Did/do you look for a man to 'protect' you as a significant aspect of a relationship?

[Echobelly]

Asking this as 'menosphere' social media types seem really obsessed with this idea that all women are looking for a man who will 'protect' them. Which never even occurred to me and I can't imagine has been a factor for any woman I know.

I wonder if to some extent it is more an American cultural thing, but even there it's probably bollocks and it's a projection of insecure men trying to find some reason women 'need' them? Like 'I'm stronger, so only I can protect her!', although that's messed up because it would mostly mean... protecting her from other men. And of course, the greatest danger to women is probably intimate male partners in the first place.

I can imagine a situation, perhaps where a woman has been hurt by a man she should have trusted as a child, where she may consciously look for a man she feels protects her when that man in her earlier life didn't, but I don't think women are even thinking about how much a guy can 'protect' her when looking for a life partner.

Protect me from the other men who want to protect me?

🤣

Looking for a man solely to be a protector is a bit wet and 1950s for me.
I feel safer with DH than I do when alone.
I feel safer with anyone than I do when alone, because of safety in numbers.
I feel safer with the 18 stone body building bloke who I work with when we walk to our cars than I would my 5 foot 10, 10 stone DH. Nothing to do with my lovely DH, just body builder bloke could fend off an attack more than my DH could

I chose DH because he is kind, an animal lover, gentle and loyal. We protect each other, I don't need saving. If I did get attacked, he would intervene as would I if he was getting attacked.

Also I find these macho type protective men seem to be blinkered to their wife and kids only.

My friend's DH likes to think he's like this, if we're in town he'll come and pick her up without asking the other woman if they have a way of getting home. Or he'll start an argument if someone questions his wife's opinion even if she's in the wrong. He's shouted at an elderly woman before because she (quietly) complained about his wife's (unreasonable) behaviour. It's made them quite a bitter, angry pair.

My DH will pick me up if I'm out late, but he'll also check if my friends have a way home and would not leave another woman alone in town at night without offering a lift.
He also happily tells me if I'm being unreasonable in a kind way. I respect that. I don't want to be made out to be some perfect saint just because I'm married to him.

Er no because I'm not Penelope Pitstop

Same. I want a man not a mouse.