Dear young men,
I want to tell you what I wish I’d been told, as I bumbled through the awkward years between 15 and 25. This whole letter might sound self-important, coming from a 34-year-old who writes mostly about how he’s just beginning to get the hang of adult life. Maybe it is, and you can take it or leave it.
All I know is that when I was negotiating that stretch between junior high and full adulthood, I could have used some guidance from men who were old enough to be done with that phase, but who were too young to be my dad.
But I didn’t have that, so like most of us, I picked up my strategies from the similarly confused young men around me. Even though that’s pretty normal, in terms of instructions on how to be a mature and respectful adult it’s hard to do worse than that — so I hope I can offer you a bit of insight you might not find among your peers. You’ll still have to choose who to believe and who to ignore, I just want to offer a different voice than the ones you may be hearing.
Some of what follows applies particularly to straight young men, because I’m pulling it from my own experience, but I think the principles behind it are pretty universal.
You will constantly have people telling you, both implicitly and explicitly, that you have to be a man. What that even means, in the 21st century, I don’t quite know. It certainly has a less specific meaning than it used to, and that’s a good thing. Machismo was never a good fit for many of us guys, and it clearly doesn’t make the world a more enlightened place.
Still, if you are male, you will be forced to relate to this increasingly irrelevant concept of “being a man” in some way or another.
Even though we humans are (thankfully) moving on from seeing ourselves as two distinct kinds of creatures, there’s nothing wrong with being a man, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. There’s nothing wrong with doing traditionally “manly” things. Don’t be embarrassed by them. If you want to watch football on Sunday, or train in MMA, or grow a handlebar mustache, or buy a pickup truck, make no apologies.
No, there’s nothing wrong with masculinity — until it’s used as a gauge for measuring and excluding people, whether they’re women or other men, or people who don’t identify as either. Regardless of whether masculinity appeals to you, either as something to embody or to simply admire in others, understand that it’s purely a matter of personal taste and has nothing to do with personal value.
Don’t worry about how your sexual experience (or absence of it) stacks up. At about age 14, boys feel like they have to start bullshitting about their sexual exploits in order to survive. The pressure on these kids is just too great for them to speak frankly about it. Ignore what everyone says about their sex lives. They are lying, all of them, at least a little.
Forget the word “virgin,” as a descriptor for both yourself and others. It’s an archaic, irrelevant word, meant to stigmatize and shame people. It oversells a person’s first sex act as some grand, transformational experience, which supposedly vindicates a young man and spoils a young woman. It’s an obsolete, religious, judgmental word. Let’s leave it behind.
Failing to “fit in” in school is a good thing. It means there’s some element of individuality in you that will not be squashed. God help you if your self-esteem peaks in high school.
Nobody knows who they are at that age anyway. People start to get an idea of what’s important to them and who they want to be in their late twenties or early thirties. Just try not to cause too much damage in the mean time. Simply survive those awkward years. Get good grades and make some friends, but don’t worry about being cool. Successfully achieving coolness in high school is like being knighted by Ronald McDonald.
All young men will encounter the “seduction community” at some point. Beware. While there is some genuinely well-intentioned dating and self-improvement advice to be found there, so much of the discussion is absolutely riddled with misogyny. It isn’t always overt, but it’s always there. If you start referring to women as “targets,” you crossed the line a long time ago.
Think of women as being just like you, rather than some other species. You don’t learn to approach women, you learn to talk to people. Those forums are filled with young men who never learned how to talk to other people. When you’re thirty, come back and read this stuff. It will make you sad.
If there’s a real secret to “seduction,” here it is: Always be building a life that turns you on, represent yourself as honestly and straightforwardly as you can, and have conversations with a lot of people. That’s it. Connections will happen. If you’re bad at those things, give yourself as long as it takes to get good at them. You have time.
On the matter of “sluts” — there are none. Nobody is a slut. The number of sexual partners a person has had, or is rumored to have had, is a) none of your business and b) indicates, by itself, absolutely nothing about the character of that person. If you want to know what kind of person someone is, talk to them. If you believe in personal freedom you cannot believe in sluts.
Throughout your life you’ll encounter sexist attitudes, even from your favorite people. Much of it will come in the form of what you are supposed to do, think and say, in order to be a man. And unless you’re not paying attention, you’ll almost certainly discover some of these attitudes in yourself. Sexism isn’t confined to bigots and wife-beaters. It’s too common, too normal for that. It is often subtle, unintentional, even well-meaning.
You have a responsibility here, whether you want it or not. Some of the very normal expectations that will be placed on you as a male — to distance yourself from femininity, to be tough and stolid, to laugh at certain jokes, to use words like “slut” without irony, to deride ambitious or non-traditional women, to dominate and emasculate other males — are keeping even the most enlightened parts of this world less hospitable for women than for you.
Learn to recognize and violate these expectations. Don’t be another dead billiard ball, passing this nasty energy on to your peers, and eventually your sons. We need new norms, and creating them will take the help of defiant and thoughtful young men. That’s you. The problem of sexism isn’t a women’s issue. It’s a matter of ensuring personal freedom for everyone regardless of sex.
And a lot of your pals (and even your heroes) aren’t going to help in this department. Most of them will be embarrassed to talk about it, because they’re too afraid of saying something that will disqualify them from successfully being a man, based on their current strategy.
If you believe you should have the freedom to pursue happiness within your rights, it’s only sensible to believe in that freedom for everyone, and that means making sexism your problem too, even if it never seemed like it was.
At the root of it all is our lingering capacity for violence — the unfortunate biological reality that even a physically unremarkable man can knock out the average woman, if he thinks it will help him more than it will harm him.
So from the dawn of humanity, whenever there has been a disagreement between a man and a woman, both of them knew from the start — no matter what kind of reason or sense either side brought to the table — which one must eventually back down. Unlike the woman, the man could expect to get his way without having an intelligent argument, without considering the needs of others, without being right at all, without any sensible reason for things to go his way.
This expectation — that power over others is a viable, noble path to happiness — lingers in the way we talk, in the way we define manhood, in the expectations males place on each other. This is especially influential on high-school and college-age males, because they do not yet feel like men, and they believe they’re supposed to.
The forces of civilization and education are very slowly discrediting this stone-age approach to life, and dismantling the power imbalance that has grown around it.
For us to get there, young men need to understand as early in their lives as possible that men have a long history of getting their way for no good reason. This advantage comes, of course, at the expense of fellow human beings, and we need to learn to be aware of it and eliminate it wherever we see it.
