He wants someone he can control and will feed his ego. That’s what he really wants. Guys like this might have had dysfunctional family dynamics and never learned what a healthy relationship should actually “look” like. Even today this toxic mindset of relationships being a power struggle in which the only way to win is to care less than the other person is perpetuated by alpha male content, pill subs, etc..

I think however that it goes back further. I remember as a boy being told that if I had a crush on a girl or like her to never tell her. Truly, these messages are so engrained in us as children that even women can fall into the trap and find themselves turned off by men who are “too emotionally open.” In actuality of course, not expressing feelings just leads to insecure people chasing validation and the beginning of a toxic relationship cycle.

God, we have so many dysfunctional messages to unlearn as children it is hard to even know where to start..