Forwarded.
I remember there was a minor viral thread (that I probably read about here) a few years ago on reddit. It was from athletic women with athletic boyfriends, who were astounded to discover that when they play-wrestled or engaged in physical activity, their boyfriends were holding back. When they asked them not to, they found out they could be pinned and rendered helpless in seconds. There was at least one video showing a guy who was wrestling two athletic women, and it took around 30 seconds but he pinned them both.
It seems a lot of women don't realise that normal men are aware of the physical imbalance, and therefore are controlling themselves. It's not even about letting them win (though I bet there's a bit of that), it's about not harming women. If you want to talk gendered upbringing and behaviour, look at how the vast majority of men are taught, both explicitly and implicitly, to never hit a woman - and
the reaction when they do, even if it's entirely
justified by the woman's behaviour (video of the guy with his wife and child getting harassed by a large group of black girls). The standard bullying tactic of pushing and provoking and then acting the victim when your target lashes out is a weapon, and is made extra-sharp by the differences in society's response to male violence vs. female violence. Hell, Friends did an episode where Joey got a girlfriend whose friendly arm-punches were hurting him, and everyone made fun of him for it. She didn't mean any harm, but it wasn't until she did it to Rachel that anyone took him seriously. Yes, a sitcom, and it's a funny episode, but you couldn't play a man's violence, even if it was all in fun and not intended to hurt, for laughs.
All this relates to Rhys because he had that upbringing, no matter how he denies it, but he's one of those men who ignored that idea. I think that he married an athletic woman is part of it - there's a whole psychological side to that particular relationship that we don't dig into because we don't know anything about it, but I think there were definitely narc injuries from that marriage that Rhys took with him in trooning out and wanting to cheat against women. He may stop himself from physical violence, but there's a very strong focus on putting women in their place that oozes from his every interaction with them.