Since writing my response, i realised that other people would perhaps consider my previous boyfriends dominating, especialy the father of my child who is still my best friend. He is very loud, passionate, excitable, assertive and emotional. And because he is an amazing sales person and manager, he can be/appear very manipulative in a sense. He has a strong and absolute sense of fairness and justice- this leads him to challenge people. ideas and organisations frequently. He is very persistant and this can be extremely frustrating to others. He wont take no for an answer if an issue is very important to him. He argues a lot with people, not because he wants to create a conflict, but because he is genuinely interested in learning the truth and likes to play devils advocate and has an annoying lawyer sharp logic. He doesnt care if he is right, but he gets so carried away in the enjoyment of having a debate that this can be intimindating and aggressive to some people. He is very flirty with women in general, of all ages, but also very respectful and courteous. Ive never seen him being rude, sleazy or crude, and any sexism he may have had is now long since i have been in his life. Obviously i dont see him as dominating. He absolutely loves people and cares about them deeply. He gets genuinely so excited and passionate that its almost childlike. He enjoys his emotions and although he expresses his frustration and anger readily, he also empathises with others and cries easily. He is friendly with everyone and strongly egalitarian. If he gets too loud i tell him to be quiet or i just leave the room.
But its interesting to think that this is just a matter of perception. I have met dominating people, and i have found them annoying and unattractive. It seems that they think somehow they are above others and that their will is more important. But i definately wouldnt consider brad dominating, even though a fair number of other people might. He thinks
i am the bossy one, which too is just a matter of perception, but in truth i think we are both pretty neutral people.
...Also, i found this interesting- Socionic Erotic Attitudes
http://www.the16types.info/vbulletin/content.php/101-Erotic-Attitudes
Im not buying it, but its interesting to think about. im an INFj in socionics and i relate more to the infantile style than the others. With brad who is entp- we really were like 2 infantiles that wanted the other one to be the boring grown up and do the boring responsible things because we rather do more 'fun' and 'actually important' things. Its the same with my enfp and intj friends, we all have this childlike way, and when we are together we tend to ignore things that other types might find important and see as 'responsibilities'.
In the past i had a long relationship with an ESTp, which is an aggressor type. I found that side of things incredibly horrible and he wanted me to either be the submissive one or take the role of the aggressor. I couldnt do either, obviously, and i found the concept disturbing. he had a hard time dealing with this. He kept trying to make powerplays about things and then he thought i was trying to 'dominate' him because i found this tedious and i didnt want to engage. The rest of the relationship was not too bad, but this side was ridiculous and there was no chance that it could work.
I dont think all types will fit neatly into these 4 attitudes, and obviously people dont fit neatly into 16 catergories! I would not stereotype or pre-judge based on this. Just found it interesting