Is feminism the root of the problem? Feminists tell women not to allow men to dominate them. But, reading this thread, it seems many women prefer a dominant man. But, they don't think they should submit to him?

Quite a paradox.

Does this mean no fuzzy handcuffs?

no locks, but roleplay of handcuffs isnt off limits with the person I trust enough ,,,

So, which of us is providing the fuzzy handcuffs?

Yes :-)

That is why a man has trouble reading a woman's mind. He keeps encountering oxymorons.

What happens if a man makes a choice, his woman trusts him and goes along, but it turns out to have been wrong? Will she ever trust him again?

Or what if she thinks he's wrong and leaves him, but later it turns out he was right? Would she admit her mistake?

A woman admit her mistake?

Nope; you are right on track.

Hey; I admit my mistakes. I made a mistake dating the morons that I did.

Well now Texascoundrel, that would depend on the woman involved. Some are proud, some are humble. I think there is far too much competitiveness that goes on. Does it really matter which oxen led as long as the destination is reached?

But, in the examples I gave above, the destination wasn't reached or wasn't it reached together.

In my own relationships, I've set goals and it seemed that my woman wanted to stop me at every turn. I remember starting an IRA, but I had to pull the money out to pay our taxes because she'd spent everything else.

Why did I let her spend everything? Because not allowing her access to the family funds is abuse according to Texas law. So, I had no legal way of stopping her. Soon after I divorced her.

Role playing? Hmmm. It's like this:

A little boy and little girl were playing together in a sandbox when the little boy abruptly pulled down his pants and proudly announced: "I've got one of these!"

The little girl looked briefly, then raised her dress, pulled down her panties, and cooly said, "Oh, yeah? Well, I've gone on of these, and with one of these I can get all of those that I want."

Case closed.

The implication of this anecdote is that men value what women have more highly than women value what men have. I must disagree.

I was discussing this issue with a young lady that happened to come over last night. She told she likes a dominate man, but she also likes pushing him and feeling him push back. If he doesn't push back, she loses interest in him. It seems that she needs this drama to play out. She wants to be "put in her place." She told me it's why she prefers men much older than herself. She said young men are wimps.

oh man, thats awful

I do tend to agree that culturally, men are raised to chase skirts and women are raised to find relationships,,,,

My point is simply that the perception that men are dominant is more illusion than fact, and that's a good thing. While men may rightly claim physical dominance, they can't claim intellectual dominance. Given a choice between the two, I'll take the latter. :)

men have the political, legal, and financial power collectively speaking

women have the individual power to persuade men with sex,,,

But, the point of this thread has been that most women want a man to lead them. A man to sit at the head of the table. I man they can respect and look up to. In other words, a dominant man.

As men it's our job to be worthy of her respect and to always be strong in our convections. Our women will test us every day and we must pass their tests every day because our past records means nothing.

If she finds a weakness, she will poke it and pick at it until we fix it or she exploits it enough to lose her respect for us.

This is what is meant by relationships take work.