate and get to know myself before I worried about getting to know someone else, and also had a few more relationships with varying degrees of success (and learned what does and doesn't really work), I have noticed lately that I have been more assertive in relationships, and not putting up with being walked on just for the sake of keeping her around. I think that is a problem with a lot of guys, is they never really grow out of that high school mentality when it comes to relationships, and they get stuck in the insecure phase described in the article.

I also have noticed that I've had a lot more success with the ladies since I passed out of that phase too, so it's a bonus to both myself and the girls. :wink::lol:
 
:lol: How'd you guess?

My last bf was like this, good lord it was annoying. He was a complete puppy, NEVER talking about stuff, just compliments and such. It made me quite sick. I could never argue with him, he'd always agree with me or just say nothing. Physically I was in charge too, which is a bad thing to me. Call me old skool but I prefer the guy to be the dominant factor. Both mentally and physically!

The worst was that I felt sorry for him so I didn't quite know how to break up. Then I figured it'd be more painful if I'd drag this on any longer, so I just told him I didn't see this going anywhere and that it'd be better to break up. :shrug:

And he didn't get it. :doh:

This was right before summer holidays, so when I first saw him on the first schoolday in september I wasn't quite nice to him. He suddenly started smoking and became an emo, black hair, black clothes, spikes, that kinda stuff. I just thought it was a sad way to gain attention and probably acted that way too. That afternoon he called me on my home phone, that he wanted to break up with me. :huh: I literally just asked him if he really thought there was something to break up. I think he got that hint.


Man I really sound like a bitch here. :uhoh:


There's nothign wrong with a guy that's genuinely nice, can stand up for himself and with whom you can have a normal conversation. It starts being wrong when the guy is just a wuss.

.
 
There are women out there who are "users" -- just looking for a sucker to take advantage of. Users home-in on "Nice Guys", stroke their egos, take them for a ride, add a notch to their belts, and move on.

In my experience, these girls, that the author of the article has labeled "users", are generally incredibly good looking.

Some guys are smart enough to allow one of these gorgeous "users" to do their work, chew him up and spit him out, "add a notch to her belt", and move on.

Because, really, the guy is adding a notch to his belt, too. He would gladly get "used" if it meant a night with this beautiful young woman. So it kinda ends up being a case of both sides taking advantage of the other.

Of course, that is incredibly shallow and I'm not saying that I've personally done anything like that.
 
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