Let's Talk Bad Boys

Okay, so after a dinner with male friends, I have to correct the record on something.

Ladies, how many times have you witnessed a perfectly good man try to act like a jerk because a stupid friend of his told him that “Nice guys finish last”? Too many times, right?

How many times has a former perfect gentleman tried to “charm” you by treating you like a piece of meat because his last girlfriend didn’t appreciate him–or respect her own body? I know, more times than you’d like to remember.

So men, here’s the bottom line. Most women don’t like bad boys. We really don’t. We want you to treat us like ladies, not sex objects. We want you to respect our bodies–and our minds. We want you to recognize the difference between a girl who doesn’t respect herself and a woman who does. We want you to act like gentlemen. We want you to be gutsy enough to call us for no reason and say “I love you” just because.

Here’s the twist.

Many of us also like a little edge. We like when you wear a leather jacket with a white t-shirt you dirtied up while fixing your car. We like when you walk with a little swagger. We like when your testosterone sometimes gets the better of you while defending us from some jerk in a bar. We like when passion in your eyes speaks for you. We like when you drink beer out of the bottle and have pepperoni-pizza stains on your lips hours later. We like when you aren’t afraid to be a man who desires a woman and shows it.

That’s not a bad boy. That’s a good boy with rough edges.

So men, stop confusing the two. Because we ladies sure aren’t.