By tolerating zero BS right from the beginning of the relationship, and in turn not giving her any. Too many men will put up with any amount of verbal abuse and power trips from a woman they find physically attractive - will even marry her, knowing what kind of personality she has. Equality for women comes with a price many children of feminist mothers seem totally unwilling to pay: equality of responsibility to be a good, rational, loving, self-actualized human being. The ego-tripping, manipulative, spoiled brat tactics a girl learns while dating in high school work so well into adulthood (and the men never object) that they see no reason to give them up. Men have to make them grow up by refusing to accept such behavior right from the start. One bratty temper tantrum and it's out the door, girlfriend!
Unfortunately, since so many men are also perpetual adolescents these days, neither sex is putting any real pressure on the other to grow up. High school now ends at age 40. Reproductively, this trend doesn't necessarily hurt men's lives...but it ruins women's.
Yes, it's hard work. It's a lot easier for a woman to sit back and be worshipped for her beauty - and there are all too many men willing to do that. It's a lot easier for a man to just do that, rationalizing that tribute due her in return for sex. But if both the man and woman can take responsibility to continually improve themselves, and make a serious effort to love each other unconditionally, with no games tolerated, the toothpaste eventually will go back into the tube by itself. Even feminist-minded women will find the real equality they wanted, not the perverse situation prevailing today where the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction: women gave gained freedom and independence while retaining all of the manipulative tools and behaviors they used to gain some measure of independence under the "old regime".
Ultimately, the individual has to make good choices for himself or herself and not worry about the state of society. The society will always seem to be in a crisis - that's the way society works. Find an individual whom you can trust not to hurt you and who will keep his or her promises. These days, it may be a long search. ;)
Those are heroic thoughts, indeed. But unfortunately, what we are witnessing is not misbehavior of females who have been improperly raised and inadequately counselled.
What we have unleashed is all of the destructive traits of the female, which in fact are buried deeply within her genes, and which are the product of her evolution as the weaker sex in need of sustenance and protection. We cannot "unprogram" the female as she has been hot-wired for myopic destruction.
The only answer is to put the clamps back on before total destruction overwhelms us.
DA740
Very true. Many men tend to think that standing up to their women will alienate them.
Sometimes it may. The truth is that a real woman will have much more respect for a man who doesn't take her crap. Ultimately, while that may not be the man she wants, she knows it's the man she needs.
And of course, that's not a license for men to pile their crap on their poor companion, as you note.
It's not rocket science, even though too many men and women make it out to be.