Where I’ve come to is: I find my female colleagues at work great. Female platonic friends can be fantastic and supportive and interesting to talk to. I value my friendships with women. Romantic relationships, on the other hand... god, I wish younger me had just stayed celibate. Marriage, supposedly a refuge from a nasty, brutal world is, in reality, the single greatest source of misery and stress in my life. I am, by nature, a generous person, and my preference would be to never tally up the ledger, but my wife’s endless demands and extraordinary capacity to shift blame when her plans or dreams go awry, make it difficult not to feel constantly taken advantage of. I’ve felt something of this in all but the most fleeting of romantic involvements, and I think it’s much more to do with the dynamic of heterosexual romance than with either me or the women I’ve been with. (I can’t really speak to homosexual romance... perhaps it’s a universal dynamic whenever sex is involved? I don’t know.) I’m rambling a bit... the upshot is this: I’m profoundly discontented in my marriage, definitely not interested in another (or dating or fucking around or any of that... I’ve had enough sex to realize that it’s all about the same and, ultimately, not all that interesting), but I’m not resentful of feminism or of women for that. I’m not a misogynist at all, unless a heterosexual man concluding that sex and romance just aren’t worth it is misogynistic. I’m left leaning. I love my community at work, and I genuinely enjoy most of my interactions with people, male or female. There are elements of this movement I feel fit my outlook perfectly. At the same time, there’s also often a tang of resentment and hatred that repulses me. I’m looking for something that leaves that baggage behind, but that also acknowledges that our cultural dynamics do hurt men in profound and different ways, and that sexuality and romance are a big part of that. And... I’m looking to feel not so terribly, terribly alone. I’m 41, and this is the first time I’m articulating this outside my own head.