Although it seemed that Desmond was joking, the truth was different. Desmond never liked the concept of the hero saving the beauty. He always thought there were a lot of problems with those scenarios. At first, Desmond never liked how women were portrayed as helpless maidens who needed a man to come and rescue them.
While it is true that Desmond had saved more than one damsel in distress, this had nothing to do with the fact that he was a man, it was a matter of strength, and when it came to strength, Desmond knew more than one woman who could crush him.
Desmond's other problem with the hero saving the beauty scenario is that it always approached the theme of beauty by rewarding the hero with some display of affection of varying characters. Desmond thought that was too frivolous an attitude regarding showing affection. Besides, in his opinion, a true hero would not demand any reward, let alone one of that kind.
