For some reason YouTube shows me much more relevant videos nowadays. Perhaps this is due to the increased competition with alternative video hosting sites. Anyway, a topic that gets quite frequently commented on is that men seem less and less willing to not only marry women but to be in any kind of relationship. Conversely, plenty of women complain about men not stepping up and fulfilling their duties. There is often a sense of desperation on behalf of the women, but not so much on the male side. Slowly, it is sinking in that no knight in shining armor is going to save them.

I think the biggest issue women face is that their collective behavior has been exposed to the world. Before the Internet, a supposedly well-meaning older brother or uncle would take you aside if your girlfriend was too bitchy and tell you that not all women are like that, and that you need to man up and learn to deal with it. Real men are not quitters, and if you happen to be in an abusive relationship, it is somehow your problem. Nowadays, you go online and if you look for it, you will quickly find a vast ocean of videos showcasing the very best of female behavior, the kind of behavior that two generations ago was supposed to be rare and easy for any real man to come to grips with.

Just as men seem to be losing interest in women, so is the movie industry suffering, too. (Bear with me for a moment!) In the past, trailers were enough to get people interested in coughing up some of their hard-earned money for a movie ticket, and there was also the DVD market, with some publishers putting out movies with commentary by the director, or outtakes. It is quite incredible that people used to pay for footage that was lifted up from the cutting-room floor. This business model seems to no longer work, though. Trailers may be as good as ever but hardly any movie leaves a mark on the zeitgeist. DVD and Blu-Ray sales have been nosediving, and movies people stream online do not seem to be considered nearly as valuable.

The exposure of men to women seems to somehow mirror the movie business. In the past, the trailer was enough to get you hooked: A chick prancing around in a summer dress was all you needed to get your juices flowing, and of course your cucked friends only told you about how great their wives or girlfriends were, thus putting even more pressure on single guys to finally commit to some unhinged woman who was barely able to keep up a facade of sanity for fifteen minutes a day. Perhaps you even got to enjoy the movie version of women, i.e. a pleasant fling with some hot slut who did not overstay her welcome. In this scenario, you never go to see all the outtakes. For this, you needed to commit to a long-term relationship, and if things were not nearly as great as the trailer or the movie suggested, then society told you that this is all your problem.

Fast forwards to today, and women can no longer pull off the trailer or movie approach to reeling you in. The raw footage is out there. The outtakes that you were supposed to only ever see once you have committed to a relationship are plastered all over the Internet. In short, the mystique is gone, and plenty of men, after looking at footage of what women really are like, as opposed to the misleading trailers or movies they may have been exposed to, happily opt out.