From 'Living with the Dominator' by Pat Craven and Jacky Fleming.
Early Bully
He may go quiet for a short time. This could be a ‘sulklet’, he will not explain why. He may stare or glare or have our ‘Bully’ smile, which means he is smiling with his mouth and glaring with his eyes.
He may be aggressive with others. Perhaps he may bully bar staff or waiters. He may use all the body language of the Bully. Watch out for tapping fingers, folded arms and swinging feet.
If we express an opinion with which he disagrees he will not let it go. He will railroad us until we agree with him. He may assume the crotch-thrusting position.
He may tell us very early in the relationship that he would never hit a woman. Why would he need to say this at all?
Early Jailer
Many of these tactics are very hard to recognise unless you have done the programme or read the book. Many of us would see them as the face of true romance.
We want to visit a friend and he insists on dropping us off and collecting us. He may genuinely be trying to protect us from the elements or he may be making sure we are where we say we will be and there are no men there.
He comes on too strong, wanting to see us every day. He buys us a mobile phone to ‘make sure we are safe’. He telephones and sends texts all the time. When he calls he asks where we have been and who with.
He calls round late at night unannounced. He does not want to socialise with our friends. He may try to sow seeds of doubt in our minds about our friends. For example, he may ask: “How well do you know Sharon?” “Why do you ask?” we may say? “No particular reason,” he may reply. This will leave us with an uneasy feeling about Sharon. He has implied that he knows something we do not.
He will tell us that we do not need to work. He tries to persuade us not to go to work by suggesting we have the odd day off to be with him. He uses phrases like ‘together for life’ and ‘always’.
He tries to monopolise our time. He makes exhaustive plans, which involve being with him all the time. If we tell him that we usually go out with our friends on Thursday nights he will ‘forget’ this and arrive with surprise tickets for an expensive show or film. We then do not want to disappoint him, so we miss our night with our friends.
Early Headworker
He will tell racist, sexist or homophobic jokes. He does not use our name. He calls us ‘love’ or ‘babe’ or ‘princess’ or refers to us as his ‘bird’. He puts us down in front of others but always uses humour to do it. He makes sexist remarks about women generally. He will criticise other women in front of us. He will also praise their looks or figures to us.
He stands us up or arrives late. He will be generally patronising and may begin to play mind games in the first two weeks. We feel uneasy but ignore it.
He may make insulting comments about our appearance under the guise of a compliment. For example: “You would be really attractive if you were slimmer!”
Early Persuader
He will try to make us feel sorry for him. He may combine this with the Jailer tactic of buying the surprise tickets. He will try to persuade us to do something we do not want to do. An example of this could be to persuade us to eat or drink something we do not want.
Early Liar
This Liar may tell us he has a failed relationship. He will have a sob story about a horrible woman who took all his money and now will not let him see his children. He will not use her name. He may call her ‘the ex’! He will accept no responsibility for any of this and will blame his former partner for giving him a bad time.
He may tell us he is insecure and has low self-esteem. He may tell us he is the victim of domestic violence.
Early Badfather
As we have mentioned, our Badfather will probably not have contact with his own children. However, he will start to try to use our children to control us. He may, very quickly, make himself indispensable. He will provide financial support, practical help and treats for the children.
This is very hard to resist if we have been struggling to manage time and finances on our own. Once established, he may subtly begin to dispense discipline. He may ask: “Do they always stay up so late?” He may say: “You should not let them speak to you like that!”
Early King of the Castle
He will begin to choose our clothes in very subtle ways. “You look lovely in that dress, but have you ever thought of wearing blue?’’ He moves in with us too soon. He often achieves this by leaving things at our house.
In the King of the Castle chapter we have identified how he gradually manipulates us into doing all the household tasks. The King of the Castle also controls all of our lives and takes over our house. He may offer to do everything for us initially. It is then a short step from there to not allowing us to do anything.
For example, if we go shopping for groceries and we select a particular loaf of bread he may take it out of the trolley and replace it with another. If we vacuum the carpet or wash the dishes he may do these jobs again claiming that we have not done them properly.
The DIY Merchant. He starts doing our DIY as soon as he meets us. He will call round and say: ‘’I’ll be round tomorrow with my tool box to fix those shelves.” Before we know it dado rails have sprung up all over the house! He can then come round and rip them down if we try to end the relationship.
Early Sexual Controller
He may move too quickly and want us to do things which make us uncomfortable.
He is not actually communicating with us if we do have sex with him.
He is irresponsible about contraception. He refuses to wear a condom. He is married or in another relationship. He may grope us in public.
These warning signs will come in clusters. They will not just exhibit one sign but will display several at a time. We will have noticed more than we realise. We then feel uneasy but ignore it. Women who have considered these warning while on the programme say they then take those feelings of unease very seriously.
So, if our new partner exhibits clusters of such tactics, it may be time to recall our Fairy Story and say to ourselves:“I don’t fucking think so!”
Early Bully
