This male troper's female friend has had quite a few words to say about this trope. If I may paraphrase: "Why the hell would I go after some self-absorbed angsty pretty boy way too preoccupied with his own issues? So I'd have to deal with them? Heh, no thanks! I'd rather have someone deal with ''my'' issues." The last part was said in jest, and I still thinks the whole thing's pretty hilarious.

An amazing subversion with this troper: She saw a guy who was tall, dark, broody, and pretty damn handsome. Cue a twinge of concern as she instantly started liking him. Then she decided to actually ''speak'' to him, and he turned out to be the cutest geek she's ever met. Who ''cosplays''.

Does this guy of yours have a brother?

Looks like your geek-dar was in top form that day!

Are you my wife?

This Troper was on the receiving end of this effect in high school. The girl with whom he had gone on several dates suddenly decided that she didn't feel like dating. Later, he saw said girl walking out of school hand in hand with a stereotypical skater bad boy.

This happened to me with my ex-girlfriend. Apparently, 5 years of being a GentleGiant and more or less a hugantic sweetheart just wasn't good enough for her- See, I'm very, ''very'' difficult to make angry. And apparently, she got it into her crazy little head (I'm not saying this to be spiteful- she literally was, at the time, crazy- she had a mild form of schizophrenia) that I just wasn't good enough for her, '''''because I never got angry at her'''''. What...What the '''hell'''?! I thought that...you know... girls ''enjoyed'' guys showering them with attention at every possible moment the way I did with her. Well, things ended rather badly and it's only recently that she's admitted that she was wrong...only after both of us were in new relationships, of course...I give you a paraphrase. #QUOTE#'''Me:''' "Well, what's the problem?" #QUOTE#'''Her:''' "You just... don't show that much ''emotion''. You're so predictable! You're all loving and patient and calm and...it's annoying." #QUOTE#'''Me:''' "...Wait, are you upset with me because ''I'' never get upset at ''you?!''" #QUOTE#'''Her:''' "..." #QUOTE#'''Me:''' "Lovely." '''*Facepalm* ''' #QUOTE#'''Her:''' "Well, its...I mean...Uhm..." #QUOTE#'''Me:''' "I have ''told'' you why I keep my temper so carefully. I have ''told'' you I don't want to turn into my father. Is this a problem now?" #QUOTE#'''Her:''' "..." #QUOTE#'''Me:''' "...I am nowhere near caffienated enough for this conversation." '''*Get up to get some coffee. Its gonna be a loooong night...* '''

This female troper admits she once was attracted to bad boys... back in her teens. But having grown up since, I automatically avoid them and refuse their propositions for I have witnessed the outcome of such relationships too many times with my female friends. Yes, they look sexy and manly but that's all they have. I admit bluntness and earthy looks are still a turn-on but {{Jerkass}}ery, oversized egos and abusive treatment are left to little girls in search of consistence through {{Love Martyr}}dom. I have better things to do with my time, thanks.

This troper's very first relationship (if you can even call it that) started in the second year of high school. It ended after a couple of days, with no real reason or logic given behind it. Less than a week later, we talked again, and she told me she was already in a new relationship with a guy who supposedly lived in my neighborhood and that she found. The kicker? She told me he was ''in jail'' at the time.

This troper embodies both sides of the argument. Most of the time he comes across as a happy, quite smart guy, and attracts a wide circle of friends because of it - but no romance. The two girls he's let the mask slip to to reveal himself to be a BrokenAce, and quite a lot smarter than he comes across, have subsequently dated him.

One of the girls I like said that I was a great friend, but she wasn't interested in me. She is now dating a tall, pale(er than me, but I have been getting a good bit of sun lately), black haired, stereotypical goth. Apparently he's already ''set his room on fire'' since they've been dating. She found it funny. I find the fact that she burned her hand on a lightbulb while telling me that funny and ominous.

This Troper (who should probably make a contributor page one of these days) was TroubledButCute in high school, and has since matured into a kind (if still unintentionally sharp-edged), friendly man. He feels absolutely astounded to find that along with his immaturity, shyness, belief in conspiracy theories, and bitter hatred of the rest of humanity, his appeal to women seems to have gone right out the window.

This Troper is a decent guy who always treats women respectfully. And has, in his entire life, only had two women who were interested in him as he naturally is. However, when he's in a bad mood and acts like a complete dick towards people, he finds women practically falling all over him. *sigh* If his sense of ethics didn't condone such behavior, he'd continue to act like a dick just to 'get the girl'. Damned conscience.

