I've been reading and thinking a lot about the MGTOW concept, and although I've never been one to label myself, I see I have parallel values with the whole MGTOW movement. I noticed a early on in my life that it seems most of the expectations placed on me as a man growing up by my community and family were for the purpose of one day supporting a wife with a middle class dream. My culture bred me to one day be the best possible provider for some yet unknown woman to live out her middle class suburban dreams. I always wanted to pursue music, but my family wouldn't hear it. Upon reaching college age, I was pressured with no choice to say 'no' into engineering school. The expectation created for me long before I was born was that I would one day be an engineer with a stable, secure career and best be in a position to support a family in the suburbs. It does seem rather traditional, but that's the culture I came from. Once I was off at college and finally away from the clutches of my domineering culture, I raised my voice for the first time in my life and said "NO! I will actually live my life the way I choose to live it!" This eventually turned out to be the first step in rebellion torwards a jail break...it was a significant growth in the right direction, but deep down inside, I was still trapped by the chains of the "man as an expendable tool to be sacrifice in the name of women" culture I grew up in. After college, I began working in neuroscience research. By many standards, I attained the very rare "legit bachelors level research job". However, I realized that the path to my own personal actualization and fulfillment was through more 'bohemian' and independent means. Upon seeing me put in a resignation from my secure, niche job with a whole line of people just waiting to take my position, the society that raised me absolutely freaked out on me...how was I suppose to impress and take girls out to be wined and dined if I didn't have a job? And to be quite honest, at this point, I just don't care. I had a high social status job with a secure salary, an apartment in NYC, and plenty to impress certain types of women with, but you know what? I found myself barely being able to put full effort into my art/music explorations. I found myself so exhausted all the time that I couldn't think, imagine, and reflect on the true things in life that made me happy. Even when I had the chance to pursue emotionally authentic, true human relatoinships with girls, I was just so exhausted and out of touch with myself that I could barely emotionally connect. I was making errors in authentic emotional connection that I hadn't made since my dark ages of being a socially awkward teenager. I had the ultimate millennial yuppie life that Elite Daily or the vast majority of my university peers (I went to an Ivy League school) would get euphoric over, but I was absolutely existentially dying inside and making errors all over the place in regards to what I truly value. I've reached in a point in my life now where I just do not care anymore. I have lived enough of the sought after New York City young professional Ivy League grad life to see that it just completely does not satisfy my own ideals and personal missions. If anything, it makes you a viable "prospect" for certain types of women, whom quite frankly, are not the type of women I have any interest in whatsoever. Also, at this point in my life, I have experienced enough girlfriends and deep authentic emotional connections that I just do not care about impressing anymore. Adding to that, it seems so obvious to me now that so many social expectations on men are in the name of martyrdom in the name of women, and even then, many women are conditioned to expect this. I don't feel bitter about women, and I love being in relationships. However, for me to be interested in creating a connection with a particular woman, she and the situation must be compatible with my own personal missions and values in life. If I can totally do my thing, and she is fine with that, then cool. Even better, if I can totally do my thing in life, and a woman finds that super hot, then well, that's what I consider the grand karma of MGTOW...by men finally deciding to break away from the chains of societal expectation and become truly fully actualized and formed people, they become far more magnetic and attractive than any providing martyr could ever hope to be. If I find a woman who is totally all over what I'm doing, well, let's just say that's what I'm talking about! In summary, although I never really have identified myself as a MGTOW, upon analysis, I think it's pretty clear I have values and personal beliefs in sync with those of the MGTOW. Maybe despite my lack of self identifying, I represent a personal brand of MGTOW? Maybe anybody here is on the same wavelength as me? I'd imagine as MGTOW, the whole point is that we each find our own path MGTOW higher ground.