Saturday, April 23, 2011

The male perspective

We hear a lot in our modern society about the plight of women and desire for equality. What we don't hear about too much is how society has been slowly changing in some areas to favor women. Preferring men to women or preferring women to men is not equality. Much of what you read coming from the modern media establishment is from a female perspective or at least unquestioning of the female perspective.

To combat this a group of men have come together and have begun producing MenZ Magazine, a digital magazine that talks about issues affecting men written from a man's perspective.

Have an open mind. Give them a read and see what you think. They are free after all.

You can go to the site (linked above) or get the first five issues here. If you want to keep reading, be sure to go to the site and keep an eye out for their next issue.

Issue 1


Issue 2


Issue 3


Issue 4


Issue 5

Friday, April 22, 2011

The married life

I was married once.

It ended in failure.

Looking back on the situation I was able to see some mistakes that I made. I'm not going to take all the blame, it wasn't all my fault, but I made mistakes and one should try and learn from them.

In the years subsequent to my failed marriage I dated now and again. Nothing too serious, but I was putting myself out there. In the times between what really were infrequent forays into the dating world I couldn't help but notice some patterns in my life that were, shall we say sub-optimal, for a dating life. I would talk with a few friends about things, we would discuss relationships and such things. I learned a lot.

I learned about how important a first impression really is.

I learned about the concept of 'game' and started to take a little more seriously the differences between men and women.

Towards the end of my time in Canada I began dating a woman who had a child. I had some reservations about this, but decided that I wasn't sufficiently popular with women to reject one on such grounds. We dated for a few months. At first she was hesitant to try a relationship with me. We talked about it and decided to give it a go. It didn't take long for me to realize that despite all the talk of equality, I was at best third in her life (her child, herself and then me). She insisted (or at least she tried to insist) that she be first in my life. I don't blame her for putting herself or her child above me. If that's what she wants then more power to her, but I wasn't getting what I wanted from the relationship and so on a long walk home one day I decided that it was best for me to end the relationship.

When I got home that day in my inbox was an email from her saying that she didn't think that the relationship was working and that it should end. I sent a short reply wishing her all the best and that was that.

I didn't whine. I didn't complain. I didn't try to convince her that she was wrong, because she wasn't. I had just resolved to end the relationship and she had just offered me a pain free way of doing just that. So my two line response was simple and polite but in the end it was easy for me.

It didn't take long for her (a week) to email me back saying that she thought that she had been hasty. That she had made a mistake and that perhaps we should give it another try. I replied that she should go with her first instinct (ending it) as that was probably best. Less than a week later she replied again saying that she knew that she had made a mistake and wanted to try again.

This was my first experience with something approaching 'game' or alpha mimicry. It was something of a revelation and it felt good.

Shortly after that I decided that I was going to move to South Korea and simply stopped trying to date women, but I never forgot how empowered I felt in ending that relationship. What was usually an awkward or painful experience was liberating and empowering.

In subsequent months and years I began looking into 'game' a bit more. Nothing too seriously but I knew that I was making mistakes and that I could improve that area of my life.

The main source of such information is a man named Roissy who runs a blog called The Citizen Renegade. He had a lot of good information but I had a hard time accepting much of what he wrote. Some of it was my own beta insecurities getting in the way, but some of it was just a real clash of mentalities between a hedonist and a Christian.

A second source of information that I found was called The Married Man Sex Life and while I wasn't married at the time, I had just begun a relationship and I found that this was more in line with my own personal views on life. It wasn't about bedding as many quality women as possible (Roissy's apparent view on life) but rather building and maintaining a quality married or at least monogamous life.

Written by a gentleman named Athol Kay (with the help and support of his wife), MMSL provided me with much of the same information that I could find on Roissy's blog, but in a manner which didn't leave me feeling like a douche bag for reading it.

One of the problems that I found though, when I started investigating the realities of the inter-gender relationship is where to start? Roissy had put out so much information I felt lost trying to find out where to begin. It was a bit the same when I began reading Athol's blog.

Luckily though Athol has solved this problem by making available his ideas and methods in a book, called The Married Man Sex Life Primer, a book that I will joyfully purchase and share with my (now) wife.

But don't take my word for it, here are a few reviews of the book:

The first from the Ruth Institute:
In sum, I am not just telling you to buy this book. I’m telling you to get it as a wedding present for the newlyweds in your life. I’m telling you to get it as a present for any of the married men in your life (including your husbands, if you are a wife).

The Ruth Institute is all in favor of lifelong married love. Well, here’s a guide for how to get it done in the modern world. Now go get it done.


