Men On Strike?

[M30USA]

This is a book written by a female PhD who is a self-professed feminist. She actually defends men for choosing to opt out of marriage altogethor in America. She says men who choose this path are not "lazy" but rather making the most rational choice.

 

[Pompeii]

This is a book written by a female PhD who is a self-professed feminist. She actually defends men for choosing to opt out of marriage altogethor in America. She says men who choose this path are not "lazy" but rather making the most rational choice.

 

 

It's true. There really is no reason to get married in the modern era. Especially for a man such as myself who is constantly interested in wealth creation and appreciation of assets.

[carhill]

I haven't seen that (men on strike) in my demographic and most of my male friends, along with myself, got varying degrees of reaming in divorce court. I'm surrounded by gold wedding bands everywhere I go.

 

Personally, since I'm exiting this demographic, I've avoided relationships in general, preferring to focus on recovery from divorce and helping the friends who stood by me. Not 'striking', rather focusing on other life paths.

[M30USA]

I haven't seen that (men on strike) in my demographic and most of my male friends, along with myself, got varying degrees of reaming in divorce court. I'm surrounded by gold wedding bands everywhere I go.

 

Personally, since I'm exiting this demographic, I've avoided relationships in general, preferring to focus on recovery from divorce and helping the friends who stood by me. Not 'striking', rather focusing on other life paths.

 

Great post.

[mario_C]

Of course this is a Newsmax story, so they don't want to discuss that marriage is a religious ritual designed to assign women to be the property of men and educated adults are calling BS on that across the world.

And they don't want to acknowledge this is a talking point from Bill Maher's glory days.

Maybe they want to champion the Fifty Shades franchise as their exemplary case of men being more than "stupid" and "abused"? Great, the man does the abusing as it should be, is that what we want?!

But human nature isn't changing that fast and men aren't giving up relationships that fast. And some of us are smart enough to ignore the BS fed to us by media and pursue relationships per our own criteria. All these political nerds are stunned by that notion, that some of us would appreciate them ceasing to tell us how to think (along with their street preachers on bulletin boards ).

 

And I am curious what that has to do with the economy. I may not be smart, but I am wondering what that has to do with THE AMERICAN DREAM, which is dominating the world culture and economy and on and on. I am wondering why she put that in the title, other than to sell her book to other theocons.

[Robert Z]

I think she has a number of valid points. I have long felt that many women, the media, and society in general have become insensitive to men's needs and often abusive towards men. I think the women's rights movement achieved many good things but men were left in the dust. One set of traditional roles - the woman's role - was mostly eliminated or redefined but the expectations on men haven't changed. And as was pointed in about the show "Everyone Loves Raymond", most people think nothing of a woman being abusive towards a man, but if the roles were reversed it wouldn't be tolerated.

 

On a personal level, I was expected to be sensitive to the emotional, financial, and practical needs of my ex, but to EXPECT her to be sensitive to my physical needs was described by some members here as akin to demanding that I can rape my wife. In other words, for her to be giving to me, even if she doesn't always feel like it, is akin to rape, but for me to be giving to her, even if I don't always feel like it, is a minimum expectation.

 

So far, having a sugar baby has been a far better deal than marriage ever was.

[M30USA]

Robert, tell me what you think about this article:

 

Single Mothers Should Be Held Accountable

[lino]

Where I live I haven't noticed men not wanting to get married. To me they look just as keen as ever.

[Misfortune]

I wonder how many would be/would want to be married if it didn't have any financial benefits.

 

I've personally given up on marriage and relationships as a whole after my barely 6 month "marriage" went south thanks to my ex"wife". I come to find out that I was just used so she can please her parents by being married and such. Less than 6 months in, she's cheating, she's gay and she wants a divorce. I've been turned off to relationships since before I even had one, this experience was the final nail in the coffin for me. I would just watch other relationships with all the lies, manipulation and what not; it's not worth it to me. You spend all of this time and effort to build a life together that crumbles and leaves you a wreck when one person decides to be selfish/ w.e. Marriage sucks even more because it's suppose to be treated with more respect than a non married relation(IMO), but it's not. Most people seem to be wiling to fight to save a non married relationship more than they would if they were married. There's no reason to be married anymore unless you want the financial benefits.

[Nikki Sahagin]

I honestly think it's silly.

My mum and dad married at 21 and are still together.

They've always given me a fine example of a marriage.

I personally don't think I want to get married, BUT that's only because I'm not sure at this age I could commit to one man.

I think it's silly when people argue about marriage like this.

Look, if two people want to marry, they can and should make it work.

If they don't want to, they shouldn't.

But marriage is a challenge and requires work for men AND women.

It's up to the couple to discuss there expectations, needs and requirements. Most people don't do this. They just marry and 'expect' it to work out.

If you expect certain things and needs from your marriage to be happy, you must communicate them, and constantly communicate them.