Is it your fault? No. But whether you want it or not, you’ve inherited the responsibility of creating a new answer to the ancient question of what it means to be a man. The old answers are no good.
***
I'm David, and Raptitude is a blog about getting better at being human -- things we can do to improve our lives today.
I am going to print and save this for my son, who is in third grade now. I would only add the advice my friend’s father gave him, which sums up the last part of your post: “When you’re arguing with a woman, keep your hands in your pockets.”
Thank you. This is the sort of essay that I hope goes viral.
Great post.
I wish I had read it 30 years ago.
I felt the need to highlight and circle several sentences and paragraphs. I’ll simply have to copy them and write a post about your article instead :)
Thank you.
Pretty much what I came here to say.
I loved this one, thank you. I agree that we need a new norm, and agree that everyone needs to have the personal freedom to create the life that works for them. I hate that this thing we call ‘society’ has the power to make choices for us, lest we face the wrath of our collective peers if we choose differently. If I had one thing to add it would be: “Don’t let other people’s opinions be your only source of self-esteem. They will only feed you their own fears.”
I’m a 22 year old guy. I’m going to save this article, it speaks to me so much and it’s so hard to find men who are this open minded and willing to talk like openly like this.
Hang in there, Jack. It gets better.
This so much. When people see me as an old white male they will say I’m privileged. They are right, of course, and equally wrong. Just as I have to be aware of my ‘-ist’ thinking I also have to be aware that other peoples’ expectations of me are not necessarily true. Awareness gives you choice.
A lifetime of social norms about men and women are tough to think around, but they are not absolutes.
David,
I can’t express enough how happy this article makes me. I feel like I have been battling covert sexism my entire life, most frustratingly because many of the most underhand sexist comments come from my own close friends. This is the first time I’m reading an article written by a man that expresses so well the way in which men can dominate women and impede their progression in society.
With regards to your first paragraph, I’m actually in the process of trying to set up a mentor scheme. There are so many young people who feel immense peer pressure to suppress who they really are and try to “fit in”. If only they could have a mentor, someone who is not their parent, who can guide them through the tough period in their life and remind them that life isn’t just about becoming prom queen. I really hope it works!
Thanks again for a great article.
Nikki
I think the underlying sentiment (“If you believe you should have the freedom to pursue happiness within your rights, it’s only sensible to believe in that freedom for everyone”) equally applies to racism, homophobia, xenophobia, and other forms of discrimination. Great post, thanks.
You are definitely right about that, and that’s why ethnic majorities should care about racism, straight people should care about homophobia, et cetera. It’s about everybody.
“Successfully achieving coolness in high school is like being knighted by Ronald McDonald.”
Ha, great.
Wow, did you ever nail this one, David!!
The term “be a man” has irked me for years and I see no place for it in an enlightened world.
I want to shout your message from the rooftops!
Thank you for this post, my good man.
Wow. This really hit home.
Being tough or misogynistic is quite often something we do to try be accepted by other males, rather than actually believe in, it seems.
Yes, I think so. I mean, there’s not much logical basis for being misogynistic, so it must come from emotional reinforcement. When a boy is rewarded with feelings of acceptance and okayness for embodying machismo, then he’s going to gravitate towards that.
David, I think you might enjoy looking into something called the Brony Movement. If you’ve ever heard of the show called My Little Pony it’s basically young men who really enjoy that, incredibly girly show. It was actually my ex boyfriend who got me into it! Things are definitely moving forward.
There is a documentary on Netflix about Bronies. I’ll take a look.
Thank you for sharing this!
This was beautiful. I feel so moved by your words and thoughtfulness. How I wish the boys had this wisdom when I was in high school, back when, oh, the dinosaurs roamed the earth.
Dinosaurs still roam the earth :)
Posted on my FB timeline immediately!
Thank you Diane.
mine too :-)
Simply spot on. I’d like to add that it also applies to class and/or economic discrimination, the assumptions the Haves make about the Have Nots: “welfare queen,” “lazy,” “ignorant,” etc. Of course, not every 1%-er thinks this way about the rest of humanity, but enough do to create a cultural problem (and here I’ll stop before it turns into a dissertation).
Wow…..great article. I’m actually going to send it to my 20 yr old daughter. Great article for women also. Thank you. I always enjoy reading what you share.
My son is 17 and has not had the benefit of a decent male role model, so he’s been socially awkward and with my smart assery around all the time, he has wit, but not quite tact. Long story short – this post is just right on time and I am so happy to have read it. I know that he struggles with machismo and all of the bs his idiot friends tell him, I’ve told him hundreds of times to follow his own path, but coming from mom.. I think we know how that goes.
Thank you, so so much.
Sadly, part of the pressure to be a man is to not do what your mom says, even when she’s right.
This article couldn’t have come at a more optimal time in my life. As a young male I have been noticing more and more the issues you’ve addressed in this article. I have even had a good amount of arguments with my male friends haha. Luckily I have never been the misogynistic type nor am I too invested in creating a masculine image. I think those kinds of things just take you further from who you actually are.
Great article, thanks!
Michael Nazari
Thank you, again for writing such a clarifying piece, i always post the good ones on my FB page. Do you ever feel like you are a lone voice in the universe? Even the most enlightened folks I know are very busy handling their own business, and don’t have a minute to share these nuggets of wisdom with the masses~Thank You!!!
This is a great article, I wish my classmates in high school would have read or known this. I hope this can somehow get popular also with guys who usually don’t read your blog.. Thank you David!
I would like this to be read by people outside of my regular audience too. Please share on social media, it really helps!
I think the line “young men need to understand as early in their lives as possible that men have a long history of getting their way for no good reason” is hugely important. It applies to ethnic majorities as well.The challenge with communicating this is 1) to most of us it doesn’t ‘feel’ like we are getting our way for no good reason. We’re not directly conscious of it or aware of how it plays out systemically. 2) getting our way so easily is deteriorating a little bit at a time, or at least it’s getting called out more publicly than ever before. This can feel confrontational if you’re not consciously aware of it in the first place. It makes too many young men instinctively defensive which I speculate leads down those dark, angry rabbit holes that the internet is keenly adept at fostering.
I don’t have much in the way of a solution for how to get that message across without making young men angry and defensive, but this post seems like a good start.
This is a good point. I think it is so important to be diplomatic with those we’re trying to convince. Once you put someone on the defensive they stop listening. That’s why I’m against accusatory activism. It just gives people all the more reason to dig in their heels, because they have to defend themselves before they can even consider a different viewpoint.
