I don’t think this is jaw dropping news for anyone. I’ve been careening down this path for years now. Maturing is realizing that men as a collective are overwhelmingly nothing more than cowardly simps. They are scared of everything- women, gay people, big cities, progress, change, just to name a few- and have a deep-rooted compliance kink. It’s why they thrive in institutions like law enforcement and the military. They love it when a big, strong daddy in uniform tells them what to do in a commanding voice.

More than anything, though, men are takers. They fancy themselves providers and the bringers of life, but in reality, their care and love are transactional and conditional. This really hit home for me when an article from 2018 started circulating on social media again. The BBC stated that, “Six in 10 kidney donors are women – but some 6 in 10 recipients are men.” I don’t know how or why this stat shocked me, but shock me it did. It was the final straw for me. The one that broke the camel’s back, as it were. Whatever shred of good will I felt toward men as a whole evaporated in that very moment. It is estimated that women make up 60%-80% of all living organ donations worldwide, while men make up the same range as recipients. It is but one more way that men benefit from a woman’s selflessness.

It is in a woman’s nature to care for and nurture those that they love. We are the bringers of life. The guardians of the children. The makers of the home. And men have spent their entire existence siphoning all of that from us and very rarely giving anything of true substance in return. The reason I know in my heart of hearts that marriage does not benefit women is because they have not yet tried to take it away from us. Want to hear how else I know? Studies show that, while women have longer life expectancies regardless, never married women live the longest, while married men tend to live 4-7 years longer than single men. Women live longer lives without men, and men live shorter lives without women. What else is one supposed to glean from that information other than men take from women and women suffer for it?

Men want to consider themselves strong and stoic, but I am telling you right now- if I found myself in some sort of danger in public, I’m looking for a strange woman before I’ll ever seek out a strange man. I know a woman is far more likely to help me and step up than a man ever will. Our so called protectors only like to “protect” in very specific situations. Their instinct is to close ranks and protect other men, without exception. They defend other men when they create rape academies. They enthusiastically support and vote for men who are rapist pedophiles. They will immediately tell you that you’re the crazy one when you mention that one of their friends was touching their own daughter inappropriately. Despite all evidence to the contrary, despite literal centuries of empirical data, their loyalty will always default to the boys’ club.

And before y’all get your damn panties in a twist, I KNOW there are both terrible women and wonderful men in the world. Because I don’t let AI think for me and have continued to hone my critical thinking skills over my lifetime, I am still wildly capable of both drilling down to specifics and broadening the conversation to generalities. This piece employs the latter. Do not make your inability to understand nuance my problem. I know good men exist. The golden retriever men, some may call them. And while I appreciate a good man as much as the next gal, a golden retriever is a still a dog. Because of the behavior of the many, I will never fully trust those few good men again. And until the “good” ones start holding the shit ones accountable, I’m not sure it matters anyway. One rotten apple spoils the whole bunch, that is the unfortunate reality.

I am done letting the patriarchy convince me that men are better at literally anything. The data simply does not support that. I am also convinced that men were jealous that women were the bearers of life so they made up Abrahamic religions to pretend man was actually the all-powerful. I am done accepting this narrative that women are hysterical and emotional and men are calm and rational when women are overwhelmingly the problem solvers while men punch holes in walls when their favorite sports team loses. How women ever let them fool us into believing we weren’t magical earth goddesses at the center of the universe is beyond me, but I see a new day forging ahead. The women are waking up and realizing that we have had the power all along, we have just been conditioned to fight against it. Some of us are further along than others, and I think that is to be expected. Our submission has been deeply and thoroughly engrained in us for generations. But I can feel the energy shifting, almost as if we’re in the throes of an extinction burst. Things will inevitably get worse before they get better, but nothing worth having ever came to anyone easily. That, at least, we can all agree on.