Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Men, Where Have You Gone? Please Come Back. {Women wondering about the lack of real men}
New York times ^ | 20yh June 2025 | Rachel Drucker

Posted on 06/22/2025 2:02:49 AM PDT by Cronos

We have moved into an era where many men no longer seek women to impress other men or to connect across difference. They perform elsewhere. Alone. They’ve filtered us out.

I recently experienced a flicker of possibility. With James. We met on Raya, the dating app. There was something mutual from the start — wordplay, emotional precision, a tone that felt attuned. It was brief, but it caught light. I remember saying to him, “Even fleeting connections matter, when they’re mutual and lit from the inside.” I meant it.

There was just enough spark to wonder what might unfold. Enough curiosity to imagine a doorway. But he didn’t step through it. Not with a plan. Not with presence. He hovered — flirting, retreating, offering warmth but no direction.

Sexual tension and a spark aren’t reason enough to sit still and hope there’s substance behind the shimmer. So I named what I felt. I texted him clearly, with care, not simply to declare attraction but to extend a real invitation to explore what was possible. I didn’t chase. I invited, leaving the door open. If he ever wanted to cross the threshold — not just to take, but to meet — I was willing. I wanted. I still do.

He never replied. He still follows my Instagram stories — one of those small gestures of passive engagement that so many of us now mistake for closeness. It looks like interest. It feels like silence.

There are thousands of Jameses. I have known dozens. The arc varies, but the undertow is familiar.

...here’s what’s real: We never needed you to be perfect. We needed you to be with us. Not above. Not muted. Not masked. Just with.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: dating; manosphere; men; mgtow; pua; redpill; triggerwarning; women
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 301-320 next last
To: Cronos
There was something mutual from the start — wordplay, emotional precision, a tone that felt attuned. It was brief, but it caught light. I remember saying to him, “Even fleeting connections matter, when they’re mutual and lit from the inside.” I meant it.

Utterance of those sentences alone make her undatable. Yikes.

21 posted on 06/22/2025 3:19:55 AM PDT by KevinB (I don’t really care, Margaret.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cronos

I am beginning to think being 100% invisible to women all my life has become a blessing in disguise.


22 posted on 06/22/2025 3:20:57 AM PDT by MachIV
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cronos

I stopped reading at the second paragraph. As I’m sure many others did.

She’s insufferable.


23 posted on 06/22/2025 3:22:08 AM PDT by Justa (Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: af_vet_1981

Ease up on the cut and paste buddy. You took my comment out of context.

CC


24 posted on 06/22/2025 3:22:54 AM PDT by Celtic Conservative (Pedisequus parasiticus es popularium!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: Cronos

American culture is rotten and broke. Yes, porn is part of that collapse but there is far more to it than that. There has been a war on men and boys, right from kindergarten onward. They have tried to eradicate masculinity and make men second class citizens, praising women and condemning men.

You reap what you sow. American society is broken. The culture is poisoned. What did they think would happen when they screwed around with God’s natural system that had worked for thousands of years?

I hate liberals and the left with a burning passion. Everything they touch today is destroyed.


25 posted on 06/22/2025 3:24:19 AM PDT by Freedom_Is_Not_Free (America -- July 4, 1776 to November 3, 2020 -- R.I.P.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cronos

She is soooo past her sell by date and so stupid she can’t do the math of birth rate and demograhics by race in the US for the last half century. Any man in her pool has been there, done that, been taken and ain’t riding that horse again.


26 posted on 06/22/2025 3:34:28 AM PDT by Badboo (A fascist is the one who wants to take your guns. That's how it always starts.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cronos
BTW, something that was behind the paywall:

"I'm 54".

There's your problem honey. By that age men are generally looooooong past having any romantic interest in you if you haven't been in a relationship with them for decades. You needed to get serious about finding a good man who was a match for you in the 1990s. When I say a match for you, if you're a 5 you probably needed to be looking at the men who were 5s and 6s. You'd have been very lucky indeed to get a 7...its tough to get someone two rungs above you on the ladder - let's be honest. The problem is that far too many women look at men and say nothing less than an 8 (ie the top 20%) is acceptable to them.....until they're older and no longer have much value in the dating market as a result and have FINALLY started acting reasonable wrt the level of men they're willing to be in a relationship with - by which point of course, its too late.

27 posted on 06/22/2025 3:36:41 AM PDT by FLT-bird
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cronos
"The article bemoans the loss of men to porn."

The author of the article is just plain bemoaning. She doesn't seem like the type to initiate. She may know what she wants but she doesn't know how to go about getting it.
28 posted on 06/22/2025 3:38:39 AM PDT by equaviator (Nobody's perfect. That's why they put pencils on erasers!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cronos
porn is the reason for men leaving women

i have to ask, if men left women, what are they watching?

its not that men left women, its that women are empowered, women never mature past age 15, they put a much higher price tag on flash and looks than personality. They chase after good looking guys until they are worn out and realize they no longer are worth much and then start looking for a man to settle down.

the old fashioned way was to get married before and guy is firmly established, you both work on a life together, chase dreams you both have and have kids.