Male Character needs to recognize (takes guts) its shame, energize and Live new Substance in Honor’s Goodness !!! New Creative Humanity will Flourish with incredible New Prosperity, and even master Space for Everyone !!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for posting this. As a 23 year old male, it’s really important to have these points sink in ASAP, so you become a well-adjusted member of society. I’m going to pass this along to all my male friends; God knows some of them can use it!
Thank you David! You are truly a breath of fresh air in this stuffy society.
Todays social expectations are back in the middle ages.
Thanks again
Great article, I will echo those above and say that I wish I had read this 20 years ago. Well written and much appreciated from this 34 year old male.
Bravo…
I have two sons, ages 15 and 17. I talk to them about this all the time. I observe them trying to forge their own paths and still have friends and a group to be in. This is such an important topic – balancing what you say and do and considering how other people feel – especially other people not in your group. Thank you for this – it’s so important. We will read it and discuss it together.
This is great and well put.
I sent this to my great grandson who is 14. This is great!
Absolutely incredible post. I want to link to it and quote every paragraph of it.
It’s one of those posts I wish I had written. It’s really spectacular. Thank you for writing it and saying it.
Thank you Carl, I really appreciate you sharing it
Absolutely wonderful. I will be saving this for my son, when he reaches his teenage years. Everything is so well said. My only concern would be that some of the vocabulary and concepts might elude a teen. A slightly simpler version for young teens would be awesome!
Great post. My friend Carl linked to it, and I’m glad I took the time to read it. Thank you for writing it.
David:
This is everything. It is the definitive response, and the complementary puzzle piece to Emma Watson’s #heforshe. We can’t end overt or accidental sexism without valuing inclusion over exclusion, similarities over differences, and individual empathy over mob mentality.
As a mother of both a boy and a girl who are just burgeoning into individuality amidst the cruel anonymity (and mob-think) of the Internet, I thank you most sincerely for doing the hard work of putting my feelings into prose.
Thank you a million times, from a mother of a 5 month old son.
Lots of good advice that I wish I had read a few years ago, or rather read and related to somehow. That’s one of the major problems with reading good advice like this, it’s almost impossible to assimilate unless you already have some kind of familiarity with both perspectives, which then prepares you to receive the message. Even if some supernatural being could describe and map out the optimal way for me to live my life, the first thing I would do as soon as it left would be to act completely out of line with what it told me.
Right. I probably would have done the same, until it stopped working. But the seed would have been planted, and eventually I’d rediscover it.
I agree with this article. The one thing I wanted to discuss was our male “lingering capacity for violence.” It is a dangerous tool in the male repertoire but it is also a very natural one and it should be handled carefully. Many times, we are given some advantages at the expense of others. In our male case, I believe we are given the advantage of physicality while being weaker in our communication skills when compared to females. I’m a married man and speaking from experience, I believe that women have the also dangerous tool of arguing more effectively; being better able to persuade and to affect emotionally but also to hurt verbally and cut deep emotionally. When I argue with my wife, I sometimes feel helpless, defenseless, and overwhelmed. Both sexes need to keep their dangerous advantages at bay and keep from hurting each other at all costs.
Great stuff, David. As per usual. Insightful and pointed. I couldn’t agree more, and you are right. We can explain to girls and women why they benefit from feminism-but without progressive boys and men moving the conversation too, it is a canoe with a broken oar.
Erwin- that might be the most eloquent explanation I’ve ever heard for the way evolved relationships exist with power in both parties’ hands. Many women are far better at argument and can forget how deeply it can affect others. Good for you for reminding me of ‘fighting clean’ going both ways.
This is a great point, and I think it extends to all of our advantages over others, even those we only hold as individuals. If we know we have the capacity to bully, we have to be careful not to lean on it. I know I am capable of bullying others with words, and it’s important that I stay aware of the power I have in that regard. When I’m around others with a dominating personality, who have the power and skill to take over the conversation and make me feel small, it’s easy to see why it’s so important.
David – Absolutely priceless…as said above, I wish this would go viral. Thank you for your keen insight and rare courage – can we clone you? Keep doin’ what you’re doin’ – party on!
This is excellent. When my son was a teenager, I don’t know if I’d have actually shared this with him directly, but I’d definitely have tucked it away and subtly used pertinent portions as talking points and discussion starters. Incidentally, I posted the link on my Facebook page and within five minutes, two friends — one male and one female, each raising a teenage boy — had shared it. I doubt they’ll be the last. This is really powerful.
This is an exceptional post, David.
Thanks Kirsten!
Excellent post. Now the question is how to get young men to read it, and believe it!
This post brought me to tears. It delivered everything I was hoping for and more after reading the title. I hope this advice will make more men aware, especially young men who are defining how their generation will think and behave, of what it is to be the best man, indeed the best person, they can be.
In my opinion, the character traits you described are the most sought after by women. It is unfortunate that these don’t tend to be traits that are rewarded in the media, which values extremes over temperance. When it comes to real life, to forming lasting & meaningful connections with others, they are of paramount importance.
Thank you for another thought-provoking piece.
This is amazing. Thank you so much- I will give this to every young man I know and save it for any I meet in the future. What a gift you are to this world- I love the way you are so “real” and you can distill things down to their essence.
Thank you so much!!!
“And the kids who are actually doing it in their tweens probably aren’t doing it very well, and they’re probably not people you’ll want to trade places with in ten years.”
Why not? How do you think they end up?
Yeah reading that back it does sound judgmental. All I mean is that it’s easy to think, as a teen, that others are moving past you in life, when in reality it’s unlikely that they’re actually outdoing you in terms of overall personal development. Becoming an adult makes irrelevant all these apparent shortcomings you may feel you have when comparing yourself to other teens.
Thank you! This is true.
Reposting this for my boys aged 15 & 18. And also for my 13 yr old daughter. If you won’t listen to your Dad and I, maybe some sage advice from an obviously intelligent guy on the internet might do the trick!
David – This was awesome! I e-mailed AND printed for my 18 year old son who just started his senior year! I am amazed by the incredible young man my son is growing to be, but there are so many things I still want to tell him but know that coming from his mom, they would not be heard in the way that I intend. While I loved so much that was said in this article this was one of my favorites, “Think of women as being just like you, rather than some other species. You don’t learn to approach women, you learn to talk to people” GENIUS!
Excellent post.
Was there ever a golden age of male role models in plentiful supply? I don’t think so. In earlier generations young men suffered from the stifling conservatism of their fathers, who typically reflected the institutionalized bigotry of their society. Now in late modern society we have greater freedoms of belief and expression, yet divorce rates are high and there are few fathers who stick around to provide a calm, guiding influence. It is one of the great tragedies of our age that there is such a lack of strong role models.
I think they are out there, and many fathers are great role models. But part of adolescence is defiance, and listening to your parents is so uncool. My father was actually a great role model — totally against violence, against sexism and discrimination against gays, and always encouraging me to make my own choices. But the influence of my peers was more prevalent and more immediate, because I felt like I had to fit in among them, and I knew my father would always accept me.
If any of your posts were going to go viral and subsequently change the world, this would be the one. I now feel compelled to suggest to you a book that changed my life 18 years ago.
“Real Boys: Rescuing Our Sons from the Myths of Boyhood”, by William Pollack, Ph.D. It’s a good bet, David, that you will add it to your list of Life-Changing Books.
Sorry, typo…”15″ years ago.
DAVID !!!!!I am absuloutely, totally, head over heels in love with this bit of your writing !!! Thanks for penning this down !
Every sentence resonates :)
It’s hard to say these things, as a woman, to men, and expect them to make an impact. Thank you <3
I think you have some well-intentioned words of advice, but where are kids these days supposed to find young male role models to help them build their morals and foundations? There is no easy answer to this. Social Media? TV? Movies? The right ones are few and far between.
Kids, while you are taking Mr. Cain’s words of advice, I ask you to consider how you can plug into your community and reach out to those around you in order to be mentored by someone that is older and wiser.
Reading these life suggestions off a computer screen is a helpful starting point to get kids thinking, but when it comes down to it, there is no accountability for these kids to follow through on the suggestions you offer them.
Maybe I smell the makings of an organization that would provide kids with mentors that can model a positive lifestyle while encouraging them to stay on the right path and provide opportunities for them to succeed in these areas through exciting adventures and character building opportunities.
…oh wait, I think these exist already?
Anyways kids, get plugged in, make things happen, and eventually you’ll look back at high school and say what everyone else says, “man, I was dumb and I did some really dumb stuff, but at least I made the most of it and I am better off today because of it.”
I might be way off base but it sounds like you’re talking about church. Community is a good thing, but IMHO it has a greater effect when we don’t conflate it with ancient mythology or prescriptive morality. I think we can get all the benefits of community and role-modeling without appealing to ancient religious institutions for guidance.
Dear young men, pay no attention to neutered Uncle Tom’s such as the author of this self loathing diatribe. Stand tall and proud. You have nothing to be ashamed of.
I was pretty clear that masculinity is nothing to be ashamed of.
For everyone else: the above is a pretty typical comment from a so-called “Men’s rights advocate” — all ad hominems and no real point made. I urge anyone to google “Men’s rights” and hear them out, and see if it makes sense to you. They may have legitimate grievances somewhere in there, but they just can’t seem to separate them out from name-calling and misogyny.
I suspect Ted is reacting to this paragraph here:
“So from the dawn of humanity, whenever there has been a disagreement between a man and a woman, both of them knew from the start — no matter what kind of reason or sense either side brought to the table — which one must eventually back down. Unlike the woman, the man could expect to get his way without having an intelligent argument, without considering the needs of others, without being right at all, without any sensible reason for things to go his way.”
I wanted to fall of my chair laughing.
To understand just just how wrong, how sexist it is, replace “woman” with “man” and “man” with “woman” and imagine a man wrote the text (well, a man did write the text). If you did that, you’d doubtlessly be appalled by a shocking misogyny, and probably want the author locked up.
You will understand, then, that what you have written is misandrist apologetics.
And aside from that, it’s just baseless, factually incorrect, nonsense.
“Since the dawn of humanity…” – are you an anthropologist, or a psychologist? How on earth did you arrive at this view? How could you possibly support it? What do you know about stone age cultures? Anything at all?
Power dynamics, over here in the real world, can go in either direction. How does this help a man who finds himself in a relationship with a woman who in fact the one who is controlling, or irrational, or bullying? Where does this advice lead then?
David: MRAs (I don’t consider myself one, but I do read their material from time to time), like all groups, have their share of evangelistic dittoheads. It doesn’t mean some of the movement’s points aren’t valid.
Where their arguments are strongest IMHO are where they are arguing against the extremes of feminism–these extremes do exist, they are unfortunately not as rare as you seem to believe (the internet overflows with hatred in all directions), and some of them gleefully advocate violence towards men. Some of the most widely-cited radfems (who are looked upon as heroes by many avowed feminists) read like genocidal maniacs, if you dig into their material a little. Like it or not, these attitudes sometimes leak back into the mainstream.
Some of them *are* mainstream. Like the idea that men can’t be raped, or the false notion that all (or even nearly-all) domestic abuse and partner violence is committed by men against women (it’s not at all clear that it is). Or that sexual abuse of boys isn’t a problem on the same order of magnitude as abuse of girls. Or that underage boys who are statutory-raped by their teachers are “lucky” and should “shut up and stop complaining about it because she’s hot, yo” (this one mostly seems to come from other men), rather than being victims of an adult sex offender, which they are by any fair standard. Or that women are the ones who should most fear violence in their daily lives, when men are the vast majority of victims of violent crimes and murder (and also the perpetrators; it’s not a simple problem!). Or that men don’t have body image issues, or emotional problems (or maybe even emotions at all!), and that sexualization and objectification of men in media doesn’t exist or isn’t an issue. (We do! It does! It is!) Or that we’re all fat, bumbling idiots that need to be saved from our own moronitude by competent, beautiful women (a favorite and successful trope of the sitcom industry for decades–and sexist in both directions, in several ways).
Then there are the millions of men sent to fight in war against their wills; the discrepancies in prison sentences for identical crimes; society-wide acceptance for the mutilation of infant male genitals when similar procedures on baby girls are (correctly) considered barbaric crimes, boys falling behind girls in graduation rates at all levels of education, the suicide gap… the list goes on. These are not made-up problems, nor is this an exhaustive list. And feminism, understandably, because it is *primarily about women*, does not tend to address or even acknowledge them.
So, long post short, I believe there is a place for men’s rights advocacy. But I try not to tolerate bigotry against anyone, regardless of their junk. And I certainly don’t begrudge women the success and equality they’ve achieved in recent decades, nor do I deny there are areas in that regard that still need serious improvement. But inequality is not a one-way street, and *everybody* deserves recognition and support in their struggles.
