OK, I’m 55 and somewhat out of the loop. Do nice girls still go after the bad boys? Do they still fall prey to the motorcycling, leather jacketed Fonzie image that were the anxiety of their mothers? They sure did when I was younger. Did they see them as sexy? I’m sure they did, they were an adventure, a challenge that all women long for in the beginning of a relationship. That living on the edge feeling.
They were the unattainable which made them even more desirable. In retrospect, they were trouble. They didn’t care about the girl. That was the era of the 4 F’s. To those who don’t remember or never knew, it was Find em, Feel em, F#ck em, Forget em. They were treated as nothing more than a toy to be used, and then discarded. And the girls knew this, and still they longed for these guys.
Most didn’t have an education, let alone a job or ambition, and yet the girls flocked to them, drawn by some invisible irresistible magnetic force. As they “grew up”, it was these bad boys that got left behind. The girls wanted that the security that they could not furnish and moved on. Nice guys don’t finish last, it just takes awhile longer, but they ultimately win. I’m not sure what the term bad boy means in today’s society. Girls will still look for the challenge, and boys will be boys!
I’m eighteen, and I can honestly say…. Yes. From what I can tell, it’s just an innate feeling—like you said, the living-on-the-edge syndrome. While we (and I) may not act on these urges, they’re definitely there.
Also…. “bad boy” still conjures up the image of the tattooed, motorcycle-riding muscular male who acts like he owns the world. Why is that annoying behavior so attractive? No idea. But it definitely is.
Confidence, flexibility, a sense of adventure, and disdain for authority will always be attractive, I think.
~Seth