Porn replaced the dreams of good men because women traded mens dreams for divorce which can destroy a man's life.

So, for men, its watch porn, or chase a woman who's eventually going to break you?

29 posted on 06/22/2025 3:42:04 AM PDT by Ikeon (5,365 times,I've already told ya. YOU CAN'T FIX STUPID)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: GenXPolymath

Porn is an effect of the WMV.


30 posted on 06/22/2025 3:42:04 AM PDT by arthurus (| covfefe |_)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Blueflag

Misogynists.


31 posted on 06/22/2025 3:46:40 AM PDT by arthurus (| covfefe |_l)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: Cronos
So I named what I felt. I texted him clearly, with care, not simply to declare attraction but to extend a real invitation to explore what was possible. I didn’t chase. I invited, leaving the door open.

That's probably where she blew it. Any outreach like that is seen as "chasing," and with this negotiating-a-business-merger language, it's really not appealing.

32 posted on 06/22/2025 3:56:33 AM PDT by A_perfect_lady (The greatest wealth is to live content with little. -Plato)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cronos

“Wait! Come back! We’re not done belittling and emasculating you yet!”

MGTOW. “Got yer back, Jack...dem b$tches be crazy!”


33 posted on 06/22/2025 3:57:15 AM PDT by Adder (End fascism...defeat all Democrats.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cronos

Thanks ‘Eve’


34 posted on 06/22/2025 4:02:40 AM PDT by Big Red Badger (ALL Things Will be Revealed !)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cronos
We never needed you to be perfect.

Yes you did. We had to be over 6 feet and have a 6 figure income, always there to meet your needs and you never cared about ours.
Feminism set out to destroy men. It worked. Unfortunately it destroyed women also.

35 posted on 06/22/2025 4:03:49 AM PDT by BitWielder1 (I'd rather have Unequal Wealth than Equal Poverty.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Ikeon
They chase after good looking guys until they are worn out and realize they no longer are worth much and then start looking for a man to settle down.

There's a flip side to that. A lot of men do the same thing. They're "players" all their lives, and then in their 40s or 50s they have a health scare and decide it's time to find a woman who will take care of them as they decline. I stumbled on the term "Hospice Wife" on YouTube and fell down a whole rabbit hole.

A lot of people are just not mature enough until it's too late.

36 posted on 06/22/2025 4:05:14 AM PDT by A_perfect_lady (The greatest wealth is to live content with little. -Plato)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: Cronos

Just a suggestion: stop being a competitor or opponent, try being a teammate.


37 posted on 06/22/2025 4:08:27 AM PDT by Texas Eagle ("Throw me to the wolves and I'll return leading the pack"- Donald J. Trump)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Blueflag

Imagine a woman on a date who says “Even fleeting connections matter, when they’re mutual and lit from the inside.”

I know I what I would do.

Run.

(She is saying her body count is off the charts.)


38 posted on 06/22/2025 4:10:08 AM PDT by cgbg (It was not us. It was them--all along.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: FLT-bird

“The prospect of being with a woman who no longer has a single ay of her youth to offer, who’s been around the block too many times chasing elite men who are out of her league, who turned down average or even above average men until that point and who he has to know doesn’t really want to be with him but is now desperate and thinks she’s settling is not very appealing.”

Always love the “not willing to settle” line. Hey ladies, believe it or not, most men are “settling” with the women they end up with.


39 posted on 06/22/2025 4:10:39 AM PDT by utax
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Cronos
Marxist/feminist indoctrination has identified real men in the U.S. as the enemy. They are the "oppressor" (particularly "white" men).

Even women who haven't been indoctrinated are influenced by what they see on TV, in the movies, and in the media. And what they see has been incredibly—if not totally—influenced by Leftists.

This view that men are oppressors has altered the interplay dynamic between men and women. Real men won't go where they're not wanted.

As an aside, years ago, a female friend arranged for me to have a coffee "date" with a gal. We met at a diner (this was NYC). I had barely taken a sip of my coffee before she started in about how disgusting and untrustworthy men are. Without saying a word, I got up, put $5 on the table, walked out the door, and hailed a cab.

Until that event, I naively thought that most women actually liked men. After that, I started to notice that many women see real men (i.e. not Caspar Milquetoast) purely as a means to an end. They might put up with us until they get what they want, but they don't want us.

40 posted on 06/22/2025 4:12:17 AM PDT by RoosterRedux ("There's nothing so inert as a closed mind" )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 301-320 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson