Another thing occured to me while reading this thread. I remember in high school, a friend of mine had a real jerk of a boyfriend...he cheated on her quite openly and we all knew about it - he took other girls out to movies, to go bowling, for pizza and ice cream - and we fully expected that she would grow fed up and get rid of him. She was a nice-looking girl and I'm confident she could have had a nicer boyfriend. She didn't leave him. Finally, I sat her down and said, "WHY, Jackie?"
Her response? "Because I'm really not going to find anyone better."
I was reminded of her when I saw some of the responses to this thread, but they're really not indicative of what she told me. In fact, I do kind of understand NOW what she meant - back then, I was just too pissed off to put any more thought into it.
Could it be that some gals don't feel that they deserve someone better? Or maybe they've had enough bad luck in life to convince them that the jerk they're dating is as good as it's going to get?
Wish I knew where she was, now? I hope she didn't marry him!