Why do nice girls fall for bad boys? I think Jodi and I may have routed out an acceptable, though incriminating answer. We have seen it often enough. It sure looks like a plausible answer to what has plagued onlookers for ages.
It seems to be a latent power struggle. A girl sees a young man who respects no one, has an authority problem, digs "freedom," that is, autonomy. He has ascribed to some number of undesirable trends that make her parents cringe a bit when he enters the room. She just laughs at their galled souls, feeling that she has won her own independence.
But this young guy apparently really loves this girl, whom everyone has always called simply "nice." He hangs on her every word. He promises to change, all for her. And maybe he will. But he probably won't.
The girl will tell herself that she owes it to the world to go on trying to reform the reprobate. It is her duty, after all. She is all that he really trusts, all that he really believes to be genuine.
Then they will argue. And he will not give in. And she will be hurt, unwilling to believe that he would refuse her the only thing that she ever thought she was gaining: ultimate control. She selfishly loves him for how she might wield him, like a sharp knife or a sleek gun.
hmmm...
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