Hooked!

We actually had an interesting, non-boundary-crossing conversation at physical therapy last night, and it's been something that I've since discussed with other people.  So I thought I'd bring it up here and see what you all have to say.  The topic is what is it about a woman that hooks a man?  I'd love to hear what you think.  For the purposes of this discussion, there are two rules/guidelines.  First, by "hooks" I mean what keeps a person coming back to another person, *not* what initially attracted them in the first place.  Second, in the interest of fairness, this is open to any combination of people -- it can be what about a man hooks a woman, what about a woman hooks a woman, or what about a man hooks a man in addition to the initial example -- all I ask is that you specify which sex is hooked on which sex.  Now that the groundwork has been laid, here goes:

PT's theory is that there are only two things about a woman that hook a man: sex and/or food.  When pushed, he conceded that maybe some aspect of physical attractiveness might work, too.  I think that his view is very limited.  So I asked my husband, a man of few words who becomes a man of even fewer words when asked to discuss his feelings.  While he agreed that sex and food were limiting, he didn't have much to add to the conversation.  He did agree that it might be a physical aspect of a woman that really got a man hooked.  He then jokingly told me that a woman's interest in him would be one thing that might work (Specifically, he told me that I was the only woman who ever stuck around, then he laughed his fool head off.), and, in an even funnier (to him) burst of inspiration, he said a woman's future earning capacity could hook a man.  Interesting. . .

I shouldn't make fun of these two guys.  They at least laid it out as they saw it, even if they were joking.  I found that women were much more difficult to pin down on this issue.  Most women were more than happy to say what attracted them to a man, but they were downright quiet when asked what it was that really hooked them on the man.  I'm not sure why.

For my two cents, it's always been an aha! moment that has hooked me on a guy, and it doesn't have to be the same thing.  I've felt that irresistable desire to stick around when I've seen guys interact with animals (Who doesn't love a dog lover?), when men have risked looking foolish in order to make me laugh, when a guy shares something that he doesn't share with others (a story, and experience, his car, whatever).

That's what I think.  What do you think?

Comments

[Annette]

That's a great question. I think in all my relationships prior to hubby it was a chemistry thing, purely physical. With him, it's been about laughter and having fun together. It always seemed we had a great time and I was always comfortable around him.