Mr. Balance enters the building. Couple of points since I am in a hurry:
1) I agree with LostKat that it is a bit much for many girls. I can't work with someone who is overly clingy etc. It is nice once in a while, but I want a partner (more or less equal - since perfect balance doesn't exist) not a 5 years old I need to babysit/pamper.
2) I can see where the gangsta badboy assessment comes from though. Certainly, a lot of "badboys" seem to have some success, quantatively more (since they are "bad" they get to bounce around partners, and some of them *do* have enough partners in their lifetime to make it seem that women dig that) than your stereotypical goodie two-shoes ("wet lettuce"). I would assert that most people in this category -mean- well, and they -are- putting the women above them, as opposed to the bad boys who step on the women. And I do find it interesting that the women still prefer the later to the former, which I believe is what fuel the believes that women like "bad boys" , or "nice guys finish last".
My view? Two points (again
):
a) I'll agree with the the OPs point that women often say one thing then do another. Heck, I have to question if they really know what they really want.
b) But most probably don't like "bad boys" per se. It just happens that they possess some positive traits: assertiveness, confidence etc. Your badboy will probably take them one a step further and get arrogant, manipulative etc. From my observations, there are more women who are more willing to take the good and the negative than someone who only has "nice" in his inventory, and nothing else (or maybe even a couple of negatives). Those "negatives" may not be necessarily obvious: to the clingy (sometime negative) girl, she is clingy because she loves him. Likewise, to the guy who treat the girl like a piece of glass, he is doing it to show he cares. Well, both can backfires if not kept in check.
You can strike in between though. If you are confident, secure, mostly a good person (hey, it's fun to tease - without geniunely going out of line), then it probably would work a bit better. Not that there is a single equation that work for everyone mind you
Going back to what I originally said, I don't want someone who is always clingy. But I don't want someone who doesn't give a crap either [obviously]
Edit: So much for making this sort