Aug 02, 2005 17:53
This is my tribute to the nice girls. To the nice girls who are overlooked, who become friends and nothing more, who
spend hours fixating upon their looks and their personalities and their
actions because it must be they that are doing something wrong.
This is for the girls who don't give it up on the first date, who don't
want to play mind games, who provide a comforting hug and a supportive
audience for a story they've heard a thousand times.
This is for the girls who understand that they aren't perfect and that the guys they're interested in aren't either, for
the girls who flirt and laugh and worry and obsess over the slightest
glance, whisper, touch, because somehow they are able to keep alive
that hope that maybe... maybe this time he'll have understood.
This is an homage to the girls who laugh loud and often, who are comfortable in skirts and sweats and combat boots, who care more than they should for guys who don't deserve their attention.
This is for those girls who have been in the trenches, who have watched
other girls time and time again fake up and make up and fuck up the
guys in their lives without saying a word. This is for the girls who have been there from the beginning and have heard the trite words of advice, from "there are plenty of fish in the sea," to "time heals all wounds."
This is to honor those girls who know that guys are just as scared as they are, who know that they deserve better, who are seeking to find it.
This is for the girls who have never been in love, but know that it's an experience that they don't want to miss out on.
For the girls who have sought a night with friends and been greeted by
a night of catcalling, rude comments and explicit invitations that
they'd rather not have experienced.
This is for the girls who have spent their weekends sitting on
the sidelines of a beer pong tournament or a case race, or playing
Florence Nightingale for a vomiting guy friend or a comatose crush, who
have received a drunk phone call just before dawn from someone who doesn't care enough to invite them over but is still willing to pass out in their bed.
This is for the girls
who have left sad song lyrics in their away messages, who have tried to
make someone understand through a subliminally appealing profile, who have time and time again dropped their male friend hint after hint after hint only to watch him chase after the first blonde girl in a skirt.
This is for
the girls who have been told that they're too good or too smart or too
pretty, who have been given compliments as a way of breaking off a
relationship, who have ever been told they are only wanted as a friend.
This one's for the girls who you can take home to mom, but won't because it's easier to sleep with a whore than foster a relationship; this
is for the girls who have been led on by words and kisses and touches,
all of which were either only true for the moment, or never real to
begin with.
This is for the girls who have allowed a guy into their head and heart
and bed, only to discover that he's just not ready, he's just not over
her, he's just not looking to be tied down; this is for the girls who believe the excuses because it's easier to believe that it's not that they don't want you, it's that they don't want anyone.
This is for the girls who have had their hearts broken and their hopes dashed by someone too cavalier to have cared in the first place; this is for the nights spent dissecting every word and syllable and inflection in his speech,
for the nights when you've returned home alone, for the nights when
you've seen from across the room him leaning a little too close, or
standing a little too near, or talking a little too softly for the girl
he's with to be a random hookup.
This is for the girls who have endured party after party in his presence, finally having realized that it wasn't that he didn't want a relationship: it was that he didn't want you.
I honor you for the night his dog died or his grandmother died or his
little brother crashed his car and you held him, thinking that if you
only comforted him just right, or said the right words, or rubbed his back in the right way then perhaps he'd realize what it was that he already had.
This is for the night you realized that it would never happen, and the sunrise you saw the next morning after failing to sleep.This
is for the "I really like you, so let's still be friends" comment after
you read more into a situation than he ever intended; this is for never
realizing that when you choose friends, you seldom choose those which
make you cry yourself to sleep. This is for the hugs you've received
from your female friends, for the nights they've reassured you that you
are beautiful and intelligent and amazing and loyal and truly worthy of a great guy; this is for the despair you all felt as you sat in the aftermath of your tears, knowing that that night the only companionship you'd have was with a pillow and your teddy bear.
This is for the girls who have been used and abused, who have endured what he was giving because at least he was giving something; this
is for the stupidity of the nights we've believed that something was
better than nothing, though his something was nothing we'd have ever
wanted.
This is for the girls who have been satisified with too little and who have learned never to expect anything more: for the girls who don't think that they deserve more, because they've been conditioned for so long to accept the scraps thrown to them by guys.
This is what I don't understand. Men sit and question and whine that girls are only attracted to the mean guys, the guys who berate them and belittle them and don't appreciate them and don't want them;
who use them for sex and think of little else than where their next
conquest will be made.
Men complain that they never meet nice girls,
girls who are genuinely interested and compelling, who are intelligent
and sweet and smart and beautiful; men despair that no good women want
to share in their lives, that girls play mindgames, that girls love to
keep them hanging.
Yet, men, I ask you: were you to meet one of these
genuinely interested, thrillingly compelling, interesting and
intelligent and sweet and beautiful and smart girls, were you to give
her your number and wait for her to call... and if you were to receive
a call from her the next day and she, in her truthful, loyal,
intelligent and straightforward nice girl fashion, were to tell you
that she finds you intriguing and attractive and interesting and worth
her time and perhaps material from which she could fashion a boyfriend,
would you or would you not immediately call your friends to tell them
of the "stalker chick" you'd met the night prior, who called you and
wore her heart on her sleeve and told the truth? And would you, or
would you not, refuse to make plans with her, speak with her, see her
again, and once again return to the bar or club or party scene and
search once more for this "nice girl" who you just cannot seem to find?
Because therein lies the truth, guys: we nice girls are everywhere. But
you're not looking for a nice girl. You're not looking for someone
genuinely interested in your intermural basketball game, or your
anatomy midterm grade, or that argument you keep having with your
father; you're looking for a quick fix, a night when you can pretend to
have a connection with another human being which is just as disposable
as the condom you were using during it.
So don't say you're on the lookout for nice girls, guys, when you pass
us up on every step you take.
Sometimes we go undercover; sometimes we
go in disguise: sometimes when that girl in the low cut shirt or the
too tight miniskirt won't answer your catcalls, sometimes you're
looking at a nice girl in whore's clothing - - we might say we like the
attention, we might blush and giggle and turn back to our friends, but
we're all thinking the same thing: "This isn't me. Tomorrow morning,
I'll be wearing a teeshirt and flannel shorts, I'll have slept alone
and I'll be making my hungover best friend breakfast.
See through the
disguise. See me." You never do. Why?
Because you only see the exterior, you only see the slutty girl who
welcomes those advances. You don't want the nice girl.. so don't say
you're looking for a relationship: relationships take time and energy
and intent, three things we're willing to extend - - but in return,
we're looking for compassion and loyalty and trust, three things you
never seem willing to express. Maybe nice guys finish last, but in the
race they're running they're chasing after the whores and the sluts and
the easy-targets... the nice girls are waiting at the finish line with
water and towels and a congratulatory hug (and yes, if she's a nice
girl and she likes you, the sweatiness probably won't matter), hoping
against hope that maybe you'll realize that they're the ones that you
want at the end of that silly race.
So maybe it won't last forever. Maybe some of those guys in that race
will turn in their running shoes and make their way to the concession
stand where we're waiting.