I was a "natural dark triad" who moved quite the opposite to where TRP wants to go as far as treating women. And I wanna give my perspective on the whole debate.

From my teens to my late 20s I was quite a jerk. Bully in school, treated women badly (never got physical though), my "intellectual" interests where aggressive music, powerful cars, who would beat who's ass, misogyny, how stupid everyone is compared to me and other stuff like this. I read almost nothing, had no job, a few years of alcohol problems, got into trouble with the authorities, neighbors, temporarily expelled from high-school and college. Got a girl pregnant because I couldn't be bothered to pull out. Treated my 8 year LTR like crap, spent all her money, didn't help with anything, told her in detail how I fucked other girls and so on. I was also shit in bed. I never lasted more than 5 minutes, didn't know jack shit about the female body nor did I care to make it good for them, pressured girls into anal and deep throat, etc.

So how did that go for me in terms of attraction from the opposite sex? Great. They bought the uber inflated self value (inside I was very insecure though) and I was getting attention wherever I went. Mind you, I'm not talking about trashy and/or low income - low education women. I am from a "good family", went to the best schools, mingled with local business and political class. Never dated any girl lower than 7. I also knew how the girls I dated acted with other guys before/after I started dating them. All of them where quite dominant and a little bitchy. But with me they always acted submissive.

When every bad choice I made summed up and was about to explode in my face I panicked, decided I don't have the guts to face it all and moved to another city to start a new life. Years passed, I got decently good in IT, got good jobs, I read quite a bit, I treat other people right, I contribute to relationships at least 50 - 50, I learned how to please a woman in bed and I enjoy doing it every time.

So how does this work for me now? Well, if my goals where to always get female attention and sex - not so good. Women just don't swarm around me as they used to. And this I think shouldn't be controversial for anybody. Drop the marketing, the advertising, and you just won't reach as many potential customers. But it shouldn't affect long term relationships, right? I mean, once somebody samples a product (to keep the analogy) they can see for themselves how good and desirable it is regardless of the marketing hype or lack of. Well, somehow it doesn't work like this. Take sex for example. Before I was shit in bed, I don't remember ever making a woman orgasm. Kind of hard in 2 minutes with no foreplay... Now I can make her have multiple ones. Before almost all women came back for more after we broke up, regardless if they had a new partner or not. Now, not so much if at all. Counterintuitive to say the least. Treating her right? Before I never remembered any birthday, never gave presents. Occasionally when I didn't act as a complete jerk she would go "oh, so sweet". Now I help my partner 999 times out of 1000. The time I don't she calls me a jerk. People get used to a baseline and they judge behavior relative to that.

I'm not a "nice guy", I know the road I want to take in life and I never stray off it for anybody. I am self confident (before I had huge insecurities), act decisively when I know I'm in the right and so on. In no way clingy, a door mat or anything of the sort. People always say jerks get girls because they display confidence. I am more confident then ever, it doesn't matter if you don't scream "I'm the king of the world" in front of everybody.

I could never go back to who I was. I was a loser. A loser with a lot of females around him but a loser still. And I don't see success with women as critical as I did before. I still want it of course, I still desire sex, the feeling of being wanted, etc, but I have other priorities that trump that. I'm a lot more happy, at peace with myself, and I don't miss the drama one bit. I'm doing alright still, but not because I'm smart, not because I read, not because I have a good stable job and not because I treat women right. But because I still have somewhat of a bad boy image being not married at my age, ride motorcycles, have tattoos, still dress non conformist and things like that. To sum it up because of superficial things.

I would have so much more to say, explain and detail on the issue. But this has gotten long as it is. People are superficial and emotional/not rational. Women are, men are, you are, I am. It's not fair, it's not what we like to think of ourselves, but it's true. We are not reading scientific social studies right now, we're debating things on reddit. Nuff said. I'm not saying we should not try to improve, what I am saying is be aware of human limitations and natural tendencies. Be at peace with these and don't try to create a fairy tale in your head where the good guy always gets the girl and the bad guy fails. Or starting from the other end, the measure of success, rationalize that nice guys in fact are overt manipulative hidden agenda pieces of shit and the jerk is just confident and forward. It's the other way around, jerks are insecure manipulative emotionally broken men. And they get the girl. It's alright, not everything has to be fair or not offensive. Life is complex and shit.