The Transformation of men's Empowerment.

Hi, my name is able.

With the ever growing number of self improvement gurus all over social media especially targeting men. There is a clear and alarming contrast between how roles for men were portrayed in the days of our fathers and grandfathers, and how they are being portrayed today. It doesn’t take a lot to tell that the future of men as a gender is uncertain at best.

The traditional role of “the man”, as defined by the baby boomer generation, was a provisional one. One had to provide value to the community that he lived in as well as provide food, shelter and education to his family. This was the age of a family being the ” ideal patriarchy”- with the eldest male being the overall head of the family as a unit. A more controversial definition was that it was a society in which men held all the power and women were largely excluded from decision making. This particular brand of administration is still present in our present day but has been fought tooth and nail by women’s rights activists, especially since we entered the 21st century. The argument being that they as well deserve to add value to the community by being a part of the decision making. Considering that women’s roles were as nurtures in society, an “ideal woman” used to be one whose life was standing in support of her husband and being a good caretaker for her family, not to mention the beauty standards that they had to meet. So you may wonder how the uprise and empowerment of women led to the rise of the brand of men empowerment that we have today.

Well, in order to answer that we would have to go back to the 2016-2018 era of the internet. In the midst of the chaotic state of gender politics with phrases like, “male privilege” and “men’s rights”, making rounds on social media.

The red pill community set its roots, with them setting up their community on reddit, where they would quote on quote "collectively bitch about women”. The community derives its name from a scene in the 1999 movie the matrix, in which Neo, the protagonist is given a choice between a red pill which would reveal the truth about the world that he lives in and a blue pill that takes him back to his nihilistic and demeaning existence. In contrast, the red pill communities revelation is that women have some what” taken control of the world” without taking responsibility for their actions.

The red pill reddit community being the heart of a network of communities called the manosphere preoccupied with men’s rights and how to pick up women.

The community itself has made some outlandish statements since its founding. Comments like, rape should be legal if done on private property, with their reasoning and justification behind this being that women fantasize about being raped by men. A sense of general loathing and bitterness towards women fills the community with many of its members sharing testimonials of being victims to rejection by women, and hence have concluded that the worthwhile solution is to vent out on this community. But a community shouldn’t be judged by its lowest moments. By giving it the benefit of the doubt and saying that this community is actually to the benefit of most men. Let's take a look at “the woman”, these men seem to loathe but at the same time want to pursue.

In this day and age, with women having more opportunities than ever. It has initiated the rise of the independent woman.

A woman of power and self-sufficiency. A woman of substance and has a path to direct contribution of “value” to the general community. The value in question that's being contributed is always on continuous debate especially with the increased monetization of women based solely on their attractiveness. This has become more and more apparent especially in the music industry, this is also the case when one considers the overwhelming growth of the adult content industry which has promised many young girls a promise of financial independence with the only contribution they have to give is their body. In scenarios where the women in question don’t fit the “requirements” ,they choose to adjust their bodies to fit what is most desirable. In contrast, men’s chances are not decreasing to a level that deserves the hatred that women have been receiving from these communities. So where did it all come from?

A clear source can not be awarded all the blame but one in particular is surely driving the flames to the point of blatant misogyny. The award for this fuel source is the toxic soup of social media and men’s self improvement gurus. To narrow the funnel a bit more, the cycle begins with the original idea of the red pill movement.

BUT, in this version, a weakness(insecurity/condition) is targeted whether it be your financial situation, dissatisfaction with yourself, sex life, your motivation, your physique etc. The formula goes that once an audience is gathered with this preset condition, a promise is made, a promise that details a world where you don't have to live with that condition, and you can only crossover to that world with their guidance but at a price. More often than not, this “value '' is being sold to you in the form of a short course or a simple step by step trick or an education site of some sort. Even though you might have never taken part in a course or joined these groups, you have surely at least seen one of these influencers in the past few months(2022). A question arises on whether these courses are scams. Well, in a scenario where the course promises a certainty of returns and doesn’t deliver then that would be a “scam”. Not all of these influencers actually promise you a dream,they promise to give you information that they think will help you on your journey, with no promise of assured success and then consequently end up being a lot less famous than those who sell the dream. All of these influencers are being put in the same boat today because of those who have chosen to defraud their followers. This has fizzled through to men’s rights activists who have endeavored to shine the light on men being victims of women empowerment, a good example was the increasing number of men being thrown into prison over having alledgedly raped women with no substantial proof, these men have suffered the loss of their reputations due to the justice system believing in the sob stories of these women without proper due diligence and investigation being done.

With the current state of men’s empowerment, the “ideal man” has become one who not only has to provide value to his community, but also has to have substantial wealth, to the tune of earning $100,000 per year, not to mention the body standards that men have to adhere to as well, without the above criteria these gurus don't consider you a man. These being the standards one is being exposed to every time that they pick up their phone, being sold onto a dream that one may never be able to achieve.

It has become rather common to find youthful men fully burnt out with the belief that they are complete failures at such a young age because of continues comparison with these “role models” of theirs, which goes on to further drive the gospels of these influencers who come in with the promise of helping these people reach their full potential and then fall further down the rabbit hole when it fails to work. This is the majority of men that we have today, whether the trend will continue this way is anyone's guess but the signs are surely alarming.