Do I intimidate you?

Do men get intimidated by self sufficient woman or are they more attracted to the damsel in distress type? This was a question I had asked recently on one of my facebook statuses, and surprisingly all of the men that had commented said they were attracted to a strong independent woman. Why did this surprise me? Well, because most of the men I have encountered, including my ex, feel their self worth depends on having a woman that needs them. One of the comments that had been posted said, "Nothing is sexier than knowing that she wants to be with you, instead of her needing to be with you." I think most of us want to be needed, but can you need someone and also be self sufficient? 

 Needing someones love and support for the decisions we make for ourselves is very different than needing someone to make those decisions for us, or rescue us from them. In other words we can still need someone without needing them to do everything for us. From my own experience depending on a man to rescue me only hurt me in the long run. I was totally financially dependent on him for 24 years, and he needed that for our relationship to work. Once I became independent that's when the relationship fell apart because he no longer felt needed when in fact that wasn't the case at all.

Someone else that commented used the expression "dumbing down" to make the other person feel needed. This would definitely be selling yourself short, and would really get old in any relationship. Do some men feel like they have to rescue a woman to feel good about themselves? Maybe, but If you think of it this way, is that the kind of message we want to send to our children? I think that everyone should be taught to be self sufficient, and to want nothing less for the person they care about. I need his unconditional love, I need his emotional support, and I need him to open the pickle jar....