It's such lazy writing to have a male character who is a massive, unlikable asshole but people put up with him because he's skilled/a genius. And then when he expresses even the smallest amount of kindness or deference towards another character, they expect the audience to be like, 🤯😱💯🎉.
And of course, all the other characters secretly love and care about the guy who is constantly calling them stupid and inept. Oh, he's mean to others because he doesn't like himself? 🙄 Is he going to change his behavior in any substantial way once he realizes that? No.
The smartest men I've known personally have generally been empathetic, patient, ready to learn what they can from others, and willing to admit when they don't know things. (I've only met a handful of men like this in my entire life.) The ones who think they get to play the asshole genius are usually so astonishingly ignorant on so many fronts it's difficult to even accept what they have to say about their supposed areas of expertise.
