A controlling woman will often use guilt, gaslighting, or other manipulative tactics to control her partner.

He tries to change how you behave or look by comparing you to others, so you get the not-so-subtle hint about what he expects from you.Love and kindness are not unconditional with her — possibly because they weren’t unconditional with the people who raised her; she had to earn their attention, smiles, and basic kindness.

Only then will she allow herself to be touched in a way that makes her feel weaker and less safe — if only for a moment. 10. She makes her partner earn good treatment. Or he might be so out of touch with emotional intimacy that sex is perfunctory and just a physical release for him. Over time, you learn to just go along, which, unfortunately, trains the controlling man to tighten the reins. 2. They criticize you constantly. She has to be the one in charge of where you both live, what qualities your shared living space must have, and how it will be decorated. They want to control any interactions you have with others because they are paranoid about your straying away. 8. They don’t care about your point of view.

Masculinity, then, appears on a sliding scale, usually depending on a boy’s childhood environment and trauma. All children experience negativity, with indifference or neglect at one end and physical or sexual abuse at the other, and the more painful childhood is, the more likely a boy is to emerge as “hyper-masculine”. Meanwhile, the more masculine a boy is, the more he represses his feelings about women, so the more misogynistic and abusive he is likely to be. This also works in reverse, with hyper-masculine men also more likely to be emotionally vulnerable, even helpless.