The second from Gaming My Wife:
The tone of the book, like that of the blog, is perfect for reaching Athol’s target audience: regular, everyday guys. Athol never adopts an antagonistic stance towards women, even when he’s describing their worst behaviors. Likewise, he manages to describe those behaviors in non-insulting ways. The result is that its average Joe male readers don’t have to live in fear of their wives blowing a gasket over them reading it. At the same time, Athol strikes a very good balance of honesty, directness and humor without getting excessively graphic. That makes his book very accessible to the everyman who might need things really spelled out for him every now and then, but probably isn’t really looking for a porn book. This is a book that a wife could buy for her husband, a woman could buy for her brother, or a mother could buy for her son. It’s also a book that a man might buy for his father, brother, or son – or his friends. Riding that line is a difficult balancing act, but Athol has pulled it off splendidly.

It is completely fair to say that Athol’s blog has helped transform my marriage. I live too far away to realistically buy him a beer as the Man Code demands, so I’ll be blunt: I’d have spent $20 on a book of blank pages if he’d put it out with this title. In my book, he’s already earned that. But for the men who haven’t been reading his blog, this book is worth the cover price and then some. I can all but guarantee that I’ll be providing copies of it to friends at some point. Well done, Athol.


Here is a third from Alpha Game:
The Married Man Sex Life Primer is, without a doubt, one of the more eye-opening and alarmingly informative books one is ever likely to read. Athol Kay is one of the foremost theoreticians of practical Game, with a particular focus on its application to married life. His background as a male nurse is significant, not only in relation to his highly developed ability to communicate with women, but in his frighteningly clinical ability to write more freely about bodily fluids and body parts than anyone since Galen or possibly the Marquis de Sade.

[...]

The Married Man Sex Life Primer isn't merely for those who languish in miserable marriages, or even for men who are already married. As Kay states with regards to the purpose of his book, it is for both men and women who wish to improve what is, after all, the core bedrock of every marriage. I highly recommend it, albeit with the requisite warning that it is sufficiently explicit to make Japanese tentacle porn look conservative.


If you're still unsure if this is something that can help you then feel free to head over to his website where you can "read the Contents, the entire Introduction and around the first two pages of each chapter of some of the early chapters. There's an avalanche of content, so go take a peek."

Or, if like me, you can see the value and worth in owning such an invaluable collection then you can order the book from Amazon in standard paper form or ultra modern Kindle form.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Election 2011

So the Canadian political parties have decided that its time for Canadians to head to the polls to elect an new government.

Yay!

I've varied over the years in my voting. Having once voted for the now defunct Reform Party of Canada and also having voted on more than one occasion for the New Democrat Party.

The sad conclusion that I've come to concerning this present election is that no party or party leader deserves to govern Canada.

Harper and Ignatieff are morons in my opinion.

Duceppe simply can't become PM by virtue of his regional outlook and support (not that I'd ever vote for the guy).

Layton has the odd good idea, but his party's platform would ruin Canada.

The same goes for May of the Green party.

After doing some reading and watching the televised debate (English) the only thing that I can say I agreed with was the need for electoral reform.

The current system is simply unfair and it needs to be changed to grant Canadians a much more representational voice in political life.

Ontario held a referendum a few years back concerning a mixed proportional representation system.

I voted for it.

It was voted down.

The thing that I didn't understand then, and still don't understand, is why Ontarians would deny themselves political power.

A proportional representation system would end regionalism (Bloc Quebecois) and give a voice at long last for the nearly one million voters who each election vote for the Green Party, but have no voice in Parliament. Meanwhile the Bloc gains only 1.3 million votes (only 30% more) and gains more than 50 seats in Parliament. A vastly disproportionate level of power and influence given the number of voters.

It seems strange to me that Canadians are satisfied with the status quo, but I doubt it will change in my life time.

I was thinking that I would conscientiously choose not to vote, but I've been convinced that the better option is to purposefully spoil the ballot. To show the party leaders that I'm not lazy, its not that I don't want to vote but that they are all a bunch of jack asses who are unworthy of my support.

I just don't get it

I've written before concerning my political ideas and how they have changed over time. I've come to a point where I think that I would most closely identify with libertarianism but I can't say that I'm a libertarian as I don't know enough about its entire philosophy.

This is what I will say:

I believe that each individual human being should be free to live their life as they see fit, just so long as it does not infringe upon another person's ability to do the same. That that does not mean that there is no government, but I do think that empowering a government beyond the necessity of protecting this core principle leads only to harm. The more powerful the government, the more intrusive it becomes and the more power it tries to exert on the individual.

So what I can't understand is why when I try to talk about this notion of personal and individual liberty I'm looked at like I've lost my mind. Like such a notion is abominable. Those that are looked at as being sane are the ones promoting extensive governmental intervention into nearly every area of human life. That is seen as being normal; being subservient to the state.

I just don't get it.