Similar problem for this Troper. After being the nice guy for many years he feel into a depression for a couple months of junior year of high school during which he became a total jerk. During those months he had his first date, his first time being asked to winter formal, first seduction, and first time a girl admitted to having a crush on him. When the depression ended he went back to being a nice guy and returned to a stagnant life of being entirely uninteresting to women.

This Troper's friend falls into the trope. She kept getting back together with the same guy who kept breaking up with her before their anniversary. They got back together 9 times before she finally broke up with him. In between all these getting back togethers, she lost her virginity to a guy who sexually harassed her (actually making her perform fellatio against her will two weeks before he slept with her) but she slept with him despite not even being drunk. The next guy she dated was a good guy and the broke up after one week. The most recent guy was a sadist and often pressured her into S&M.

This Troper once heard a girl (who happens to hang out in the same group as him) complain about her past relationships being with jerky guys. He suggested going out with a mutual friend, who had had a crush on her for two years and would have respected her, but she declined - she didn't want a guy who is "too nice".

This female Troper somewhat confirms this Trope. She's still slightly in lust with her TroubledButCute ex-boyfriend. He's not really ''bad'', per say, just unstable. And dead sexy.

This Troper finds that this is 100% TruthInTelevision. I attend an all-boys school, although it shares some facilities with the all-girls school next door. The girls always seem to fall for the guys who are openly total jerks.

I must be too nice...every girl seeing me comments on how cute I am, but nobody wants to date me. No, they'd rather go for the {{Jerk Jock}}s and TheStoner. *Sigh.* I have books.

This troper has had it happen to him often but another friend is an even better example. He was comforting a friend who had broken up with a jerk who was abusing her. She said to the friend, who had a large crush on her by the way, "If only I could date a nice guy like you." He replied "How about a nice guy who is me?" She gave a long rambling answer but it basically came down to the fact that he wasn't dangerous enough and she wanted excitement. To this day, this troper still winces whenever he hears about the girl and the friend in the same sentence.

This troper plays guitar and piano, he also plays football, baseball, basketball, and soccer well enough to outdo people who are on his school's team. Yet still he is told that girls find him "too nice" because he is not a testosterone filled chauvinist and does not always speak in monosyllables.

This whole troper's love life consists of this trope. I'm apparently appealing enough to ''get'' a girlfriend - but I've been dumped, ''without exception'', within the week, in favor of someone who looks like they drink distilled steroids for breakfast.

This troper's love interest dumped him for his best friend, who used to be some kind of hooligan...

This troper was cured of any mooning over jackass guys very early on. Being not the most attractive of girls, she was usually the target of the jackass guys. No desire to date erupting there, just a desire to maim. It does not help that of the few people that have asked her out or told her she was cute, 7 were joking, 1 just wanted to get in her, or anyone's, pants, 1 were on a rebound and just trying to get a little confidence back, and the last is the only one who seems to be honest, but is currently in a relationship. No confidence issues there...

I'm right there with you. Honestly, why would I find a guy attractive if he's always insulting me? It happened back in ''middle school'', but earned me such an anti-social reputation that it crippled my dating life for ''years'' and left me with such HUGE ISSUES... *sigh*

This male Troper suffered from this for years. Girls that he was nice to saw him as a pushover, while the girls that he wasn't interested in wouldn't leave him alone. So I concentrated on cultivating other interests and activities and really didn't miss the stress of dating. A few years later, I'm more balanced and mature, and in a relationship with a great girl. Lesson: Don't make your happiness contingent on how others see you.

This female troper has crushed on aloof, brash, and/or joker-type boys for as long as she could remember. Her first subversion is her current crush, who's kind, sweet, and intelligent. Sign of maturity, perhaps?

A story from a friend of this Troper's brother, who had an acquaintance who married a man who forbids her to work (for reasons of his culture), doesn't work himself either, and beats her. If you think she'd be sane enough to leave him ASAP, you're wrong.

This troper's brother is the jerk and he's the nice guy. Of course his brother gets all the girls. However, on occasions we somehow switch roles and this troper actually succeeds before he starts to feel bad about his actions.

I'm a friendzoner extraordinaire. Despite being handsome enough to get hit on by random girls in the street, I wind up being "the one guy who understands them" in a quick series of conversations and jokes. I find this to be kind of sad.

