Why do men like women who act like little girls?

TheCatWoman said:

I'm just curious to know if others recognise this pattern of behaviour

I see it a lot. I'm seen by many as someone who can fix / install things for them (home renovation as well as tech) and they will often switch to play the poor, helpless thing to try to trigger a protective instinct and help them (my suspicion of what is happening).

I've experience this for most of my life because the skills I have are often not cheap or easily available. Only on a handful of occasions has it been more than just wanting the job done (ie it was an excuse for seduction) out of hundreds of requests, so I can safely rule out it being that I was seen as just eye candy.

TheCatWoman said:

The child woman, will also be incredibly manipulative and often end up taking the man for a ride

It is not just the "child" woman as you put it. It is common for women to be manipulative when they want something I have found. Some are just more subtle than others while some will flirt until they get what they want then shut down once they have achieved the objective.

I've had far more attempts at manipulation by women over the years than men by a large margin. Men will often just ask, maybe consider bartering for something but will not try to manipulate with hints of possible sexual favours of I play my cards right (well there was one guy but I think that was statistically irrelevant...).

Women will often be quite flirty until the job is done then switch off the charm. No need for it anymore since my services are no longer required - this has been my most common experience.

TheCatWoman said:

men often complain that women like "bad guys" and not "nice ones" like them.

In my early 30s I put this to the test as I had heard about it but was skeptical. It wasn't my finest hour but I treated a girl I was dating quite badly and I've never been chased so hard in my life.

In retrospect I suspect there were other issues underlying her need to be with someone and she probably also enjoyed the very comfortable lifestyle I brought to the table at the time but I could easily get her to do whatever I wanted and she would do it just so I wouldn't leave.

I was faithful throughout the relationship, never hit her and always made sure she got a lot of attention which she craved - when I did move beyond the stage of being the bad boy and became the attentive boyfriend then she lost interest slowly but surely.

Back to the subject in hand - I think women will act like little girls to manipulate men and men love to feel wanted, capable, useful and desired which this triggers in them.

This is of course quite a simplification but there are no absolutes in the gender roles that people play. The above does generalise about behaviour but that is what was asked about in the first place I believe.

TheCatWoman said:

I'm just curious to know if others recognise this pattern of behaviour

I see it a lot. I'm seen by many as someone who can fix / install things for them (home renovation as well as tech) and they will often switch to play the poor, helpless thing to try to trigger a protective instinct and help them (my suspicion of what is happening).

I've experience this for most of my life because the skills I have are often not cheap or easily available. Only on a handful of occasions has it been more than just wanting the job done (ie it was an excuse for seduction) out of hundreds of requests, so I can safely rule out it being that I was seen as just eye candy.

TheCatWoman said:

The child woman, will also be incredibly manipulative and often end up taking the man for a ride

It is not just the "child" woman as you put it. It is common for women to be manipulative when they want something I have found. Some are just more subtle than others while some will flirt until they get what they want then shut down once they have achieved the objective.

I've had far more attempts at manipulation by women over the years than men by a large margin. Men will often just ask, maybe consider bartering for something but will not try to manipulate with hints of possible sexual favours of I play my cards right (well there was one guy but I think that was statistically irrelevant...).

Women will often be quite flirty until the job is done then switch off the charm. No need for it anymore since my services are no longer required - this has been my most common experience.

TheCatWoman said:

men often complain that women like "bad guys" and not "nice ones" like them.

In my early 30s I put this to the test as I had heard about it but was skeptical. It wasn't my finest hour but I treated a girl I was dating quite badly and I've never been chased so hard in my life.

In retrospect I suspect there were other issues underlying her need to be with someone and she probably also enjoyed the very comfortable lifestyle I brought to the table at the time but I could easily get her to do whatever I wanted and she would do it just so I wouldn't leave.

I was faithful throughout the relationship, never hit her and always made sure she got a lot of attention which she craved - when I did move beyond the stage of being the bad boy and became the attentive boyfriend then she lost interest slowly but surely.

Back to the subject in hand - I think women will act like little girls to manipulate men and men love to feel wanted, capable, useful and desired which this triggers in them.

This is of course quite a simplification but there are no absolutes in the gender roles that people play. The above does generalise about behaviour but that is what was asked about in the first place I believe.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who's experienced this, I've often been rebound woman, guys are attracted to my independence, that I don't flutter my eyelashes and pretend to be stupid, that I only ask for help when it's something I can't do myself. then they go and dump me for someone exactly like the previous girlfriend who hurt them so badly, it seems they don't really want a woman who can be a real partner, but someone who's a princess.

I've worked with a lot of men and usually once a man realises that I work just as hard as anyone else and that if I ask for hand with something they help me just as they would a bloke, but there are some who make life very uncomfortable and try and make trouble for any man who treats me as an equal.

I think a lot of women like bad boys because of the whiff of danger, we often find the slightly transgressive appealling. I've had all the things happen to me that Iain has described coming from women.

I don't think it's actual youth that attracts men to these princesses, or that they want a child, but I do think for many theres an element of protectiveness, I rarely get anyone wanting to protect me, so I've had to learn to protect myself, often from the men who want to protect women, its a very weird situation.

But I also think there are many people who try and have the same relationship with multiple different partners at different times. It's like they got an idea of what a relationship should be and try and cram someone into the fantasy and then wonder why it goes wrong. They never learn, the fantasy is more important than looking at what actually be wrong.

Sometimes I think all human relationships are transactional and manipulative, especially sexual and romantic ones.