Heartbreaker: Confirmation

The original movie of Buffy the Vampire Slayer was playing on tv, and I was reminded again of how TOTALLY RIGHT I was to decide that Luke Perry's Pike is the dreamiest boy in fiction. First, his romantically sleepy eyes. Second, his willingness to get into fights. Meow, a generation of girls before me fell in love with Luke Perry, and countless generations of girls from the beginning of time have loved the bad boy; thus, far be it for me to try to explain the appeal. Suffice to say that these two reasons are fairly uncontestable.

But the third reason I love Luke Perry in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I noticed, is a bona fide oddity. His willingness to get into fights makes him a bad boy, but his consistently getting beat down is what really wins my heart. What is it about an ass-kicked man that is so irresistible? I wonder. Is it my nurturing instinct? Am I a sadist? Do I have keen anger issues about men? Or is it simply my identification with the underdog? Whatever the reason, it's something worth noting for the male lead of my great American romance novel, when I get around to writing it: make him get into lots of fights, and make him lose every one.