I love men. There's just something about them as a population that drives me crazy. Every once in a while, I'll see a man do something, say something, or act a certain way, and I fall in love with the Y chromosome all over again. One of the perks of having a serious boyfriend was being able to see all the wonderful 'man' things on a regular basis. From the sexy things, like watching him putting on a tie (oh yeah, it gets to me), to the sweet things, like him coming up from behind and wrapping me in his arms—they all just killed me. Even some seemingly boring things had me smitten. Shaving, for instance—don't ask me why, but I swear I could watch that man shave every day and never get bored. Now that I'm single , I have to take what I can get. Long gone are the intimate days of tie-watching, but I still come across the beloved guy-traits sometimes. Just the sight of a group of men walking down the street in suits catches my breath. Or seeing a guy being sweet with his girl over dinner—a forehead kiss or shoulder squeeze will do it to me every time. This isn't to say I'll swoon over just any man. If I'm attracted to a guy, it's because of qualities that are unique to him, not because he happens to be wearing a suit. But there are still those general qualities that I love about men as a whole. I sometimes wonder if everyone feels this way about their gender of preference, or if it's just me. Do men love watching a woman put on a dress or do her hair in the morning? They might, although it could be for different reasons (if she's putting on a dress, that means she must not have been wearing the dress earlier). Since I already have a good idea of what women like, I decided to ask my guy friends to pinpoint that certain je ne sais quoi that makes their hearts skip a beat. I started with my friend John, who said he loves it when a woman's hair is wet (and he swears it's not a sexual thing). "It implies a certain comfort level between you two that's fun to have," he said. Other traits on John's list: girls who have a stuffed animal on their beds, girls who wear baseball caps, and watching a woman cook. The cooking thing came up a few times—my friend Mike also likes a woman who can do more than order in. For him, other swoon-worthy traits include the image of a woman wearing a wool coat in the winter with her hair down (he blames this one on a Bob Dylan album cover), the fresh smell of shampoo, and girls who wear his button-down shirts. Like Mike and John, my friend James loves a girl who cooks (it seems the way to a man’s heart really is through his stomach). "If you can make my taste buds scream, 'yes, yes, more!’ then I just wonder what else you can do," he said. Beyond the kitchen, James also thinks it's cute when girls cry or get angry (even though we're probably just pissed off at the time, I guess it’s nice that someone finds it attractive). He also likes white pants, shy girls, and when a woman kisses his hand while they’re cuddling (cue the collective “awww”). I was happy to hear it’s not just me who has a laundry list of little, innocuous traits that drive me crazy. Like Kramer loving velvet scrunchies (anyone?), it seems every guy has different, sometimes very specific, preferences. Except for cooking. Apparently all men love a girl who can cook, which means I might just have to dust off my Crock Pot. What about you? What is it about men/women that you adore? Leave some comments and let me know what little traits make you swoon.
