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why do men need female attention


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i give my husband attention but its not enough for him, i can tell him that he looks great, sexy, charming, smart, everything to make a man feel good about himself, but when any female of any age tells him something nice, he lights up and i just don't see that when i say them. men, tell me, is it a guy thing? or has my guy lost it with me.

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LucreziaBorgia

Some people need to know that they are objectively attractive. They feel that the attention they get from the spouse doesn't really count, because the spouse is supposed to say that. They feel that the spouse may find them attractive because of a variety of reasons that keep them married, but for a good deal of people - they want to know that someone finds them attractive for no other reason than the fact that they simply look good to the opposite sex in general.

 

How to fix it? There is little you can do to fix things. The problem is with him, and his need for external non-marital validation. Until he finds a way to fulfill that need from within, he will continue to look for it on the outside.

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OP, it's a *some* guy thing. You are married to *some* guy. IMO, it's healthy to recognize and occasionally validate one's worth or value, but not at the expense of one's M.

 

IMO, it's how it's handled. When receiving an external compliment such as you describe, a sincere "thank you" and including my spouse as the inspiration for "all that" would be quite appropriate.

 

TBH, personally, I prefer a woman's actions to show me she finds me "great, sexy, charming, smart", etc. Words are nice but lack the depth of actions. YMMV, of course :)

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I don't believe it's necessarily a "guy" thing. When it comes to compliments, a law of diminshing returns governs. We get more buzz from the compliments of attractive strangers than of intimate familiars.

 

A spouse's praise loses value over time. Repetition/familiarity breeds a deflationary spiral, a bland acceptance. An intimate stranger's praise gives more bang for the buck.

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i give my husband attention but its not enough for him, i can tell him that he looks great, sexy, charming, smart, everything to make a man feel good about himself, but when any female of any age tells him something nice, he lights up and i just don't see that when i say them. men, tell me, is it a guy thing? or has my guy lost it with me.

 

For some (many?) men, their view of their own masculinity is tied -- at least in part -- to how objectively attractive they are to the opposite sex. Reasons can be very individualized and may or may not reflect dissatisfaction in the marriage.

 

Neither my wife nor I accept compliments from each other well. She has body image issues (very overweight) and thinks I am just trying to be nice, and I never got over my lack of success at attracting women when I was single.

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It's not a guy thing. You see it all the time with women, as well.

 

There's a typical mindset that goes with it. "I've still got it."

 

You have to seriously review how far "having it", is to each individual. If it dominates whereby the person lacks discipline, don't expect fidelity.

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it's the same as when i tell my wife that she's Beautiful

1000 times a day and I tell her she's gorgeous and she

likes it, but doesn't believe it.

 

BUT, when another woman or a friend of mine or one

of her co-workers says it, she too lights up.

 

It's like she thinks i'm obligated to say, just because

she's my wife or something.

 

Some dudes and gals just need to/like to hear it from

another source for the sheer fact that it in some way,

makes it more TRUE.

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so, if i tell my husband that he looks great, i'll never get that look from him that other women get from him? so why tell him? why not just stop for awhile and if he ask me how he looks just say okay i guess? do you think in time after doing this, he will love it when i tell him he looks great?

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There is a big difference between telling someone a compliment, and giving them one - meaning, my boyfriend doesn't just tell me I'm beautiful - it's in the way he acts, the way he looks at me, the way he gets up from his chair from across the room and rushes over to me to hug or kiss me - that is when I know the compliment is real. So like carhill said, 'words are nice but lack the depth of actions'. If you really mean those things you say to your husband, then try and show that you mean it as well.

Hopefully things go up from there! Hopefully he also does those things for you as well.

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movingonandon
i give my husband attention but its not enough for him, i can tell him that he looks great, sexy, charming, smart, everything to make a man feel good about himself, but when any female of any age tells him something nice, he lights up and i just don't see that when i say them. men, tell me, is it a guy thing? or has my guy lost it with me.

 

 

I'm not sure I buy his version, and I'm a guy. Basically, when I'm in a good relationship I walk around like I own the world, and neither seek, nor even *notice* any female attention. And if it so happens that I actually notice it, my reaction is not to 'bask' in it, but to cockily acknowledge it ("That's right, baby, I rock"). And then go home and split my girlfriend in half :).

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Only you can know if your guy has lost it with you. It won't be his unresponsiveness to your compliments that triggers your understanding. There will be plenty of other signs. If it's only the compliments thing, try not telling him how nice he looks. He may actually be tired of hearing it from you.

 

Beyond that, everyone lights up when someone who isn't onbliged to says they look great. This isn't abnormal behavior, so far as I can tell. I don't know the actual dynamics of your relationship. Based on your original post, I see nothing to worry about.

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lets get deeper with this, not only does my husband need attention from me, he needs to always have a lady friends to talk to all the time, this would be at his last job of 18 years. he worked with this one for 8 yrs. emotional affair i think?

but if not her then it would be another girl, its been this way all of our marriage. he would say they are good friends, maybe even bestfriends.

i know all of his friends and these are friends i don't know or have not even meet, he will talk about these women to me about being with them at work or going to lunch, taking business trip with them and acting as if he hates it, meanwhile over hearing him talk to his buddies about how hot they are...... or, one of his friends would be surprised that when i say something they did at work together they would guestion him about it, and then he would not want to talk about it at all, saying i'm crazy.

now the guestion is. why do men or some men need female attentions?

I feel that i am a pretty women, built nicely, a good mother, open to anything my husband asks, but i feel i am not enough for him. most of his friends tells him that he is a lucky man to have me, and he is very very very jealous of me. so why does he feel the need to have other women to make him feel good? I don't need that, my husband is all i need.

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i am afraid your right, it has taken me along time to see this, only when i grew a back bone is when my eyes seen everything, not to say that my back bone is fully developed, its been alittle over a year that i found out more crap, so for the early years i felt i had a problem, or so he said. tried to control myself not to react to his acts, or turned the other cheek.

sometimes i think that if i had not put up with it and stop it earlier it may not be so bad now. so now it seem like i wait for some more crap to happen, or better yet i know more is yet to come.

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I think it's easier for us to appreciate other people easily, especially if you don't know them. It's not that I'm easy to be air headed, but to get recognition from someone who don't know you feel so good. :D

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i give my husband attention but its not enough for him, i can tell him that he looks great, sexy, charming, smart, everything to make a man feel good about himself, but when any female of any age tells him something nice, he lights up and i just don't see that when i say them. men, tell me, is it a guy thing? or has my guy lost it with me.

 

I can't speak for your man, but if I am happy with someone, I don't need external female attention although it is appreciated. lol but it never goes where it shouldn't.

 

I think being able to wake up next to her in the morning and take care of business is good enough ;)

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Dexter Morgan
i give my husband attention but its not enough for him, i can tell him that he looks great, sexy, charming, smart, everything to make a man feel good about himself, but when any female of any age tells him something nice, he lights up and i just don't see that when i say them. men, tell me, is it a guy thing? or has my guy lost it with me.

 

No, I wouldn't worry about it. I get the compliments from my SO other all the time. We all expect to be adored by our SO's. But it does feel good when someone else gives us compliments. but to me thats all it is, a compliment and I sure don't need to hear it from someone else, but it does feel good just the same. but then again, it feels just as good when my SO says so:)

 

As far as is this just a guy thing? Funny, I always see the women being the ones strutting there stuff to get attention from other men.

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