[serial muse]

It's probably nice for people who are not really fit to be in relationships with others, or who are not desirable as marriage partners, to claim that they're "on strike." If it helps to assuage their feelings, that's nice for them.

 

Kind of like how I'm "on strike" from eating beets.

[nerd]

There are times I want to suggest marriage and cohabiting as a purely practical measure to share insurance, split costs, have hospital visitation rights, etc. obviously would need to be someone trustworthy and have a prenup.

[Maleficent]

Get married if you want to get married.

Don't get married if you don't want to get married.

 

simple, no?

[Taramere]

Striking is all about trying to increase your power and leverage to get into a better negotiating position.

 

If the person you're trying to negotiate with doesn't want anything from you (including whatever it is you're withholding through the "strike") then what's the next step?

[carhill]

If any particular person doesn't 'want' anything from another, then any action/inaction will be superfluous, as the 'striking' person, or any person in similar circumstance, is non-existent. The old maxim, whoever cares the least has the most power and control, applies.

 

IME, as part of organized labor in my prior life in oilfield services, strikes are useless unless there is strength in numbers and potential breakers/scabs are dissuaded from crossing the picket line, sufficiently so for the employer to 'want' their workers back at work and producing revenue for the company. In interpersonal relations, such dynamics generally don't exist, so 'strikes' are little more than giving the middle finger to the opposite gender, an act which generally goes unnoticed because the person taking it is unnoticed.

 

IMO, there will never be enough men who eschew marriage and relationships to seriously even make a modicum of a dent in what the word and act of 'striking' means. Additionally, as I learned in my early years when choosing to avoid women who were clearly attached, there is always another guy with his erection running the show who had no such inhibitions. The same applies to 'strikes'. There will always be members (no pun intended) crossing the picket lines.

[2sure]

Seriously , first rule of collective bargaining :Lets not negotiate ourselves out of a job.

[carhill]

Men are too competitive to agree and cooperate on nearly anything, especially when it involves their penis. They may *appear* to cooperate but they're always angling to one-up the competition. It's in the genes.

 

More than likely a man put together the script which redirects users who click on the URL in the OP to a spam site. It's what men do.

[serial muse]

Maybe if men revolted against the bourgeois feminists (who obviously control the means of marriage), and established the dictatorship of the proletariat (angry men who feel they're not getting a fair shake), we would achieve this utopia we've been looking for since the beginning of time.

 

Terrific point. There has never been a time when bourgeois feminists didn't control marriage, clearly the one thing standing in the way of this utopia everyone's been looking for since the beginning of time.

 

Have I got that right?

 

I mean, it doesn't have much to do with historical accuracy, but you got to use the word bourgeois (albeit incorrectly). Oh, and proletariat. So that must have felt good.

[M30USA]

More than likely a man put together the script which redirects users who click on the URL in the OP to a spam site. It's what men do.

 

Actually, the URL redirects users to this site:

 

[Robert Z]

Robert, tell me what you think about this article:

 

Single Mothers Should Be Held Accountable

 

Too much on the biblical "men are supposed to be in charge" side for me. I think it is more a matter of the pendulum swinging too far and needing to swing back.

 

Let's face it. An entire generation of women were trained to be mean spirited, abusive, and condescending towards men. This contemptuous attitude has now infiltrated the media and pop culture, and relationships, to the point where men have finally had enough. Now women are finding it harder and harder to get men to commit. What a shock! They see what their fathers had and they want no part of it.

[Robert Z]

I can't help but think of how my ex wife and my meth-head brother both had the same attitude - You owe me. "You own me" were my ex's favorite words. Just like my drugged out loser brother, she had been trained to think the world owed her something because she's a woman.

[Moe'sTavern]

Remaining unmarried is now a socially viable choice for people. Nobody's on strike just because they choose not to marry.

This, pretty much.

[MrCastle]

I still don't get marriage. I completely understand love, living with a long term partner, and having children with them. Hell, I understand having a celebration of that love in the form of a large party of friends and relatives.

 

What I don't get is the legal stuff.

 

I don't get why we need a marriage license. I am her husband, she is my wife, by law. Why? Why is that needed?

 

Especially with divorce supposedly climbing. The days of people being legally married for 20, 30, 50 years, that's over. Marriage is antiquated in my opinion.

 

We're living into our 80s and beyond now.

 

There are people my age (25) or even younger!, getting hitched. I am to believe those people will be together twenty years from now? My ass. Even 45 is still young. Why go through that messiness when you can cut ties without lawyers and courts being involved.

 

No thank you.

[Robert Z]

Remaining unmarried is now a socially viable choice for people. Nobody's on strike just because they choose not to marry.

 

When was it not a socially viable option for men?

[Robert Z]

I don't get why we need a marriage license. I am her husband, she is my wife, by law. Why? Why is that needed?

 

To lock you into a legal contract of monogamy over which the woman now has complete control. That way when she decides she's done with you as a man, you are still a paycheck.