Low self esteem dating

”) and finally, passive-aggressive digs (“Why is it that I seem to be acutely aware of your success? Despite the vigor with which he was waving his red flags, I put my professional feminism to work in locating a political justification for his behavior.Unfair standards of masculinity, I told myself, put undue pressure on men to be “men.” As a feminist, I recognized that when men don’t act man enough, their girlfriends, friends, and families can disapprove. And those unrealistic expectations of manhood are only exacerbated by a broken economy. Obscured by my righteous political justification was a far less feminist lining—the kind where he hurts me, and I let him.

All of a sudden, it wasn’t that he was insecure—it was that my success had inadvertently caused his condition.Instead, I swallowed his lines and tried to look at the positives, even if that meant making them up.He recognizes that I’m almost too incredible for him to handle. At the time, I was busy running a major feminist website, keynoting multiple conferences, and penning my first book about dating, love, and feminism.He was confident, cuddly, edgy—like some kind of bad boy teddy bear you want to hug and kiss and do all that other fun stuff with. It’s taken me many failed first dates and as many broken relationships to figure it out: I attract and am attracted to men with low self-esteem (MWLSE). Then, he treated me to months of back-and-forth texts, a handful of dates, and a raft of halfhearted excuses.