I was a groomsman in a wedding this past weekend in a wedding where virtually all of the attendees were self-identified Christians (authenticity unknown). Here are some observations for both married and single men.

Blue Alphas - Even naturally alpha guys can succumb to a blue pill ideology. Just because you are a type-A guy doesn't mean you're immune to self-defeating sexual strategies. The groom was an ideal example of this. He's generally a DNGAF, no-nonsense, does whatever he wants type of guy. But his wedding vows were full of unrealistic fantasy blah blah. I even caught him commenting "happy wife, happy life" at the reception.

Emotional Empaths - When the groom said "HW, HL," I tried to jab back, "True, but a happy husband is what makes for a happy wife." He just gave me a blank stare. The bride pretended to get it, but who knows. My wife actually backs me up on this now. She still likes the social acceptability of verbally proclaiming the HW,HL statement, but realizes that her happiness is directly related to mine. Women are empaths - they feel what others feel, especially those they're closest to. Ideally, there is no one they're closer to than their husband. If the husband is unhappy, they empathically pick this up and become unhappy as well. If he's doing well, his happiness rubs off on her.

Whipped - My best friend was at the wedding. He'd only had 2 girlfriends before and he's now 34 and engaged after a year of dating. Although he is a master at playing it cool, it's obvious that below the surface he has this "finally! I found someone!" feeling that's controlling his life. His fiance likes to travel a lot and they just announced that they plan to move to Spain for a year after the wedding.

This is pretty ridiculous, given that if he were to stay at his current employer for 2 more years he would have all of his student loans forgiven - a windfall of over $100,000. Neither of them have jobs lined up in Spain ... she just wants to go and he's going to ruin the last 8-ish years of working toward this loan forgiveness program to accommodate her whim. Don't be that guy. He's changed and is no longer the same person I once knew - at least not when she's around. When it's just us, he's back to normal, but that will obviously be much rarer now. Perhaps I should have been more intentional about red pilling him.

AWALT - I got hit on by two girls who came with dates and while my wife was leaning on my arm. With a little alcohol, there was no shame or discretion. One commented on my appearance and asked me to dance with her hand on my arm. The other actually asked me to "take a walk" around the lake with her. Their dates were good looking men, but happened to be sitting at the table eating cake instead of socializing.

Dread - Getting hit on had a noticeable impact on my wife's interest in me throughout the evening. Circumstance notwithstanding, my wife commented, "I'm really wishing we'd gotten a hotel."

Stress - At some point throughout the evening, my wife got a work e-mail that stressed her out. This pretty much ruined things for an hour. It didn't matter how great of a guy I was ... sometimes women are going to succumb to their feelings and you can't pull them out of it. Don't bother trying. Just keep having fun and invite them to join you whenever they're ready to stop being such a downer. I enjoyed myself and my wife enjoyed myself too when she was ready. Don't force it.

PDA - There were two primary crowds with virtually no one in-between: (1) those who had been married for under 5 years and had no kids; and (2) those who were married for over 10 years and have kids. The sharp contrast in levels of PDA between these two crowds was obvious. This was, no doubt, subliminal. I found myself victim to the pattern for the rehearsal/dinner and the first hour of the wedding reception, given that I wasn't planning on having sex after the wedding anyway (wouldn't really have been possible), so kino wasn't an intentional focus.

My wife noticed this distinction and it made her mad, complaining, "We'll see what they're like after having a house full of 4 kids!" My first gut reaction was to chew her out for her general aversion to sexuality and say, "It's not about who has kids and who doesn't; it's about who actually wants to have sex and those who have repressed it." I didn't - it's not often these impulses come up anymore, but when they do I've gotten pretty good at STFU. I just upped my kino game and she responded. This made our time much more enjoyable. Conclusion? It's better to be sexual rather than complain about your wife not being sexual.

I'm sure I could pull out a lot more, but that's most of it. Enjoy.