Similar for this troper. He has an impressive sense of humor that many women have described as hysterical and has been told by countless numbers of them that he should have his own talkshow. However the girls always go for a guy who is funny in a cruel way rather than for me.

This troper sat behind one of the hottest girls in school for one year. During that year she hardly ever noticed him but after he made a joke that wound up being unintentionally insulting she became his friend. I wasn't enough of a JerkAss to get a date but apparently enough of one to get good friend status in under two weeks.

Both played straight and subverted by this female troper, who as a rule likes intelligent, fun, genuinely nice guys, but whose First Kiss at fifteen was at a party with a guy she was dancing with and who had a pretty bad rep (I didn't find that out until later, but he ''looked'' the part).

For the first fews years this troper spent in America, women consistently fell for him because they -thought- his unusually large kippah was worn just to break rules, that his stoic demeanor came from angst, rather than poor english, and that, since he trained in Krav Maga, he would beat up anyone for no reason. Two years ago, when they learned that he was reluctant to fight, kept a garden and spent more time in Synagogues than in his own home, he suddenly became gay and unattractive - coincidence?

I'm nice to the people I like, and can be an ass to the people I do not like. Most of my friends are female because I think they are less annoying than the men I know (they personify this trope), and I am usually very nice to them, and they are nice to me as well. But, I would never have a chance with them because they all go for people who look like they are in some metalcore band with gauges, emo hair, piercings, and tattoos, along with the Jocks, the Stoners, the Partiers, and the loud frat boy assholes. I am a reasonably attractive person... but then again I go on here, I like Star Wars, and I spend most of my time playing Video Games... So I'm a nerd, and girls probably don't want the nerd.

This troper finds that this trope is true to her. There are two types of men she'll swoon over: Stoic Glasses guys and Bad Boys. Which might possibly be considered one type of guy. But whatever.

I have witnessed at least one case in person of a perfectly nice girl going out with a "bad boy" and constantly getting treated badly. Usually she'd end up in tears, but despite the advice of her best friends, she'd keep going back to this guy. The relationship only recently ended and the girl is still in tears, her friends are still trying to help her though. Another example of truth in this trope is another guy I know whose had many, many girlfriends, although he distinctly fits the "asshole" category. He regularly abuses girls and the few I've been able to help through this have complained that he's made them feel a "pain far more awful than just simple bullying. He makes it hell".

A friend of mine who I describe as the "most sympathetic outsider ever" got girls easily, sometimes two at the same time. And a girl I was quite fond of, and almost fell in love with... followed a break-up with hooking up with three bad guys in a row.

This editor can't claim personal experience, never having lost a girl to a bad boy, but has certainly seen it happen to male and female friends on both sides of the trope often enough.

Back when I was a teenager, I probably used this as an excuse, but not so much anymore. I do remember one girl in particular now that I think about this. Long story short, she was already dating a bad boy and she acknowledged that he was one and was an asshole. I eventually told her that I had a crush on her, but she insisted it would never work because we were so different. One time, as it happened a lot with being friend zoned, she began to complain to me about how much of an asshole her boyfriend could be (pretty sure he cheated on her once), so then I asked her, "Why don't you just date a nice guy for once?" "Because I don't deserve someone like you" she replied. ''What the hell?''

Sadly, I admit to falling into this particular Trope. In my whole high school experience I only crushed on two nice guys. One just wanted to be friends, the other was taken (I had my suspicions that he might have liked me though). All the rest were rather jerky players. Unfortunately, I learned my lesson the hard way, and actually got some self esteem to boot.

Oh wow, this applies to me sadly. This girl I met not too long ago and talk to nearly every day, all day likes me, and tells me she loves me nearly everyday, etc. The feeling is mutual, however, she's totally in love with this kid she used to date who lives in a trailer, got kicked out of every school he's ever gone to, is on parole, and into some hardcore drugs and has weapons. Even worse, he's 15 and she's 18. The kid is dumb as a rock and is a total loser, but he makes her wet and she's driven to him. He's cheated on her and threatened to force himself on her in past relationships, and everyone says he's ugly and an asshole and she's too good for him. But his middle name is danger, so I'm fucked.

This troper, right down to the letter. Never mind that he used her, has commitment issues that would make your average commitmentphobe blink twice, cannot be faithful to save his life, and is probably into some fairly dangerous shit - if he called, I'd come running.

This (gay) troper is very attracted to bad boys, emphasis on "bad", so much that his perfect boyfriend would be an abusive jerkass sociopath. He feels kind of guilty about it.