Thank you for sharing this comment. I agree with you, and I don’t know if you’re implying that I contradicted any of what you’re saying in this article, or if you just want to make these points clear to people. In a similar way that the word feminism has picked up unfortunate (and maybe unshakeable) connotations of misandry, so has the phrase “Men’s Rights.”
In fact, I think the men’s rights movement is much more imperiled by their extremists than feminism — there just seem to be a greater proportion of them. And the phrase’s connotations are so bad I would never call myself a Men’s Rights advocate, even though there are absolutely serious issues that need fighting for, as you mention. I think the reason for this is that feminism is older and more refined and better understood now on a universal basis than what we today call the Men’s Rights movement, and I hope we see a similar refinement with the message from men’s rights.
Definitely the clarity thing. And it wasn’t really clear from your comments that you weren’t throwing out the man-babies with the bath water. Just checking. :-)
Troll alert
David, will you be writing a similar article for females to convince them that men are not all rapists, murderers, misogynists, wife(or partner)-beaters, twits, etc, In other words, will you tell women not to believe all those lies and myths that the feminist ideologists relentlessly propagate every hour of the day through the media, TV, in uni campuses, in soaps, and so on?
I guess I don’t see much evidence that most women think all men are rapists and murderers. Do you actually think that’s true?
I certainly don’t agree with everything said under the flag of feminism — a minority of feminists have sexist attitudes towards men. But the idea that the typical woman thinks the typical man is a bad person is pretty ridiculous.
What utter tosh and piffle. Please provide even one single link to an article where a writer has genuinely meant that they think all men are rapists etc. If you can’t please call back under the rock from whence you came.
I’m guessing this is a response to Norman above? To reply to a particular comment, use the reply button under their avatar.
Firstly, I think it’s great you’re writing about these things. This is a topic that the media just ignores – there are hundreds of women writing about what it is to be a woman but very few talking about masculinity. They tend to focus on the bad aspects of masculinity like arrogance, sexism etc…
Where the article falls down for me is that you don’t really say what it is to be a man. When you talk about the pickup movement – most of those guys seem pretty lost to me. They’ve grown up in a world without role models where your level of masculinity is determined by how attractive women find you. As a result, they’ve created their own role models who aren’t always ethical.
You talk about violence but your analysis is a bit daily mail. If a woman abuses a man verbally that’s considered ok – people would probably roll their eyes. If a woman abuses a man physically, he’s considered a wimp. If a woman abuses a man verbally and physically for months, the moment he hits her, he’s a monster. These attitudes come from the deep seated sexism in our society – that naturally paints women as innocent victims. We should be trying to root out all sexism and violence (emotional and physical) rather than just sexism against women.
It would be great if you could write an article called “How to become man” that was completely positive and focussed no what it meant to be a man and how to get there.
For anyone who’s looking to fully realise their masculinity, I’d recommend this course:
http://www.menspsychology.com/product-mindos.php
In my opinion it provides an amazing insight into what it is to be a man and how to get there.
I thought the subtext of the article is pretty clear: to “be a man” doesn’t necessarily mean anything specific. It doesn’t really mean anything except “be masculine.” I think it should be up to every individual to decide to what degree they want to embody or admire masculinity. Traditionally, males are under pressure to act masculine, and quite often masculinity is conflated with disrespect for both women and other men.
All males must come to terms with masculinity as a concept and figure out where it fits in their lives. This article is not anti-masculine and doesn’t deny that there is sexism against men as well.
L Hello: I never said that the author had any links in his article to 3rd party sites. You have also, naturally, had nothing to say about the relentless feminist propaganda I have pointed out to.
“If you can’t please call back under the rock from whence you came.” That is not a comment, it is the language(!) of trolls (i.e. those people who can’t face the reality, won’t debate, and instead resort to ranting and ignorant insults).
Norman, you may be new to David’s blog. I encourage you to spend some time with his writing. He generally keeps things very positive, and addresses both men and women as equals, capable of judging each other’s intent as individuals, not lumping them together with labels (a habit that he explains in a post on things he recommends stopping doing, such as, well, lumping people together with labels– he uses the term “ad hominem” to describe this.
I encourage you to re-read what you just wrote. Perhaps the person who responded to you in a manner you found offensive misunderstood what you were trying to say. Perhaps you did not entirely understand them. Could you try regarding that person as an individual, and try to write something that honors their request that you provide a link to an article that “female ideologists relentlessly propagate every hours”? Because that’s how I read that comment.
And yes, I agree with you that asking you to crawl back under a rock wasn’t fair or kind either, but if you could take the high road and let that go so that we can understand your concern, that would be really helpful. Thanks.
Hey, I just read this on the independents facebook page and I just really wanted to tell you how fantastic I think this is. At 24 I’ve learned all this by now, but it certainly would have helped me a lot over the last 10 years or so to hear this kind of thing at 15. This is honestly pure gold. Even though it’s perfectly in line with my own thinking and I keep fairly up to date on the gender equality debate and read a lot of feminist journalism I’ve never come across anybody actually putting all of these ideas down and in such a frank, honest and male friendly way to boot. This really is the way to get men involved in gender equality. A bit more stuff like this and a little less overt ‘feminist’ man bashing (which only serves to alienate men from the feminism movement) and we might actually get somewhere with gender equality. This is exactly what we need in the media to create a more enlightened, educated, equal and ultimately happier population. Keep up the good work!
I’m associated with the Mankind Project, it’s a mens organisation that strongly advocates that men need to man-up and not in a way that is antifemanist.
Chris: Trying to feminise boys and men to make them submissive to the feminist agendas is not a new concept. In the UK, the conditioning of boys starts from the nursery age (cbeebies, etc.).
That is most likely why the project you belong to (Mankind) exists mainly in countries where anti-men feminist laws and agendas are the strongest (New Zealand, Australia, Canada, USA, South Africa, UK, etc.).
The organisations Mankind keeps company with reveals the purpose of its endeavors. Quoting from your website: “Men and women from many associated and like-minded communities shared space where all were welcome….Woman Within, Women in Power, A Band of Brothers, Boys to Men, Shadow Work, etc.”
Can you be more specific about the “anti-men feminist laws” you’re referring to? Because I don’t think anybody else can understand what you’re talking about from what you’re saying.
As usual, a thought provoking, well considered and articulate article. I’d just take issue with one thing:
“The forces of civilization and education are very slowly discrediting this stone-age approach to life, and dismantling the power imbalance that has grown around it.”
