Wednesday, May 25, 2011

The Allure of the Bad Boy

Welcome my guest blogger Lucy Felthouse!


Whether it's real life bad boys (Colin Farrell, Jude Law, Christian Bale, Eminem, Christian Slater, James Dean, Robert Downey Jr, Russell Brand, Dave Grohl) or fictional ones (Damon Salvatore, Eric Northman, Lestat, Maverick and Iceman, Daniel Cleaver, Captain Jack Sparrow, Spike from Buffy, Lucius Malfoy), many women find them irresistible. They're the guys we love to hate. The ones you'd take to bed, but would never introduce to your parents.


I've always been fascinated with this phenomenon. Many of us lust after these types of guys, but why? They're bad, hence the nickname. They're liars, cheats, criminals, murderers and just generally naughty. And yet they send us weak at the knees. What's that all about?

I can only suggest a few theories; we like danger, excitement and thrills. These guys have sex appeal. There's never a dull moment. I'm not saying I'm right or wrong, I guess each woman can only speak for herself when it comes to answering the question. However, due to my fascination, I wanted to have a go at creating one of these characters for myself – a guy we love to hate.


And so A Bit of Rough (available from Noble Romance) was born. Obviously I'm not trying to say the character in my naughty story is iconic, like the ones I mentioned above, but he's certainly bad. Here's the blurb:
When Alison meets Andrew, she instantly pegs him as a moron. He's a total bad boy and does nothing but chain smoke and brag about his stream of past conquests. Yet, much to her confusion, Alison still finds herself attracted to him. She's not had sex in a while, so Alison figures there's no harm in going home with him to get herself a bit of rough.
Early reviews are indicating that I hit the nail on the head with my bed hopping, chain smoking, tattooed bad boy, so I'm happy! I hope people enjoy reading him as much I enjoyed writing him.

So, over to you now. What's your answer to the question – if you like the bad boy 'thing', why? And please feel free to tell us of some hot bad boys we can go and ogle for ourselves J

*****

During Lucy’s first year studying Creative Writing at the University of Derby, she was dared to write an erotic story. It went down a storm and she's never looked back. Lucy has had stories published by Cleis Press, Noble Romance, Ravenous Romance and Xcite Books. Find out more at http://www.lucyfelthouse.co.uk. You can also find her on Facebook and Twitter.


15 comments:

  1. No truer words spoken in my world Lizzie- "They're the guys we love to hate. The ones you'd take to bed, but would never introduce to your parents."
    Dawne P

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  2. Yup, Dawne. they remind me of the bumper sticker often seen on beat up old vans - "Don't laugh. Your daughter might be in here." :)

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  3. Thanks for having me here, Elizabeth! It was a great fun post to write, I hope your visitors enjoy it :)

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  4. "They're the guys we love to hate. The ones you'd take to bed..." You definitely hit the nail on the head with that phrase, Lucy.

    I love the images you chose for this post as well. They really are the epitome of "Bad Boy".

    In school I always fell for the ones that looked AND acted the bad boy, but since I've grown up (LOL), I lean more towards the guys that LOOK like nice guys, and they usually are, but they have that bad boy gleam in their eye, letting you know deep down there's a fun and naughty person there.

    Great post, Lucy!

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  5. You're welcome, Lucy! It's a pleasure to have you here. ;)

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  6. Yes, we love the bad boys, just don't want to get caught loving them. You asked for a few more, here: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, George Clooney plays a good bad boy, too. I'll take Vin, you can have the rest. Great post!

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  7. As a guy reading this...yeah...I'm a "nice guy"...a nice, single guy. Not sure how I could change to become attractive in this way...it just sucks to be a nice guy I guess

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  8. The bad boys is a fantasy, Jean. You are so right. It's fun to adore them but you don't want one in your real life. Too much drama and trouble. And the key of the bad boy fantasy is that he changes in the end to love her and treat her well. Sadly, bad boys in real life don't turn out that way.

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  9. Tony, there's nice guy and Nice Guy™. The latter is the flip side of the Jerk, or real life bad boy if you will. The Nice Guy™ operates from his own sense of entitlement, not from a position of real communication, courtesy, and respect between men and women. HIs means of expressing his shallowness and self-centeredness is merely different from that of the Jerk/real life bad boy.

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  10. hi Lizzie, I just followed your blog. Wonderful post and yummy pics

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  11. Thanks, Jerry! Good to see you here. ;)

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  12. Great comments, guys!

    Jean - thanks for your generosity ;)

    Tony - I wouldn't say it sucks to be the nice guy, at all. I may think various "bad boys" are hot, but like Elizabeth says, they're the FANTASY. I'm dating a nice guy :)

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  13. Oh the bad boy, I can't resist him. I'm really partial to the reformed bad boy. He's the guy that's no longer on the wrong side of the law but he looks like he could be so nobody will test him. Beer drinking, pool playing, Harley riding sexiness. Whew! Excuse me while I go get a glass of ice water.

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  14. Hi, Lucy,

    Yeah, I've got to admit the attraction, though I'm grateful that I married a nice guy instead of necessarily following my gut instincts.

    It turns out that preferring swaggering or dark men is a statistically significant trend:

    http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/05/110524070310.htm

    Congratulations on A BIT OF ROUGH!

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  15. There is always Elliot Spencer (Christian Kane) in Leverage. Definately a mystery man in many ways, former soldier of fortune turned thief - and now he is working on the side of Justice even if its usually not law abiding.

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