Rise of the Brooding Brains

I read a study recently that had found that women were more likely to find a man attractive if he is the moody, brooding type. I can’t say I was surprised really, a quiet man with smouldering eyes and a grim, slightly thoughtful and wounded look on his face is phenomenally attractive. Just look at Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca – a man hurt and abandoned by the love of his life, emotions locked inside to protect himself, difficult to get close to – this surely just makes him more attractive, more of a challenge? In real life, if you were to go on a date with Rick from Casablanca (if you could even get him to that stage) he would probably be silent for the most part and trying to get him to open up would probably go from being a challenge to a pain in the bum. That’s the sad truth of it isn’t it? If mean and moody men lived up to their image, they would just not be relationship material.

I’ve always had an attraction to the ‘still waters run deep’ sort of man but for me, just being the brooding type was never enough – I have to have brains as well. No, not in a zombie-esque way, in the sense that not only does the man have to be tortured passionate type but if he has a great deal of intelligence too, for me there is nothing more attractive. I have always valued intelligence as the most attractive trait over all others. I, myself am hardly the sharpest tool in the box but I due to my OCD I think a lot and whilst they may not always be helpful thoughts, it helps to have someone to discuss thoughts with who will have other ideas to bat around. My husband can happily take this as a compliment.

It seems I am not alone in this admiration of intellect and the moody male. How many more fans did Hugh Laurie garner when he displayed not only his intellect but his ability to be the grumpy, manipulative, emotionally challenged Dr. House? Would his character be more attractive if he was happy? Go on, try it, who is the more attractive character – Bertie Wooster or Gregory House? Alec Baldwin played a happy-go-lucky character in Friends and all that his happy demeanour did was lead to Phoebe break up with him as she couldn’t cope with his optimism. Is this what we are really like, wanting a man to be eternally miserable as that is what makes him attractive?

The thing is that this just isn’t true in real life, a man such as House in real life would probably never be able to sustain a real relationship and if you were to date him he would no doubt be more hassle than it’s worth. I suppose that is the beauty of fantasy, it doesn’t have to bear any resemblance to reality.

The reason i have been thinking about this is, after the showing of the recent ‘Sherlock’ series two episodes I have been reading some of the comments on forums about the likely explanation for the end of the series events and there are so many comments relating to the attractiveness of Sherlock himself. Yeah, there were quite a few people alluding to the suave, handsome Benedict Cumberbatch but there were a great deal of comments on the attractiveness of the twisted, tormented genius that underlines the performance. I fully admit to finding intellectual characters jolly fine, I have read many books where the lead character has been this sort of handsome anti-hero and i have found myself rooting for him rather than the good guy – maybe that’s just me...

Look at James Bond; never particularly happy, downright grumpy at times, self-sufficient, intelligent – always gets the women, on screen and off. Although I often find the baddie more attractive but again, that’s probably just me...

The character can be as flawed as possible yet, strangely we’re drawn to them. For example, look at Fitz from ‘Cracker’ – not exactly a happy chap; a boozing, gambling, chain smoking Doctor who was frankly no good advertisement for the position. Then again, what he didn’t know about the human mind probably wasn’t worth knowing. He had a wry sense of humour and a smooth Scottish burr that could charm the pants off anyone, and he used it to his advantage and did everything in excess. Underneath all of this chaos was a sensitive soul, you just knew it, some part of him that loved his family and yet the thrill of the chase and the desire to get to the bottom of a person’s psyche made him an unlikely pin up.

Perhaps that it’s the passion behind the troubled man that is most appealing – like Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, a never-ending longing for someone or something twisting the person mentally with smouldering fervour? Again, in real life, relationship material? Not so much. Living in someone’s or something’s shadow would be akin to being in ‘Rebecca’ by Daphne Du Maurier – now there’s another moody man.

Could it be confidence? In the case of Sherlock, being right pretty much all the time yet still a flawed human being? There’s a fine line between confidence and arrogance and Sherlock seems to walk it like a tightrope at times but his confidence in his logic and reasoning appears almost unshakeable. His lack of personal skills actually seems to take the edge off the smug exterior and reminds you that inside, there are emotions to be struggled with and boy are there a lot of women who wouldn’t mind helping him untangle them.

It even came through a little with David Tennant’s Doctor, that huge brain but having lost everyone dear to him – those subjects led to some of the most compelling parts of Doctor Who for me. Those huge chocolate brown haunted eyes glistening with unwept tears having seen so much and so many terrible things. Intelligence and torment again.

Whilst the image of the anguished anti-hero is very much all the rage, so to speak, these days there is still room for the happy, contented and intelligent man. Variety is after all the spice of life.