You won’t catch all women using manipulation tactics and not all men will fall for something. But there are some relationships that are defined by emotional control, manipulation, and gaslighting. It is the women in these relationships that are usually the culprits, the ones who perpetuate this condition of subtle control under the guise of love and concern. They continue this pattern of manipulation until the man loses all say and ends up becoming docile and compliant. He eventually realizes that he has lost his sense of self and is utterly under the control of a controlling partner, one who carefully monitors and guides all of his moves. Read on and learn about the tactics women employ in a relationship to control men, without being aware of just how detrimental they can be.
Making Him Feel Guilty for Having a Life Outside the Relationship
These women are classic guilt trappers. They use their own presence as a means for justifying their criticism of the men in their lives for having lives outside of their relationships. They castigate him whenever he’s out with friends, engaged in his hobbies, or meeting his family. This eventually leads to him becoming overly attached to her and her only.
Using Silence as a Weapon
Silence is great for a relationship, especially when partners need some space or need to contemplate important issues. However, some women tend to weaponize it. They use it as a means for controlling their men by ceasing all communication. It eventually wears the men down and they acquiesce by apologizing, effectively ceding all control in their relationships to the women.
Emotional Outbursts to Conclude Arguments
These are the women who start crying, shouting, and engaging in all kinds of emotional histrionics to get their way in an argument. This is their way of gaining the upper hand in a discussion that they know they can’t win. This clamorous display tends to fluster the men and they relent from the argument. It effectively makes them more powerful in the relationship.
Always Keeping Score
These are the kind of women who will constantly keep score of everything in the relationship, especially when it comes to your messing up. Every small mistake or indiscretion or infraction committed will be recorded and remembered. Conveniently, they will forget to tally or mention their mistakes or the effort that they bring to the relationship. It makes a man start to doubt himself, that perhaps he really is not worth it or is that bad of a person. This makes it far easier for such women to put him under their thrall and gain hold of all of his faculties and decisions.
Using Intimacy as a Weapon
These women are not loath to use attention, affection, and even physical intimacy for their games. They weaponize them and withhold them when it suits their purposes. They are not beneath using them as bargaining chips, only handing them out in controlled amounts when it suits them. Otherwise, they deny them completely, especially when she disagrees with their men on something, effectively defining the dynamics of the relationship.
Playing the Victim
This is a move reserved for when these women want to avoid responsibility. They always know how to put on a show and make the men doubt themselves. They might have been the ones to incite an argument but make it seem as if the men are to blame. They make it a point to use this tactic to shift focus from their indiscretions and mistakes.
Criticizing His Friends
This tactic is used by these women to make a man slowly doubt his closest friends. They constantly and steadily criticize till the man becomes completely isolated from everyone he calls a friend or has bonds of camaraderie with. They do this to strip men of their support structures so that they will have no choice but to lean on these women only.
Shaming Men for Their Emotions
These women might act all offended and hyper when it is their turn or when they feel hurt. But when a man tries to express his feelings of hurt and resentment, then they gaslight him by labeling him as overly sensitive or emotional. They use a man’s vulnerability to be masculine as the means for overriding his emotions and gaining control over him.
Hurling Insults Disguised as Jokes
These women make jokes that seem like they are filled with humor but are actually merely a means for delivering scathing criticism. They usually target a man’s aspirations, hopes, hobbies, dreams, and even his masculinity. These are meant to erode at his self-confidence and make him more susceptible to manipulation and control.
Using Threats of Leaving as Leverage
These women are wont to using the threat of leaving the relationship as a means of getting their way when things are drifting out of their control. This forces a man to comply immediately if he fears breaking the bond that exists between them over what they then consider a trivial argument or matter.
Always Testing a Man’s Loyalty
These women constantly create scenarios for testing their men’s loyalty. They meticulously craft these scenarios and note how they respond. They always monitor social media accounts, check their men’s phones, pester them about simple, innocuous arguments and interactions, and so forth.
Making Comparisons with Other Men
Men are simple creatures; all they want is acknowledgement and a partner that accepts them as they are. They want to be praised for what little they have and do and become increasingly flustered when comparisons are made with other men. These women know this and constantly engage in concocting these comparison games. They constantly compare their men with others in their circle, extolling their qualities and potential. It makes their men feel inadequate and gaslit into believing that they are incredibly fortunate to have found one such as her who tolerates them. They are made to feel inferior so that they can become more pliable and compliant.
Belittling a Man’s Dreams
A man’s aspirations and dreams are labelled as inconvenient, asinine, impractical, and even selfish by these women. But they certainly don’t complain when these dreams somehow end up benefiting them. Then, then you will see them motivating and galvanizing their men all the way. It is another form of control, just one that suits them more in the long run.
Acting Helpless to Make a Man Do More
These women usually use this move as a means for eschewing responsibility. They will start feigning incompetence and an inability to handle small, everyday tasks. This makes the man have to pick up her part of the work too in their relationship. Eventually, these women burden their men with everything while they enjoy and kick back in leisure and relaxation.
Altering Past Discussions
These women have a habit of altering past conversations to suit their agendas in their relationships. They will change the story completely and make the men doubt themselves. They will turn him into the aggressor and themselves into the injured party when reminiscing about the past. It gaslights and manipulates men into doubting themselves and their very memories, making them easier to control.
Criticism Disguised as Helping
These women criticize everything a man does, be it driving, dressing, working, speaking, or even relaxing, by dubbing it helping and supporting him. They might dress it up as fancy or lavish as they want but the fact remains that this is cold, calculating manipulation.
Micromanaging a Man’s Decisions and Time
These women manage and oversee everything their men do, be it meeting someone, where he goes, how long he stays out for, who he interacts with, and more. Each and everything must be approved and vetted by her before it can be done. It makes a man become overly attached to them and subservient to their every whim.
Jealousy as a Means for Controlling a Man
These are the kind of women who will restrict a man’s behavior, control his independence, and even filter his friendships, all under the guise of caring. These women would rather destroy a man than face their insecurities or accord him the independence and respect that he deserves.
Playing Hot and Cold
These are the kind of women who become increasingly unpredictable as the relationship progresses. They are capricious in that a man won’t be able to predict how they might act one day or the other. They can be warm and distant without any warning or reason. This keeps the men confused and off balance, making them scramble to please these scheming women by any means necessary. This is pure manipulation in action.
Final Thoughts
Control doesn’t always have to be ugly. Sometimes it tends to camouflage itself as emotion, love, charm, and caring. Such relationships don’t survive for long because they are lacking in truth, clarity, communication, and above all, respect. Manipulation ruins the love between two people and once it’s gone, it can never return.
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