The phenomenon that men are so heavily controlled by their wives or girlfriends that they seem to have no will of their own anymore is so widespread that we have a term for that in the English language. We call such men “pussy-whipped”. Language is very telling because such terms only stick because they are fitting. If this were a very uncommon phenomenon, we may have an academic term like “partner-oriented relationship style” but no colloquial expression.

Indeed, many of us know guys who used to be strong and independent, rugged individualists even, up until they found themselves a girlfriend. You and your buddies may have had a routine that consisted of taking turns hanging out at each others’ places, shooting the sh*t, having some beers, and playing couch co-op multiplayer videogames before hitting the clubs. This time, though, Neighborhood Chad can’t come. His girlfriend won’t let him. You may hardly ever see him again, in fact.

The withdrawal of men from society can also be a misguided biological response, of course. One of the reasons I think guys need to have a non-trivial amount of sexual experience before settling down is that their brain chemistry will most likely mess them up the first time a woman gets intimate with them. Sometimes guys fall in love with the most unsuitable women, and it’s because they have had little to no sexual experience. Yet, suddenly, there is a female validating their existence and they forget about everything else. These guys won’t hang out with you anymore, but it is not because their girlfriend does not let them. Instead, he is simply fully focussing on the female who descended from the Heavens. Instead of a diet consisting of porn, violent videogames, and beers, he’s now sitting on the sofa like a lapdog while his girlfriend watches romantic comedies. Such men are a rather sad sight.

The above were examples of men seemingly losing control of their independence. However, there is another aspect, which I have grown to appreciate over time. I only came across this by accident. I have to say that I used to be very blunt. Yet, as I have grown a bit more mature, I have become much more diplomatic, in particular in my professional life. (Ask my wife how surprised she was about how I talk on the phone for business meetings! She learned about this due to Covid-19-enforced work-from-home.) Instead of telling people that I don’t like something or that I disagree strongly with this or that, I take into account that I may be talking to a snowflake. You can no longer say that an approach is “obvious bullshit”. Instead, you need to tell them that they “may want to consider the following alternative”. You feel that your testosterone levels drop when you talk like this.

A related aspect of soy-boy office-conversations is that you can’t bluntly tell people “no” anymore, regardless of context. Think of invitations for lunch or some voluntary team-building activities. You need to tell a white lie nowadays. One of the most powerful ones is telling someone that you can’t do something because you have made plans with your wife or girlfriend or, for extra cuck points, that she objects to it. Let us call this the “cuck camouflage”. Now we are getting to the real meat of this article.

Surely, you have found yourself in situations in which people tried using peer pressure or shady manipulation techniques to get you to do something. For instance, assume you have a smarmy colleague who does you a few favors, like asking if you want coffee, too, if he’s about to get a cup himself. If you have spent a few years in the working world, you may have encountered that type. They are transparently insincere and you wonder when he will hit you with an unreasonable request, like asking you to lend him some money or asking if he can borrow your PlayStation. (Interestingly, I have only ever met guys using this strategy. Manipulative women tend to want the reward right now.) Those people think they have ingratiated themselves and then simply ask for a favor in return. Joe Schmoe brought you coffee twice last week, so isn’t it only fair that you should lend him your PlayStation for an indefinite amount of time? Of course it’s not. It’s complete bullshit. Those people use cheap Cialdini-style manipulation techniques, but if you tell them that your wife has lent your PlayStation to her nephew, they stop bothering you. (An even better defense is if your colleagues don’t know that you game, but video games are one of the few safe conversational topics nowadays.)

I found the cuck camouflage to most powerful whenever someone wants to sell you something. Apartment viewings are a great example. I would say that most men are “satisficers”. If you see a place that has no glaring flaws and that is good enough overall, you’re happy to sign the lease. In contrast, women tend to be a bit more ambitious in that regard and often look for the “perfect place”, whatever that may mean. Landlords and, in the case of more expensive properties, real-estate agents, know this very well. This is why, if you waver, they may point out some redeeming feature of the place they are looking to find a solvent tenant for. Sometimes, they can get a bit pesky. Yet, I have noticed that they shut up right away when you bring up your significant other. It can be the most banal of reasons, like saying that your wife likes to stretch her legs in the bathtub and the bathtub in this place isn’t long enough for that. It really doesn’t matter what you come up with. You can also say that your wife or girlfriend “didn’t like the place but couldn’t quite put her finger on it.” It’s beautiful to use the bullshit society barrages you with in other contexts for your own benefit.

Some of you guys do not have a wife or a girlfriend. This is not for a lack of trying but because you don’t want to. Yet, even if you are involuntarily celibate, you can benefit from the cuck camouflage. At work, I would just say that you have “obligations”. Yet, when shopping around for a car, or when looking for a new place to rend or buy, you will run into sleazy salesmen. It can be entertaining to engage them just so that you experience their sales pitch once. Some of those people are downright ridiculous. In any case, if you want an easy way out, bring up your girlfriend and leave it at that. Most likely, you are dealing with fake alphas who are used to getting bossed around by their women so they will quickly yield, and you have saved yourself some time. Of course, don’t become overzealous and strive to become a genuine cuck in real life. A solider may not wear army camouflage in his private life either, so make sure you don’t put on the cuck camouflage too often.

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