We actually have good reasons to think that stone age societies were and are considerably less misogynistic than more recent ones. Most of the misogyny in our modern world derives from the Abrahamic religions.
This is a good point and I didn’t mean to malign our pre-agriculture ancestors. The greatest force in misogyny has always been iron-age religion.
Thank you for this piece. Men and Women, just be accountable, however that resonates for you. As you lean towards this you will eventually see, feel and be the difference. Check out The Mankind Project and The Woman Within organisations as one possible platform.
Any article that pushes us to learn, educate – to evolve – is good for every gender. I am a female and I love the male gender. I have been mentally and verbally abused by a number of males and physically beaten by a man. And I still love men. Because I know in my heart of hearts that these abusers are not representative of the whole. I have done a lot of self-examination, studying, and reading of articles, just like this one, that have helped me understand gender issues and move forward. I think this article shows great insight into helping pinpoint problems early on so that positive changes can be made. Thank you, David, for your insights.
What a load of unhelpful crap. This doesn’t tell a young person anything about how to be a man. It explains how not to be a sexist, misogynistic, a-hol, but it seems like the author feels that all young people are destined to become that. Some youth actually have or find good role models. Yes they exist in person, in literature, heck even in comics. Honoring other people (which covers your entire article), honoring your word, being honest, being loyal, being compassionate and empathetic. Do those things and you will not only be a “man” you’ll be a better human. Most of this is simple, some of it is not easy.
I’m arguing for the same things you are. I just don’t think that being loyal, compassionate, or empathetic have anything specifically to do with males or masculinity. What does it mean to be a man in your opinion?
I think I laid it out. If you are a good human being you’ll be a good man and vice versa. It’s really that simple. I suppose you could add “be protective” to the list, but most women are protective as well, so again it applies to everyone. My issue is what you wrote seemed much more limited in scope, more “how to treat women appropriately” than how to be a man. And it seemed to assume that all young men look at women the way you laid it out. They don’t.
I don’t think we disagree here. The whole point of the article is that all that is really required to be a good man is to be a good person. Yet young men will still face pressure to “be a man” in ways that are conflated with sexism and the belittlement of others. I wanted to tell them what I wish I’d been told in regards to how to respond to that pressure when they encounter it.
Perhaps he should have said, “Don’t be negative and judgmental about the work of a complete stranger just because it doesn’t happen to stack up with your personal notions of what that work should have looked like. If you do that, people might think you’re whiny and rude. Instead, try to consider it for the value it does have, whether to you or to others, and perhaps offer constructive criticism if you feel it will be useful.” What do you think? ;)
Can you get rid of the how to save the world wallpaper as it doesn’t display on mobile devices. Thanks.
What kind of phone/browser do you have?
Safari on ageing iPhone. Thanks again
Now I’m on a laptop, I’m not seeing how to save the world wallpaper at all, but when I go back to the phone, it still displays as a background to the text which effectively makes the text unreadable. Hopefully it’s just a problem affecting me and everyone else is ok.
David, your article is very good up to about 2/3 of the way through, where it gets quite patchy. The first section is all about maintaining your individuality, not feeling you have to fit in with historical norms of masculinity and not being sexist. Fine, great, freedom and positivity all round.
Then it says “Some of the very normal expectations that will be placed on you as a male… to be tough and stolid….are keeping even the most enlightened parts of this world less hospitable for women than for you. Learn to recognise and violate these expectations.” What’s wrong with being tough and stolid if that works for you and is how you best relate to the world? Being tough, without being aggressive is a fine line to tread, but the world will be a better place if people (men and women) are allowed to be tough. They should be neither required nor condemned for being so. As for stolidity, some people are stolid, that’s how they best deal with their emotions. Tom Golden puts this forward as a fairly natural attribute in many (but not all) men. If it doesn’t adversely affect others, what’s the problem?
You then say “We need new norms”, but I thought we were trying to break the previous norms so that men aren’t judged according to a fixed idea of masculinity. Why do we want to introduce new norms by which anyone is judged?
The bit about men’s “lingering capacity for violence” is also dubious. A capacity for violence isn’t dependent on sex and there’s a worrying double standard in as much as society and the law view violent men very differently from violent women. The rule should be that all violence is condemnable. An act of violence isn’t less of a problem because the person committing it isn’t part of a group which is seen as having a predisposition for violence.
This, however, is absolutely spot on as an analysis of the source of a lot of problems: “This expectation – that power over others is a viable, noble path to happiness – lingers…”
I never said there’s nothing wrong with being tough and stolid, but that it is harmful to demand that all young men act tough just to be accepted by others. People need to be allowed not to be stolid. Boys grow up thinking they should be ashamed if someone ever sees them cry.
And I certainly didn’t say that violence is something of which only males are capable. I was just describing the biological root of male privilege. It clearly does have something to do with our sexual dimporphism, and the power advantage that this gives to the male sex, even in an era where violence is (usually) reviled. The law does, in some cases, view male violence differently than female violence, and I don’t support that.
I agree, it is “harmful to demand that all young men act tough just to be accepted by others.” I think it could be equally harmful to demand that men reject traditional masculine virtues. They are still virtues after all. This is a fine line to tread but I think you step over it slightly when you say that “young men should learn to recognise and violate these expectations” [of toughness and stolidity] and that failing to do so risks “passing nasty energy on”.
Overall the tone of your article is very positive, but I think you risk making a common mistake of destroying traditional masculinity (virtues and all) under the banner of freeing ourselves from an old norm and then promptly putting a new norm in its place. You explicitly say “we need new norms”. If we’re not careful, these new norms will be no less restrictive, but much harder to achieve given (most) men’s natural way of dong things. Why not abandon all “norms”, for both men and women, and simply judge everyone on their impact on the world and people around them?
Great article in a lot of ways. My 15-year-old self would have appreciated a lot of it. Except for the end. Having a physically abusive mother who had problems with men gave me a different perspective on gender and power. Not a good one, which I’m still working through. Not all women are weak, and not all men are powerful. I appreciate your article, but there are a lot of men out there with a different experience that is never acknowledged by mainstream culture. But we’re still here. Thanks. 90% was on target.
I have been thinking a lot about feminism lately and agree with most of their ideals. I think it has been a necessary and positive movement. I do wonder if they have outgrown their name though. Most people seem to agree these days that women should have equal rights as men even the men’s rights groups. It sounds to me like they are reacting to feminism as if it is a supremacy organization and that is looking to make all men villains. I wonder if we have reached a point as society to have a new gender equality movement under a different name. Although I guess “moderates” don’t often successfully mobilize.