Glad I'm not the only guy who has this problem. I've noticed that rock band members seem to be the people who seem to get all the girls, but I'm sure it is down to coincidence. Or not. Considering I sing folk music...yeah.

I spent a long, long time trapped in an emotionally and physically abusive relationship... I swear, he was like Jekyll and Hyde. Sometimes he could be the nicest guy ever, but then suddenly some strange thing would set off his anger and he would turn extremely nasty and physically violent. It was unhealthy as hell; the number of times the neighbours complained about our screaming and slapping matches, and the number of times police got involved (but did nothing about it) and ''I'' nearly got arrested because they believed him over me was unreal. We broke up so many times, but then he would always come back begging for another chance, spamming my inbox with a mix of angry and whiny text messages, saying he loved me and promised things would get better all that sort of peachy B.S. Well, naturally, they never did, and I was weak then, so it took me a long time to finally put my foot down and just say "No" and break it off for good... it had completely destroyed my life by that point, so I needed to take a step forward...

I did once have a big crush on a "Bad Boy" except we called them rebels. He was and I mean WAS, popular, "confident", arrogant, seemed gifted with the ability to get what he wanted, was rumoured to smoke and do drugs too. Pretty much a bad boy and a rebel. I have outgrown it somewhat and now I'm crushing on an under-stated, standard chilled social life, relaxed non-rebel type. Boys there is hope if you're not bad. It just takes girls longer to realize how good you really are if you are good. It helps if you're non-arrogant too. It also helps if your geniunely nice and don't invade their space or come off as cocky.

This Troper fell in love with a bad boy with a heart of gold character, then later fell for his holder

who can be a bad boy when he wants to be ;)

A really cool girl I thought about asking out started comparing me to her ex-boyfriend and how his loud, vulgar and, fiery personality shows how mature and strong he is compared to my nicer, calm and cool personality. She thinks I lack confidence because I try to put up a cool front and only acts nice hoping I might find a girl that wants a boy toy. Never mind the fact my kindness is trying to show respect. I'm cool and calm because I am confident, there's no need for me to mouth off to tell everyone I'm sure of myself when my actions speaks louder. That conversation led me into a fight because of her ex-boyfriend's need to protect his image and he got stomped. After that fight she suddenly shows interest in me because she knows why I'm so calm and cool. Still can't figure it out years later. Oh well.

This troper's best female friend and crush (yes, I'm the UnluckyChildhoodFriend here, big deal) used to date a guy who was this completely. He was impossibly good looking, loved to get drunk (at age 14), was a complete ChickMagnet; while my friend was a hotter version of the GirlNextDoor, a good girl who fell for the TroubledButCute Jerk. Needless to say, I hated him, and then I get to know him, and discovered he was actually a JerkWithAHeartOfGold and deeply cared about her. Sadly, he's also a CrazyJealousGuy, and since all of his friends developed a crush on his girlfriend (she's a guy magnet, I guess), that was slowly killing the relationship. And then they got back together, broke up again... Now they're JustFriends. Let's see how much that will last.

This troper gets SO much pain from this. I'm not ugly or anything (though it certainly wouldn't hurt me to lose a few pounds) but I'm just too kind for all the girls to actually attract any of them, not to mention that I'm totally the ShrinkingViolet type. The one girl with whom I've been in a relationship decided, after a few months, that I'm "too nice and too romantic" and she'd prefer a brutal bad boy whose reaction to teasing (and she teases everyone constantly) would be to pull her to himself and just, you know... start going at it; yep, that's the exact words. I just can't do something like that, folks. I just can't. And later, a female friend told me something along the lines of "It'd be nice if you found yourself a girlfriend. But that'll be difficult, because you're such a good person that one can see it by just looking at you, and girls just aren't atracted to that type". Cue HeroicBSOD. Ugh. Well, I'm back to writing novels... it's a good anaesthetic.

This Troper is home-schooled, and he doesn't have that much experience when it comes to girls. He also has an Identical twin Brother (he is also a troper). We has a really great friend and he lets us know when girls have crushes on us. (we have a band together and he show other friends from school pictures of us all). Oddly enough, the Girls tend to find me the cutest out of me and my brother, at first i was confused but now I think I know why: You can already tell just by looking at me that's I'm the most angsty of the two of us. I tend to have a short temper and get angrier then him. Then again, I don't have much experience when It comes to girls so I could be completely wrong *laughs*!