We've all seen downtrodden married men with their thousand yard stares, pushing the stroller along...with his happy, smug, overweight wife strolling along jabbering on about nothing. The misery and pain in his eyes is unmistakable.

We've also seen the husbands who try desperately to use humor to cover up the reality of their lot, i.e., "I can do whatever I want, because my wife says so, HaHaHa!" Ahhh, yes, the pathetic and completely dysfunctional defense mechanisms of humor and denial...(if I make fun of it, it's not THAT BAD.) Sorry pal, it IS THAT BAD, and YOU KNOW IT.

At least the first two men above--on varying levels--recognize the reality of their situation and are somewhat resigned to their lot. But make no mistake, they both know they're fucked.

The third type of married men are so royally full of shit, it never ceases to amaze me when I see them.

These are the men who actually try to put out there that THEY'RE ACTUALLY IN CONTROL. Not just in control of themselves, but in control of their marriages...

You've seen them. Over-the-top, macho, blustering, puffed-chested alfa wannabies, strutting around barking orders telling tall tales of kicking-ass in every facet of their lives...spewing out and acting out every verbal and behavioral cliche' they can to convince the world THEY'RE RUNNING THE SHOW.

We've all heard them.

"Yep, I'm king of the castle," "what I say, goes," "I call the shots around here!"

Bullshit.

To me, these guys are even more pathetic than the first two. He knows what's really going on deep-down. He knows he's fucked, but puts on a stupid charade that IMO, just makes him look more fucking lame than men who--in varying degrees--outwardly admit their shitty, dysfunctional "no way out" situation.

Bottom line is EVERY MARRIED MAN will face the inevitable, irrefutable horror of their situation...Sometimes sooner, sometimes later. Maybe he's having that first, serious heated argument with his historically passive wife, who, out of nowhere, digs her heals in and says "NO, this is what I WANT!"

Stunned, as if slapped, he, like every other married man, has been struck by that first (of many) hurled brick of reality, stoving in his skull.

With cold realization, he senses the very real gravity of the situation, and it isn't fucking pretty. With butt-puckering, ball-shrinking contemplation, he asks himself what he NOW KNOWS he should've asked himself BEFORE he threw himself under the bus of marriage in the first fucking place:

"What if she doesn't back down?"

With dumbfounded awe, he realizes his valid references to logic, facts and rationality are completely foreign to this creature and are a complete waste of time. It doesn't matter whether she realizes the legal upper-hand she has in the situation at all, because he knows the score. Legally, she's got him by the balls.

Horrifying visions of standing in front of a judge, losing his hard-earned assets, gutted standard of living and psychological pain flood his psyche, all culminating in one, terrible, sobering thought.

"What have I done?"

So, what does he do?

He backs down. He takes the first of many, many steps down a path that continually degrade the very qualities that made him a man. He hangs his head and resigns himself to the situation. He begins making decisions he never would have, behaving in ways he never would have and tolerates behaviors he never would have.

Maybe he tries to cope by just hunkering down and surviving the best he can, not necessarily hiding his pain, but not showing it either, just trudging along trying "to make the best of it."

Or, he plays "the clown," trying to make humor out the situation, believing, erroneously, that humor will be the salve that soothes the wound, while secretly he's rotting on the inside with anger and frustration.

Or, worst of all, maybe he tries to completely hide behind a fabricated, pathetic, exhausting, unreal persona of control, a persona that's completely disconnected from reality, put in place to convince the world that he's not completely fucked.

Truly, men were not supposed to live like this.

There is a better, yet, more difficult path.

MGTOW teaches men to never waver from utilizing the very traits and qualities that make us "good" men in the first place.

MGTOW teaches us that utilizing unwavering logic, intelligence and integrity will help us AVOID TOXIC SITUATIONS, TOXIC CHOICES, TOXIC PEOPLE and other TOXIC ENVIRONMENTS such as marriage, even when faced with the possibility of being unjustly questioned and/or viewed with suspicion by the larger group.

MGTOW teaches us the "healthiest" path is not the easiest or most popular, but nevertheless, it's the only path men should take.

"I live life on my own terms, and answer to no one." Steve McQueen