What is sinister about the so-called feminism movement is not their published ideals, but, as you have rightly observed, theiir agenda to alienate and denigrate men by using the government and state departments, the schools, the law and the media.
The feminist ideologists want to see men’s blood everywhere. Nothing less will suffice for them.
I have been thinking a lot about feminism lately and agree with most of their ideals. I think it has been a necessary and positive movement. I do wonder if they have outgrown their name though.
I think so. You can see from some of the critical comments here that many men think feminism is out to get them, that they’re just the other side of a great boys-against-girls struggle. There are feminists who are supremacists, for sure, but that’s definitely the exception. I think the word has picked up adversarial connotations and they’re going to be hard to get rid of. I think the f-word also implies, to many, that sexism is specifically a women’s issue rather than an issue of universal decency and fairness between humans.
This is a poisonous article. It basically tells young boys it’s fine to give up and become effeminate if they can’t handle the competitive aspect of life.
Your notion that men and women are exactly the same, just with different genitalia, is one that can be disproved by science. Men and womens brains are wired completely differently for evolutionary purposes, and to deny this is indicative of your own insecurities. Unfortunately, you can write reasonably well, and so you will probably set off some young minds on the wrong path due to this. I also believe you are so insecure that you completely fail to see this, and believe you are doing “the right thing” as all cultural marxist types believe.
No, I am not an MRA, a red pill advocate or a far-right nut, I’m just a guy who is also struggling to find his place in this world (and somewhat succeeding). But one thing I will never do is give up.
The sooner these young boys you have targeted in your article realise life IS just like school, and life IS a competitive jungle and not a very pleasant place, the sooner they can come to realise that they DO have to be the “stereotypical” men you chastise in your article. And no, watching football on the weekend or growing a silly moustache is not manly in the slightest.
I think you are reading a lot into this article that’s not there. I am not discouraging masculinity, or ambition, or competition.
I don’t chastise stereotypical men, just sexism wherever it’s defended as a bastion of masculinity. Obviously I don’t agree that young men have to be stereotypical males, or that life is just like high school. That’s ridiculous. Competition is a part of life, of course, but it doesn’t require sexism or alpha male posturing.
“They’re probably not people you’ll want to trade places with in ten years.”
Ouch, and I thought I was a decent guy?
I’m sure you are! Yeah, that line came off all wrong, and I removed it. I just meant that as a HS student it sometimes seems like other people are ahead of you in terms of development, but that there’s no reason to believe those same people are ahead of you in life in the long term.
I really loved this article.
And I’m glad you had the courage to step in this place of hurt (based on the comments, you hit a sore spot) to speak your own voice.
Evolving as a gender will require more than expecting women to define manliness for us or, on the other extreme, perpetuating neanderthalian habits for fear of being overthrown by females. A real, solid change will involve domesticating our fears, mainly.
Like you, I have no idea what being a man should be, not for lack of personal values, but for lack of heritage. And I don’t mind building that art from scratch, I have what it takes, so do you, apparently.
Thanks Gael. It is a really sore issue on all sides, which I think means there’s a lot of talking still to do.
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David, great article to spark some thought in our youth. Lately I’ve been questioning masculinity in the 21st century, and am at odds with what it is and what (I believe) it should be.
As a male in my early 30’s, I’m of the believe that men need to be strong for the better of their selves, families, and communities. Obviously, I don’t mean just physical strength, which sadly is the only “strength” our western society values. The strengths I allude to are mental, emotional, spiritual, and of course, physical. While I agree with your statements that young men should avoid “fitting in” for it’s own sake, I think it’s important to try and fit in, at least to the extent of being able to understand differing points of view / life experiences.
It takes mental strength to try and understand others, to go beyond our urges and avoid regrettable situations. It takes spiritual strength to uphold moral values, to face life’s storms, and to go above ourselves. It takes emotional strength to face adversity, to weather crises, and to expose (and enjoy!) your own humanity. It takes physical strength to keep yours safe and stay healthy for them.
I wholeheartedly disagree, though, with your statement that men and women are equal (besides gender). Our sexuality is our greatest differentiator and will remain so for a long time; assuming we’re all just people is an altruistic approach, but what’s not made equal cannot be equal. Yes, men and women should have equal social status. Yes, we should treat each other as we’d like others to treat us. Yet our physiology will continue to mould our psyches differently, making us react and behave in unequal patterns. That, of course, is not an excuse to subjugate anyone.
Young men: being a man is not about being superior, but about being willing and able to step in when those who depend on you need it.
Keep the debate going and thank you for this article!
An interesting perspective on a complex issue.
This is one of the most important articles i’ve read in a long time. As someone else said – it’s such a difference for a male to express these sentiments and to make a push for that real culture change. It’s true that it’s for the benefit of all, none of us what to live in oppressive constructs. While more prominent male figures are getting vocal about it – there is still a lack of this kind of practical real world guidance. This article is articulate and gets to the points. Really well done. Two thumbs up !
“None of us want to live in oppressive constructs”. Yup… However, 64% of public service employees in the UK are female. Over three quarters of teachers employed in primary schools and the NHS workforce are female. Four fifths of social enterpise/third sector jobs go to females.
Single mothers get to keep the child in so-called family courts without sweat, plus they get to keep all the child benefits even if the father is “allowed” to look after the child for X days every week.
If a woman cries “rape”, her word is taken as 100% true by the CPS. If the allegation is proven not to be true, the woman can get away with her false allegation with impunity and without her name being exposed. While the alleged rapist’s life gets destroyed.
Now, who is the opressed here and who is being discriminated against?
Great article David. Have you heard of Dr.Arne Rubinstein? He was nominated “Australian of the Year” in 2008 for his groundbreaking work with male adolescents. Your sentiments mirror what Dr.Rubinstein is doing here in Australia, running some very important programs for our boys especially. Check it out.
Oh, and by the way, if we have such strong anti-men feminists and agendas here in Australia, can the gentleman who stated this explain why Dr.Rubinstein’s programs have had such overwhelming support and interest from our communities??
fantastic article which says so well so many of the things I believe. thank you for that.
I’d like to inject some reality here, and because it’s real, it’s not politically correct.
I had a strong mother and a weak father. My mother was a cruel, irrational, angry person. She was a classical misandrist. She repeated over and over the story of how her cruel rejection of a man who loved her caused him to suicide. The relationship between my parents was characterised by the psychological violence inflicted on my father by my mother. I remember many of the fights, because she made no effort to hide her temper from her young children. Often they started because my dad tried to make us clean our teeth. She hated that because she had bad teeth. I remember once my dad asked me to clean my teeth, then I heard a crash and shriek as she smashed a glass in the kitchen.
