Rejection of Traditional Relationships: A Misandrist Double Standard

A recent report from Japan has shown that relationship conventions are changing. People are marrying older than they ever were, fewer people are marrying and the birth rate is dropping. Once again it’s being held up as some sort of crisis. This has been the growing trend for many years in the west. Analysis of the Japanese “problem” focuses on the same sorts of things that commentators come up with when looking at Europe and North America.

One Day She Won’t Be There: A Poem About Divorcing as a Man

I don’t know what inspired me to write this but it’s the bitter-sweetness we go through following a separation or divorce, waking up to the realities of the finished relationship.

When Feminism Betrays Leftist Principles, it Should Be Called Out

I have felt for some time that feminism is, in many ways, the very antithesis of the leftist school of thought out of which it was supposed to have been born. By its very nature, the left is supposed to be progressive – open to new ways of thinking and doing things, and most importantly – open to all-comers. It’s supposed to listen and discuss. Yet feminism appears not to hold these liberal values as sacrosanct. If anything, many modern feminists have become everything it abhors about the conservatism against which it stands.

Bromance Blossoms When Shaming Ceases

My best friend recently told me he “loved me”. He kissed me on the cheek in front of his wife and called me “a beautiful person”. I did not feel threatened, nor did I feel the need to laugh it off with a “you’re drunk, aren’t you?” It was natural. It felt right. His girlfriend was also there so it was meant as a genuine show of affection.

Men, Depression and Anger: Be Scared *For* Not of Us

I started putting this post together just a few weeks ago but a recent post about male suicide on insideMAN about men, anxiety, depression and suicide has spurred me on to finish it off.

In the last couple of posts, I’ve discussed my increased anxiety and mood swings. The economic and political situation here in the UK has not helped but I don’t think that is a cause. It’s certainly not helped that this government is determined to flog the country to the highest bidder and destroy the NHS, but it hasn’t triggered the mood. I get anxious and depressed and express my anxiety by swearing in frustration and raising my voice. I do not and have never been violent except in my tone.

Symptoms of Depression in Men

Despite life being generally pretty good in the last year, I’ve had my low moments. I’ve had several bad days in the last month alone. The situation in our country is not helping. For those who don’t know, Theresa May’s (so far) complete fuck up of Brexit, self-serving authoritarianism and my worries about the future the country is taking – into isolationism, xenophobia and attempting to have pissing contests with other EU members are not helping my mood, this situation has not caused it.

When You Have Low Self Esteem Your Best is Never Good Enough

I used to think if I hadn’t burst a blood vessel on trying to achieve something, I failed. If I wasn’t making myself physically, mentally and emotionally ill with worry and stress, I was slacking. This is a problem when you have low self-esteem. No matter how much effort you plough into a project, no matter how hard you work, no matter what you achieve, you can never live up to your own expectations. I used to call myself a perfectionist but now I know better.