Whether you were fawning over Rhett Butler in Gone With the Wind or rooting for Mr. Big in Sex and the City, we're all guilty of being a sucker for the "Bad Boy." My own personal guilty pleasure is True Blood, all due to scary, but sexy, Eric Northman. What is it about these womanizers, chauvinists and sometimes down right crazy men that makes women swoon? Do we really like to be treated badly? I don't think that's the real reason. The common factor of most bad boys that makes us melt every time is that they evolve from the uber scary/mean/troublesome man and meet someone that makes them change their ways. Eric meets Sookie on True Blood, Rhett finds Scarlett, and Mr. Big ultimately abandons his bachelor ways to be with Carrie. I think we all want to be that one woman that finally grasps the unobtainable and forces the bad boy to change his rebel ways. I mean who doesn't want to be the girl that the liar never deceits, the cheater never strays from and the player settles down with? It makes us feel like we've conquered a nearly impossible task. Is that a real thing though; changing a man? Or is this just something romanticized in movies and television? I believe we have unrealistic expectations about how we're going to change our real-life bad boys. Just like in the movies he should see us, fall madly in love and completely throw away the way he's been living for, oh right, his whole life. If you can't grasp the sarcasm dripping from these words, then let me break it down for you. People don't change. As much as we'd like them to, they don't. I'm not saying they won't change for awhile, I'm saying that eventually the "liar" will test your trust, the "player" will hit on your co-worker, and the "cheater" will probably have a double life and a wife in Connecticut. The most accurate quote on character I've ever heard is, "The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior." Also, "Once a cheater, always a cheater," but that's just something my mom always said. What both sayings have in common is that people are going to repeat what they've already done. So, maybe the "Bad Boy" seems like the best choice and maybe he seems dark and dangerous and mysterious now, but I'm going to stick with the "good" guy, who is nice and loyal and wonderful always.
