About being the “protector”… I believe that I understand what has been said and the context in which it is meant. I feel the same way fairly often. For example, my wife and I accompany each other to our respective medical appointments – it helps tremendously in getting the doctor’s full attention and in many other ways. (I even try to dress up a bit and put my “serious face” on.)
I know that this is off-topic [the mods are quite welcome to move this if it is not appropriate here], but the mentions of “protector” brought out strong feelings for me.
I have seen relationships in which the “protector” role went too far and actually eventually caused a lot of damage. The man (usually it is a man in the “protector” role) often (but not always) does have the best of intent. But if there is too much “protecting”, we are denying the woman the opportunity to learn, grow, and develop knowledge, skills, experience, confidence, etc.
This happens A LOT in regard to financial matters in a relationship. I cannot even count the number of times I have been aware of the woman being absolutely “destroyed” when their husband dies – often the natural grief is made many times worse because the woman has been “protected from having to deal with” family financial knowledge (both good and bad). I even witnessed this happen to my own mother. At that time, in some areas of her life, she was a very competent and tough professional person who could do and did do a lot of physical stuff that many men her age (then) could not do. However, when her husband (my step-father) died suddenly and unexpectedly, she was starting at ground zero in the financial knowledge department. She had almos no knowledge of the family finances, etc., etc., etc. She had to learn everything from the beginning – and I had to make very sure that she did not make bad choices or get scammed, etc., etc. I actually knew – and had known for decades – tremendously more about HER finances than she did.
IMHO, the best “protection” that a “protector” can offer is a) to be on guard and vigilant for bad situations, etc, but b) encourage, mentor, and support (assuming I am qualified to do so about whatever the subject matter is) my partner to develop their own skills and knowledge independent of me. I don’t plan on dropping dead any time soon, but s*** happens.
My hope and goal is that if something bad happens TO ME and I am still alive, but not able to care for myself, that my wife will be the “guard dog” and “enforcer” and super-competent, super-tough person who will be able to make sure that I will receive the best care that is possible for whatever my condition is – as I would do for her if the roles were reversed.