Our Preferred Man

This topic was raised during dinner with the ladies: What sort of man do you like?

At the end of the conversation, all of us agreed that no matter how accomplished or independent the woman is, she would want a man who is wiser, even more accomplished, even more confident, even more independent than she is.

He must inspire her to greater things, stimulate her mentally as well as physically, and keep her fascinated throughout their partnership.

While we all know how lucky a woman is to have a man who will treat her like a princess, we also know the woman will treat a sweet, giving man like a doormat. So being the wretched creatures that we are, we love a challenging man who will give us a little heartache, whip us around a bit and keep us on our toes all the time. It is not that we desire an abusive man. We just love to be controlled by a man who knows we worship him for his qualities. We just need to know that he is the boss.

This profile is exactly what I seek in a perfect man. This is not an impossible profile. Such men do exists, and I even know a couple of them. Problem is, they are mostly married.

You see, for a man to be so confident, authoritative and to naturally command respect from people around him, he has to be accomplished in life and his career and worldly-wise. Such qualities do not occur with a man in his 20s. Perhaps not even 30s, save for a few rare cases.

So yes, they would have to be in their 40s or older, and at that age, most of them are already settled in with a wife and couple of kids in tow.

And if they are all that but is still single, then there must be something wrong with him. Maybe he prefers men. Or he has an unnaturally tight bond with his dog.

Oh, that brings to mind a joke - Men are like parking lots. All the good ones are taken, and those that are left are the handicap lots.

So the educated, accomplished, well-travelled woman can never win. Unless the gods favour her.
Women in Singapore are advancing faster than their men so their men have to work harder, faster to keep up and be more than what she is so she may always look up to him. It is not easy. Very often, the wife may outgrow her husband. When that happens, she could either move on in search of a better man or pretend to be a lesser person at home.

Life is sad when one has to settle for lesser and pretend to be meek at home when she struts with her head high at the office and on the streets.

So I have figured this - the happiest woman may be one who has only lived within the walls of her room, is not educated and have no expectations of life, and married to the only one man she has laid eyes on.

Unfortunately, that's not me.