It was the classic couple out of films about the 1930s... And about the 1960s... And about the 1970s, and the 2000s for good measure. I'm sure even you know a couple like the heroes of my story, or have at least heard of them. Frankly, I would not have risked officially matching a couple with characters like that through our agency. But as a rule they manage perfectly well without us.
Background: The stories are published from the feedback we received and with our clients’ consent. The names have been deliberately changed. At the end you will find a counsellor’s commentary analysing the relationship.
Skip to the counsellor’s commentaryIt was the classic couple out of films about the 1930s... And about the 1960s... And about the 1970s, and the 2000s for good measure. I'm sure even you know a couple like the heroes of my story, or have at least heard of them. Frankly, I would not have risked officially matching a couple with characters like that through our agency. But as a rule they manage perfectly well without us.
Georgy was a "hyper-male", embodying every quality that popular culture both celebrates and curses. A ruthless businessman, a dyed-in-the-wool sexist, a convinced owner of what was his, a jack of all trades, always and in everything the first and the only one, holding and loudly voicing an opinion about absolutely everything and brooking no objection. Whatever he did, he did to the full: if he ate, he ate; if he drank, he drank; if he went out on the town, he went out on the town.
Masha, for her part, was that very "hyper-woman": an hourglass figure, endless eyelashes, golden curls, full lips, daring necklines and plunging décolletage, a languid little voice and an astonishing ability to explain to any man, with a single raised eyebrow, exactly what a lady wants... I am not always sure, mind you, that what the lady wanted was what they understood and joyfully brought her, but at the very least I cannot remember the last time Masha paid for her own dinner, drink or cigarettes. And that although Masha earned well as a lead marketing manager and the representative of a large firm. Her emotions changed at some sort of supersonic speed, and if she was snarling at someone like an enraged lioness, that by no means meant that a couple of minutes later she would not be nuzzling up to the very same person and purring like a hungry cat.
They met at some exclusive, glamorous carnival party where Georgy was got up as Al Capone and Masha as a languid chanteuse from roughly the same period. Naturally, two solitudes met and were never parted again, neither at the party nor after it.
It was a loud, emotional affair. There was always something about each other that did not suit them, and at the same time nothing on earth could separate them. Every appearance they made in public was an event of global proportions, a carefully staged show, even if it ended with drinks being thrown and jewellery flung on the floor. The audience could only enjoy the performance. The naive souls who dared to intervene got it in full from both of them — and in situations like that Masha and Georgy showed astonishing unity.
Masha could have taken it easy, but she went on working, and her job had her sparkling all over town. She was like a diamond catching the rays of the sun and throwing them back off every surface. Georgy put all his strength into setting that diamond in gold and stashing it in a safe, well away from other people's eyes. But no golden cage could hold Masha: proudly and artistically draping the scraps of golden chains and bars around her neck and wrists, she invariably broke free and shone brighter than before. Georgy would hurry after her to retrieve his treasure, throwing tantrums, making scenes...
And then, as though to teach her a lesson, he would find himself a young mistress, because "men have needs". And that was Masha's cue, because how dared the swine take revenge on her, and besides, she was one of a kind. The "swine" gladly joined the game, which ended in a highly passionate reconciliation and the joint purchase of yet another eye-wateringly expensive piece of jewellery, a beauty treatment, a day at a spa or something of the sort.
Only one thing could be said for certain: together they were never bored. Apart, neither. It seemed the only thing that could take Masha's mind off Georgy was telling her friends about Georgy. Here she spared neither language nor detail. She admired him and boasted about him, or else she complained about him. She played the victim, hard done by and despised, but any suggestion that she leave him met with unfailing astonishment. She complained that he had abandoned her and in the same breath was outraged that she would never let him abandon her. It looked as though Georgy kept her hooked on an emotional overdose, but I had known Masha long enough to understand that where the emotions were concerned Georgy had nothing to do with it.
And for all this daily extravaganza, this battle of the titans, this drama bordering on tragicomedy, both Masha and Georgy were happy. They simply could not imagine it any other way. Because love is a battlefield, something that has to swallow you up and carry you away, like a parachute jump into a gale or diving with sharks off the South African coast. It is adrenaline and the other pleasures that heat the blood and sharpen the senses. And that is the only kind of love the novels are written about. And anyone who disagrees has simply never loved and, quite possibly, has no need of it at all (at this point Masha would usually throw me a sidelong glance, remembering my views on relationships). Those sidelong glances did not stop us being friends, because, as I have already written above, even I could see that they were happy.
Counsellor’s commentary
Masha is the hysteroid personality type. The foundation of her personality is getting attention, both directly and in the form of various material goods. Hysteroid women are as a rule striking, beautiful and noticed at once. When it comes to a bid for attention, any means will do, from spectacular entrances to scandals. For Masha the main thing is the play: all the world is a stage and she is its leading lady. She is also marked by a striving for over-provision, by wanting everything at once, and by a very emotional approach to life. All of this follows first and foremost from her personality type.
Georgy is a representative of the psychopathic personality type. Power and control over his own life, and over the people around him, matter to him. He often sees people as means or as trophies. Everyone of this personality type is usually very capable, likes risk, enjoys life in all its manifestations and is able, without wasting emotion, to crush any obstacle standing in their way. Given all that, people of the psychopathic type often reach considerable heights in politics or in business, and anywhere else where more control can be had. They often earn very well.
Psychopathic men are fairly strong-willed and aggressive, and a hysteroid woman has to be able to clear this aggression out of her system from time to time. On the other hand, that too is a kind of attention, and attention matters a great deal to her.
Her sex appeal is pronounced, and that attracts him. He is also drawn to her emotionality set against his own down-to-earth nature. In an argument he works with what he knows and has seen, and she with what she feels and lives through; in the end both take pleasure in the argument and, objectively, neither can win.
In this union each of them gets what they want. She gets plenty of presents, attention and resources. He gets a family, children and a body. He hardly feels guilt at all, but he knows how to ask forgiveness with presents. Hence the jokes about the fur coat and the little diamonds after an affair, since for him an affair is not infidelity (although infidelity by someone else counts as betrayal). She is prepared to put up with it for the sake of apologies like that.
Both of them are active, both have a need to show themselves in society, while in family life they have to negotiate and compromise, and for that all means and all possible levers of pressure are fair game, children included.
Interested?
So there you have it, the battle of the titans. If you are already in a battle like that, your task is to find out which line is better left uncrossed, so that the battle goes on being a pleasure. If you heard echoes of your own story in this one, then how do you build your next relationship without the battle? And with whom? You will find advice in the Dating Club, where counsellors do the matching.
