Oh boy.... you boys are a handful.
In this day and age looking for love or the perfect man can be an exhausting process that feels like a fate worse then death. Everyone is so focused on the usual checklist. Looks. Charm. Job. Money. Sensitive.... and the rest of the same ole. But really the key to some hearts, probably most, can be the unexpected know how that reaches outside the box. Being a good kisser is great (a must actually) but can you groom the dog? Can you dance a jig? Maybe its time to learn. Make fudge naked? Shall we discuss?
Redditor u/oohara wanted all the boys to gather round with a pen and pad and listen up for some important tips... it was asked.... Women of reddit, what are some (unexpected) skills that make men attractive for you?
Knowing Himself
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Does the ability to be self aware count? It's attractive when a guy owns his flaws rather than denying them or being hypocritical in an attempt to hide them.
Good Eats
Grocery shopping.
Not just the literal going to the store and putting things in the cart, but coming up with a meal plan for the week of a variety of well balanced meals and getting it all. The mental load is real y'all.
Meal plan is easy, make 1 healthy well balanced meal but make enough to last for 5 days. I'm eating a very nice Chicken Tikka Masala this week, next week will probably be a green curry because cucumbers are on sale and last week was spaghetti because I was feeling lazy.
The Good Hubby
My husband is constantly trying to grow as a human and be more understanding and compassionate and do better. And it's absolutely his sexiest quality. He's gregarious and a natural mediator and just takes the world straight-on with an open heart.
And I look at him every single night so crazy grateful that he's my husband. We've been married ten years in two weeks! Time flies man.
adorable....
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This isn't really a skill, but I love it when men are able to genuinely and unashamedly express when they think something is cute. I feel like it's really common to see women squealing and getting really excited over, say, a puppy or a kitten or an adorable cartoon character, but men are kind of expected to not be affected by cuteness or not show it?
basic care
Being able to take care of someone who's under the weather. It's a role that falls to women in most families so a lot of guys don't get the chance to learn. I never realized how much I'd appreciate a man who could hold my hair out of my face while I puked, then kiss me when I felt better until it happened.
be grown....
Someone who can care for themselves. Take a shower, clean up your own mess. Caring for one another in a relationship is important but some guys mistake this for 'I need to find myself another mom.'
I know it says unexpected skills in the title but there are so many guys who don't seem to realize this. I just wanted to get it out there.
Generalities....
Baking, cooking, sewing (even just mending a button or hemming in clothing), and general housekeeping. Essentially having basic life skills that prove you are an adult able to fend for themselves and aren't looking for a second mother in a partner.
Also being able to intentionally move your tricep? (whatever muscle is connected to your upper arm near shoulder outwards facing side). That's impressive AF.
PLEASE!!!
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Please say juggling please say juggling please say juggling.
X
Numbers and Ratios....
Maths. Anything scientific. General broad knowledge and stone-cold logic on top of it.
I also like it when a guy can dance, but this is a whole different area.
This is the hot/crazy graph but for guys. Guys can be engineers and scientists and still enjoy very normal and a wide variety of social and creative things at a pretty equal rate to the guys that are not.
being strong....
Standing up to others (particularly mates) who are being a**holes. Having a strong moral compass, empathy and selflessness is seriously sexy.
++
Playing an instrument! ++
But honestly if they are passionate about something: whether it's art or coding or reading books,
it's all a major booster. It shows that they can be dedicated to something and that's really attractive imo.
Lips Together...
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I looove it when men can whistle nicely. It seems so sweet and happy to me, like he is able to appreciate the small joys in life.
Financial Freedom....
Financial sense, and (sensible) frugality. A guy who knows how to budget properly, make savings projects, and reduce spending while still living his best life is usually also 1) intelligent, 2) good at planning ahead and thinking of the future, and 3) has a whole slew of related skill sets like basic home repair, cooking, cleaning, yard work, shopping, etc. (all things I expect us to share responsibility of.
I'm never going to be the sole house-manager ever again, and I would never ask someone else to take on that role alone).
Granted, I'm a long-haul kind of person. The criteria for spotting an attractive person across the room for the first time is more what you might expect: physical attractiveness and their personality in conversation.
Stretch....
Flexibility.
There are many flexible women but for men it's pretty rare and harder to achieve, so that makes it really cool and attractive imo.
Next to Godliness....
Being clean. When you go to a guy's apartment and don't feel completely disgusted, but actually pleasantly surprised by how clean it is. Hot.
The first time my friends came to do a group project, the only girl of the group said my room was too clean. This can't be real. 10 minutes of friendly argument about how a guy can clean and she still didn't believe me.
I just vroom-vroom the room before they came.
Touch my....
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Braiding hair!! My ex could to it and it was so cool. Especially since he could French braid and its so exhausting to do those yourself sometimes.
Google it....
Active listening skills.
Hearing me and understanding me is not the same thing as responding in a way that makes me FEEL heard and understood.
Edit: So I'm not gonna go through and answer every single reactionary response here trying to distinguish the difference between active listening that makes the person feel heard and passive listening.
That's what Google is for.
