It's no secret that when men say stuff like "women live life on easy mode", women find that ridiculous if not straight up offensive, and that's understandable, but I wish to give a bit of perspective on where this notion comes from.

So women often bring up this constant sexualization/objectification stuff, how women are not seen as "full human beings", how there is so much emphasis on their bodies, how they can't know if friendly men have the intention of getting in their pants so they have to be on guard, and that men have no idea how all this feels. This is all fair to bring up, and I respect the fact that as a man I won't ever have the lived experience of a woman. I'm sure all of this can get very overwhelming.

Here is the thing though, I'm a gender essentialist who thinks men are innately more eager and easy. On this subreddit this is not that much of a hottake, but I'll still bring up a very simple straightforward example: the pizza delivery guy who gets greeted by an attractive, half-naked female stranger, who winks at him and invites him in. Obviously the gender-flipped version of this would almost never work. It's this lucking out, getting free sex feeling. I fully believe men aren't at "fault" for having the capacity to find that sort of stuff exciting, I myself can relate to it.

I think it would be arrogant of me to say that me being like this totally DOESN'T play into women's discomfort of feeling like they are being treated like a "prize". It does, sadly. Yes, behaviour - how men actually go about interacting with women, regardless of how men internally work - is very important and there are obviously a lot of men who are really making things worse, there is a lot of talk about that stuff, rightfully. But the thing is, women's general grievance of "constantly feeling like a prize", I still think that in a subtle way that's an inevitable by-product of how men work, including myself. It's how we are different from women. And this is why when women complain about this general, ever present feeling of theirs, it's in my opinion very hard to fully ignore that as a man who is honest with himself. "Welp, that doesn't apply to me, they are only talking about bad men". No, I would be excited to get a free blowjob for no reason whatsoever, it would be really hot, and from a female perspective, that fantasy in and of itself already feels like I'm looking at women as a "present". I can control myself obviously, and I can politely not express these kinds of feelings just randomly around women, and I'm sure that interacting with women more can "ease" this horny angst of men, but to a degree, it will always be there beneath the surface. And so I have to believe that it's not necessarily a bad thing, and that it doesn't fundamentally hurt women - in which case it can be a good thing that can benefit women.

If I see myself as a being that is more easily drawn to the other side than them to my side, and if I'm in peace with that, that means I can think of my own internal workings as something that can be fulfilling for women. If women can enjoy being with someone like me, who sees them as so beautiful and cute, then I have to believe that men seeing women as beautiful and cute can be an upside for women. I have to believe that women can benefit and get fulfilment from how I work, which is how they DON'T work. And that's what makes it a unique upside for them, one that I as a man don't have, because obviously women don't really see me as beautiful and cute in that same way.

TLDR: If men are "easier" than women and if that's innate, and if women and men can have an amazing time together despite that, then in at least one way women have it easier, because WE men are easier. If all toxicity ceased to exist and all men really learned to respectfully and fairly treat women, then it really would be an advantage to have significantly more dating opportunities, surely. And since most people probably have the natural urge to think of themselves as kinda good people deep down (even the grumpy, edgy rude men probably remember having that urge in the past), this subjective feeling of "they have it easy" can manifest from that. It's like envying your own feelings because you don't really feel them directed at you from the other side, AND you also don't think of these very feelings as innately harmful. Which is healthy! Men shouldn't hate themselves for how they are. But in a weird way that means holding onto the idea that women at least can have it easier. Because let's be real, to have a good time with others who are easily drawn to you AND respect you, that doesn't sound too bad.