[0:00] In the past, that transaction was pretty straightforward. Men would trade security, resources, even a commitment, in order to have access to a woman's intimacy. Alright, so we're doing this again, are we? The good old days, where, according to men like this, men provided and women were grateful. Okay, so let's unpack this fairy tale, shall we? Because gratitude is not what happens when the alternative is starvation. That's not gratitude, that's coercive control. Because the arrangement that these men romanticize [0:31] was never about men's benevolence. It's about men's ownership. A system of rule where men control all the money, the property, the banks, the entire legal system, the government. And who got to pick that government? And in exchange for all of this, women got to access their own survival. And these men openly acknowledge that this historical arrangement is the one they long for. A deal that's made with a gun on the table is not a deal freely made. It's a threat. It's captivity. Now, here's where these men's argument completely collapses. They say that women have stopped being grateful, [1:01] but women didn't become entitled. Women became free. Free to own property, free to keep the wages they earned for themselves, and free to open a bank account without their husband's permission. And free to leave an abusive marriage without losing everything. Now that the coercive system they were raised in and expected to be part of no longer works, these men are angry and upset. And know exactly who is to blame. For the last 50 or 60 years, feminism and promoters of feminism have pushed women into the forefront of almost every part of our society. [1:34] This has caused women to get a sense of, um, entitlement. Yeah, the captivity wasn't the problem. It's feminism for liberating women out of it. They're angry at the entitlement of women having control over their own lives, at no longer being forced to settle for an arrangement where respect is conditional and control is absolute. And that terrifies these men who only know how to relate through dominance. Men who only understand marriage as a system by where they provide in order to rent out someone else's body. [2:06] Rather than teach themselves and other men that this is an inherently disgusting, dehumanizing, and gross way to treat other people, they would rather, with their entire chest, get on the internet and offer a full throated endorsement of this system, telling us all that if they have the choice, this is the life they would choose. For half the population, where their survival depends on how grateful they are to be offering up their bodies. And we have normalized this insanity to the point where there are a whole bunch of these men making this content and insisting that until women learn their place, [2:39] men like them are going to go their own way and refuse to date them. Oh, no. Anyway, this should be the only argument. Necessary to advocate tearing this entire system down. But the other problem with this argument is it leaves men working against their own self interest as well, which these men themselves also fully acknowledge, complaining these arrangements lack the affection and appreciation they desperately crave. And you find an average woman who's extremely grateful and shows a lot of appreciation for what you bring to the table, well, she can go from being a five or a six, [3:11] being like an 8 or a 9. You can't have a relationship that is both controlling and affectionate. If you want appreciation, then stop trying to resurrect a system built on coercion, on ensuring your relationship survives. By making it a prison, one walled off with a high financial penalty. That makes it incredibly difficult to escape from the actual solution. The part these men do not want to hear is that the true barrier to partnership, to real partnership, to the love, intimacy, companionship, and deep, meaningful connection that is absent from their lives, [3:43] is not women's entitlement, it's theirs. It's demanding obedience, control, and submission, but also respect and affection. It's treating food and shelter as giving you the right to a woman's labor and her body, and then expecting women to be falling over themselves with joy at making that bargain. It does not matter how much you long for the arrangements of the past. Loving relationships are not built on ownership. They're built on respect, companionship, [4:13] and love. Women already got the memo. They have left survival marriages behind, and men like this are struggling to play catch up and adapt. The reality is that women's liberation did not kill marriages, simply created room for marriages that are worth choosing with men who want partners, not hostages.