 "helps split up the cooking"
Cooking and the related grocery shopping (especially in the produce aisle). I went through all of college through my late-twenties without ever meeting a guy who was a good cook and liked to cook. If I did, I would jumped him and nabbed him right away. Finally got married to one who doesn't do any of these things but is great in many other respects - looks, smarts, success, but still I sometimes regret it.
It's not just the whole "helps split up the cooking" thing but I'm always dreamed of having a man who cooks with me - the whole egg in the mountain of flour and kneading the dough and cutting the pasta together thing. It takes enjoying good food and wine together to a whole another level, It's not the same when I make it myself or when we go out.
The POV
Storytelling. A man who can convincingly pretend to be a character he came up with on his own in irc roleplay, or can build a world and play multiple npc's as a tabletop game master. It demonstrates creativity, thinking outside the box, keeping track of multiple things not related to oneself, and seeing situation from multiple points of view.
Anything.....
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Anything they know that I don't know. It's really attractive when someone is an expert at something and I can learn from them.
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U/lit3rallyuseless asked: What doesn't deserve the hate it gets?
​Film and media are probably the biggest contender for being hated on randomly. It may seem harmless, but not always deserved.
Actors are people too!
Actors who played characters that people didn't like.
Really if you hated the character then the actor did a good job (assuming that was the role).
The best cartoons.
nice day summer GIF by PBS KIDSGiphyChild cartoons. Some are actually really good, even as an adult.
I feel like watching cartoons aimed at generally a younger audience allows for you to be reminded of some life lessons, I know I forget some things, or didn't realise others, or it at least partially renews my awareness of something I should still like or appreciate
This doesn't deserve awards, it's just my opinion that is apparently shared by many.
This man did nothing wrong.
Guy Fieri, he literally is the nicest person in the world but since he looks like he was electrocuted by mountain dew people want to saw his head off.
Even before that, I was witness to his other charitable work. A few years back, Santa Rosa was hit by some terrible fires and he showed up at a few shelters and personally cooked up and served some killer buffet food. No cameras, no massive team of PR, just a dude with an assistant to keep him on schedule to hit up other shelters in the area. Guy Fieri legit earned a lot of respect in my book for that.
You know who DEFINITELY doesn’t deserve hate? Animals. They’re just living their best lives, and need to be left alone.​
The best cats.
Black cats.
We got a black cat for the first time last year. I've since formulated the theory that black cats might get some of their reputation from the fact that people can't see them well in the dark and so they seemingly appear out of nowhere and they might be instinctually cautious because they know people have a tendency to kick them while walking in the dark. Our black cat is the sweetest cat I've ever known.
They get a bad rep.
Discovery Sharks GIF by Shark WeekGiphySharks. They are beautiful, complex creatures, deserving of respect and, like any wild animal should be left alone in their natural habitat, but they get this reputation as vicious bloodthirsty monsters. This is only because every shark attack is news, and only then because they are so rare. More people are killed EVERY DAY by mosquitoes than sharks kill in a year.
Any apex predator that has remained evolutionarily unchanged for hundreds of millions of years, whose existance predates TREES, is deserving or our respect and admiration. Shine on, you crazy cartlaginous fish, shine on.
So cute too!
Opossums. They're neat little critters. They eat tons of ticks that carry Lyme disease, (mostly) don't carry rabies because their body temp is too low, and they're the only marsupial native to North America! They get a bad rap because their first defense is to hiss and bare teeth, but failing that, they just play dead.
If you don't have the predisposition to hate them, you'll find they're pretty cute too.
E: this is about /opossums/, the north American species.
Kiwis, I feel for you, but this comment isn't about your possums.
​Hating on other people for just living their lives also seems to be a big contender for things that don’t deserve to be hated on.
This is so true.
Unemployed people. A lot of people genuinely are looking for work and did not want to lose their last job/it was beyond their control (like a layoff) but they get so much hate and called lazy by most people. I know too many unemployed people that are actually really trying hard. They definitely aren't lazy. (Not saying lazy unemployed people don't exist, but to be fair, so do lazy employed people too lol)
Leave the weather man alone!
Fox Raining GIF by Family GuyGiphyMeteorologists. They try their best to predict the weather based on patterns, models, and data. They're not perfect because predicting the weather is insanely difficult. When they get it wrong, I think we should go easy on them. It was probably an outlier result almost no one could have foreseen.
I've seen people get angry over the meteorologists for getting it right. Like they control the weather - it is their fault we are having rain, that kind of BS. Never made sense to me, but hey, I have plenty of relatives I clashed with growing up.
Please stop being d*cks to these people.
Customer service associates.
I hate when customers think that I, the minimum wage person forced to sit there and listen to them yell, am personally responsible for every policy they disagree with. Like, ma'am, if I had that much power and influence, I wouldn't be sitting here on a Saturday evening serving you.
Wholesome and necessary.
People don't deserve hate they give themselves when they are not doing too good at the moment.
I'm in a weird place and I didn't know I needed to read this. Thanks buddy.
If you haven't heard it from anyone else today, I'm proud of you.
It seems like people hate on things simply because they think they're meant to hate them. But you can always be the change and make an effort to stop being an a**hole about certain things.
No matter what though, sometimes haters gonna hate