For the past few decades, the world has been convinced that women love bad boys. From TV shows to movies, books to popular media, the bad boy image has been cultivated to appear as if it’s the one sure way to win a woman’s heart.
The truth is: Women don’t love bad boys. They’re attracted to bad boys, but over time females come to the realization that it’s all just an act. Bad boys give dating and the average guy a bad name.
Bad boys are manufactured. Few men are born with the traits and attitudes that define the bad boy persona. These attitudes toward women, and life in general, develop over time. But just as a man can make the conscious decision to live a lifestyle against the grain, so too can he decide to change his ways.
Before we map out the ways to evolve back into a decent guy, let’s first discuss the bad boy persona.
What Exactly Is a Bad Boy?
In its simplest definition, a bad boy is a man who does not conform to the approved standards of behavior in a particular sphere of activity. There are “bad boys” in every walk of life — the bad boy musician who doesn’t conform to the rules of his genre of music, the bad boy athlete who conducts himself by different standards on and off the field and even the bad boy in your office who somehow operates above the law and still manages to keep his job.
In this case, we’re discussing the bad boy with women. The bad boy is the guy who does what he wants in a relationship, or with dating in general, without taking into consideration the feelings, thoughts and wishes of the opposite sex. He does what he wants, when he wants, worrying about no one but himself in every situation.
Even if you wouldn’t classify yourself as a bad boy, you know all of the signs that make it obvious — the failed relationships, the random sexual encounters that lead to nothing but hurt feelings and the fact that you’re mostly alone when it comes to love (no matter how many sexual partners you’re juggling at the moment). Being a bad boy gets old fast. It’s time for a change of script.
How Does a Guy Stop Being Bad?
So what now? What does a man do if he’s spent the last few (possibly more) years living his life in a certain way? Just as it probably wasn’t easy adopting these “bad boy” rules after which you’ve patterned your life, it won’t be easy to start all over as a kinder, gentler version of your old self
