I finished His Side by Helen Smith.
It's a bunch of interviews of men regarding the feminization of society, the hopelessness of online dating, the guilty-of-being-a-man status that men are broad-brushed with today, and why so many men are retreating from the dating and marriage game altogether.
It didn't do a lot of value-judging. She let's men speak for themselves, for good or ill, and asks how to move forward in light of western trends to value all things feminine while degrading, dismissing, or ignoring the needs/wants/desires of men.
Many of the men speak candidly of why videos games, on-line gambling, and other such diversions and outlets are outweighing the reasons to try to participate in a game rigged against regular guys getting out there and trying to meet women. It seems the dating game online is a disaster for most regular guys. But sometimes, she suggests the real world isn't far behind. These men despair that they are trying to breach an ever-growing ego-castle of self-delusion that girls and women are taught from a young age by the media, academia, entertainment, and a hundred different outlets, and how it feels hopeless to young men out there. Every woman is told she's a princess, a slay-queen, or a 8-10 "catch", even when reality doesn't match up. The men are starting to say "why bother?" and booting up the X-box.
The 6-6-6 rule (6 figure income, 6 feet tall, and 6 pack abs [or the "other" thing]) is frequently referenced as a minimum standard for women these days. According to Smith, there's only a very small percentage of men who meet this standard, and they are all fought over by the "high value" women out there. This leaves normal guys discouraged and hopeless.
In the older days, church, school, and work were where men could meet and date women. Now, according to the men interviewed, church is falling out, work means possible harassment charges, and school is worse, with college being filled with feminine emphasis on everything and all the professors being in the bag for only one side of the political spectrum (cough*cough).
It was very interesting to see how she approached this bugeoning dilemma. I'd be interested to see what men and/or today's women think about what the book uncovers.
I'd recommend it.