Then one day he hit her. This was after at least 10 years of this abuse. Do I blame him? No, I don’t. The only question, in my mind, is how he managed to control himself for 10 years. And he only did it once.
As a young adult I struggled with masculinity. That’s because I am effeminate. By and large girls liked me, but never were attracted – despite the fact that I was reasonably good looking.
My life has taught me that, without some masculinity, men are not attractive to women. And that’s the unfortunate, politically incorrect, reality.
In my 30s I had my first girlfriend, a girl 10 years younger. She was highly intelligent, highly sexual, and somewhat intrigued by a shy, 31 year old virgin. It wasn’t a serious relationship, and wasn’t ever meant to be.
I learnt a few things from this very sophisticated young woman. For instance, I should go to the gym because yes, physique actually counts for a lot. But I also learnt about some of her prejudices – she would never consider as a boyfriend a man who wasn’t taller than her.
This is very, very common. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with it, as far as I can see. Men are attracted to women who are smaller than them; women are attracted to men who are bigger. It’s evolution, and it’s never going to change. Yes there will be exceptions. Of course, there will be homosexual relationships, atypical relationships, people with fat fetishes, men who like older women, etc. All sorts of variations. But as a rule, men will be the dominant sex.
And sexually, she needed to be dominated. Which was true of all subsequent girlfriends I’ve had too.
It’s important to be aware that most women aren’t feminists. People are people and they care about things like making enough money to pay the bills; looking after their children; finding someone who will love them, and not leave them later for a younger woman.
My second relationship lasted 5 years. As with my first, she had the prejudice that a man absolutely must be taller, she also needed to be sexually dominated, and she needed someone who earnt a lot of money.
My second girlfriend was a very spoilt girl from China, with “Little Emperor Syndrome”. I loved her, and gave everything to making her happy, but her abusive temper made the relationship very difficult. I estimate that she would start a fight about once every 3 days for the whole 5 years. Most of them were kind of mini-fights. We both knew she was just having a tantrum, and it didn’t mean anything, and she’d be happy again after she got it out of her system, usually an hour or two later.
Other times it was more serious. She’d smash a lamp. Or throw something across the room. You know, just out of the blue. As the list of ways in which she felt I’d let her down grew. I still loved her – it was just her quirky personality, so I thought.
Of course, over 5 years, there were times when I couldn’t take this any more and I’d also become really, really angry. And naturally if I a man gets angry enough, a woman half his size is going to be scared. Maybe this happened about 5 times in the 5 years. I’d hit a wall, or throw my keys at the ground. About 5 really big fights.
Feminism enters the story when I tried to get help for the relationship. The female relationship counsellor immediately concluded that I was domestically violent and recommended group therapy. My girlfriend thought this was crazy, but I really wanted to fix the relationship, so I went along with it.
As a result, I got to meet a whole team of relationship counsellors – as well as some men, including some who had real violence issues and then a few others like myself who clearly didn’t, but were also doing whatever they could to fix their relationship.
Firstly I saw a psychologist – part of the process. I explained the whole relationship to a woman who clearly had no interest in listening to what violent men had to say. And I was astounded that the stories of what I’d endured in terms of emotional and physical violence from my partner, initiated by my partner, just meant nothing to her at all. She’d heard it all, and dismissed it all out of hand, a thousand times before. I think, frankly, she just assumed I was lying. After all, I’m a man. Men are by definition violent, right? And here I was seeking help for domestic violence? Next. At one point, I do remember she shrugged and said half-heartedly, “Oh well, perhaps your girlfriend should seek help too?” That was the closest I got to any acknowledgement that there could be two sides to it.
I told the stories to two other counsellors and the reactions were approximately the same, although not quite as rude or insensitive. I was asked a long list of bizarre questions. Aside from obvious questions like “Have you ever hit your girlfriend, shown a weapon, threatened her, etc” where I could say “no” there were questions like: Had I ever had sex with my girlfriend while she was asleep? That’s rape, did you know? I’m serious. As it happens, I’d had sex with her while she was asleep often, just as she’d also woken me up for the same reason. The sex in that relationship was really good. The sex actually continued for six month even after we’d broken up. But seriously, they said that was violence against women. Have you ever criticised your partner? Criticised her appearance? Criticised her clothing? It’s really hard to imagine anyone wouldn’t find they were violent, according to this insane list.
In this group meeting we were taught to aspire to a kind of monk-like morality. And always the most important point was rammed home – the fight is always your fault. Blaming your partner means you’re not owning the violence.
Suffice to say I stopped going after a few sessions, and only because I realised my girlfriend just wasn’t interested in fixing the relationship, because she was cheating anyway.
But my god, did I get to understand just how distorted this “violence against women” meme really is – how much damage feminism has already caused.
There are almost always two sides to any kind of abusive relationship. Feminists want to address this by making everything about the men.
I’m now happily married to my third girlfriend by the way. She’s not a feminist either, and we’re very happy.
—
Much of the article above is good advice. It’s a shame that at the end it degenerates into unhelpful feminist apologetics. Stone age culture was egalitarian, by the way. For over a million years, humans and their ancestors lived as hunter-gatherers in a mostly egalitarian society, if with very, very clearly defined gender roles. Learning to be a man was something that society took very seriously, with long, complicated initiation ceremonies, as men passed on the secrets of being a man from generation to generation, for millions of years.
The “patriarchy” that feminists make such a fuss about is just a blip on this ancient prehistory.
Men evolved to be hunters and women evolved to be child-bearers and gatherers. Of course, it’s not quite as simple as this, and the species is still evolving, mutations and variations being thrown up always, but trying to force men and women to be “equals” isn’t very helpful if by being “equals” it means denying and not understanding your evolved instincts.
There’s a great book about relationships and it’s a classic for good reason: Men are from Mars; Women are from Venus. I found it very enlightening.
“Think of women as being just like you…”
Except that they are not “just like you.”
I stumbled onto this site through the a link to “your lifestyle has already been designed article” and just wanted to tell you what an amazing read it was. It turned so many of the things I was already feeling while working in an office job into coherent tangible thoughts.
This article is also amazing and so so important. I also admire how patiently you replied to the first couple of MRAs, I don’t think I could ever interact with them without succumbing to giant eye rolls. Anyway I’m hooked on your writing and going to go binge read some more.
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