More Musings On “The Nice Man”

Amy:  Part of my attraction to the video “What Nice Men Don’t Say to Nice Women” (see post from 9/5) was that this was the first time I had seen this “nice guy”  idea addressed, in this way,  in mainstream culture. Before that, I’d been thinking a lot about this guy. I know him very well. I see him in my office all the time, as part of a couple.

It’s hard to think about the state of  men and women without taking into account the huge cultural shifts that have transpired over the last thirty to forty years. Sometimes, when I see young men pushing their toddlers in a  stroller, I smile. It wasn’t too long ago that this daddy-baby scene would have been rare, and a cause for remarks. It makes me very happy to think of young children now being raised by Dads who are more engaged, more open,  at all levels of childrearing and family life. For the most part, young and middle-aged men are not the “strong”, silent, disengaged dads so common during the first half of the twentieth century. Today’s relationship dynamics have a more democratic flavor, and overt power differentials are typically more subtle, less overt.

But, alas, guys are still guys. And what I  liked about the video is that it suggested that men need to value their inner dog. The dog inside most guys deserves respect, or at least tolerance. Amusement is a good response, too.  To me, the most troublesome guys are the ones who deny their inner beast. I’ve seen many, many couples where the guy adopts a tame(ed) persona, but who does damage to the relationship in the form of an affair. He doesn’t acknowledge his beast to himself–or, God forbid, his partner–and ends up having crazy sex with a co-worker or someone he picked up at a bar. These “nice guys” rarely acknowledged their sexual or emotional hunger to their partner, or, if they tried, it didn’t go well.

True, the (too) “nice man” is  made, not born. And sometimes, his partner has–often inadvertently– aided and abetted the creation of this nice guy. But, in the couples that I see, the too-nice, too-polite guy proves, ultimately, an unsatisfying partner. (I’m going to use heterosexual language here, but I’ve observed the same phenomenon in same-sex partners.)  In the couples I see,  the woman of the too-nice guy is either furious at him, and kicking the stuffing out of him, or  depressed and isolated within the relationship. Often, these women are unconsciously longing for a man strong enough to respond when challenged, who cares enough to fight, who respects himself enough to take his woman on, when needed. I know this is true, because, as the couple grows during the therapy, and the husband becomes bolder and more “himself”, the wife typically likes this new guy and wants to keep him.

Sometimes women in these relationships have, without intending, signaled to their partner that they didn’t want “too much” of him:  They may come to the relationship not fully trusting men, because of historical reasons related to their own family. Perhaps the men in their  family  were unreliable, or absent, or violent. ( Violence is a terrible distortion of the “inner beast” that we’re talking about.) Or these women may worry that the man will get the “upper hand” if given too much leeway.  Control issues. These are common scenarios I  see in my office with the (too) nice guy, who then operates under the mistaken belief that burying his needs, including his animal nature,  is a basic requirement to maintain  a harmonious household. As we suspect,  continuously buried feelings is the recipe for  ultimate disharmony.

In the video, the “nice man”‘s animal nature was presented as primarily sexual. But that’s only one part, and, in my view, not even the most important. The “nice man” from my therapy office, who comes in with marital problems and/or post-affair, doesn’t allow himself–and is often not allowed–the freedom and latitude  that come with enjoying one’s own self. The animal that I want to see in a man embodies  wants, needs, passion, compassion, being able to both win and lose, and, in general, the freedom to be oneself. To me, both personally and professionally, this is a guy you can trust.   That’s the REAl nice man,  in my book.