When I wrote for men in 2018 the act of doing so seemed controversial; the idea of promoting a group of people so not in control of their mind and emotions seemed insane to some people.

That's why I started the BRO community, to give men a space to have fun, share and grow -- we aren't the animals that we are portrayed to be, despite public consensus.

2016-2020 perhaps saw some of the most radically prejudiced things said about men in media and there was no real pushback of opposition. They had free reign to say what they wanted to, and cared not about how they acted.

It's the main reason why our community was born.

I don't think men should be talked about or treated in that fashion; I've always thought men and women compliment each other rather than compete or are in opposition with one another.

We are the Yin to their Yang, the male to the female, the light to the dark.

In the years afterwards we saw a creeping rise in male pushback. Popular influencers such as Fresh and Fit, Pearl Davies, The whatever podcast to name a few.

This gave men a somewhat voice amongst the screaming echoes of feminism that had been enveloping every fibre of our being for the last 8 years. A glimmer of light in the long dark tunnel of despair.

These influencers shone light on the every day struggle of man, gave tips on how to navigate through the craziness, and educated men on how the world was changing.

Some of them even gave a cursory nod to the female struggle as well by noting that it's not a one sided life, and that both genders really have to try hard to make it in this world.

That's around the time that Andrew Tate rose to fame and with it won the hearts and minds of many young boys. Young men that had no dad at home and needed the encouragement to get fit and level up in life, because no-one else will do it for you.

I grew up with no dad in the house. Yes, I had men around me but dad is really truly the only one that you look up to, aspire to be, want to be that person.

My dad was travelling the world and yes, he did have a woman in every port -- I am a child of a man that really was living the lifestyle that feminists portray men to be like. Never settled for long and was always cheating.

Feminism was appealing to me in the beginning; it was like a way for men to come together and explore the softer side of themselves in an area where they didn't need to "toughen up" -- this to me seemed like a no brainer.

That was before it began to get all authoritarian.

I've always viewed life like there's options. You can take them, or not take them but the choice is ultimately yours as long as you aren't hurting everyone

When people started telling men how men should be and act, that's when I realistically faded to black on the subject.

Sure, men really need to explore their softer side. There is in fact a wide array of things you can discover about yourself by exploring the softer side of nature.

Self reflection, meditation, inner discovery, caring, being a parent, empathy -- these are traits typically assigned to the feminine, but are actually highly useful in the male psyche.

It opens up doors to yourself you previously thought not possible, and you can find a side of yourself that builds on your nature rather than hinders it.

Yet that doesn't mean to say that we need to completely abandon the masculine.

There's a reason why the "stiff upper lip" and "pull your big boy pants up and man up" are a thing. Sometimes we really need to do just that, because there comes a point in men's lives that we begin to realise that no-one is coming to save us.

No-one.

Men are judged on their ability to produce. If they don't produce then they are seen as useless and are rated way down the hierarchy role.

This is not something that was integrated into society; it is actually by design. It's mother nature.

When we were cavemen if we couldn't hunt and protect our families we would die, if a wild animal or an enemy tribe didn't get us first.

You could argue that we have evolved since then but we have not, we have only evolved to change the way in which we produce -- men go out and work is a replacement for men go out and hunt.

In some countries if men don't go out and work they wither and die.

My wife when she met me -- she quit working. She knew she wanted to be a stay at home mother and raise our child and I went out and worked.

That's not to say that women don't have it hard of course, one could say they have it harder than what we have it as men.

We are judged on our ability to produce, level up, get better at our jobs and earn more money, but because men are highly visual then women are judged on their appearance and beauty.

If you delve deeper into what a man really wants, then he is a very visual, which in turn makes women care a lot more about their appearance than men do -- and one could argue that it's a lot harder to change your appearance than it is your job.

This is why I say balance is key.

Life is not one size fits all. It takes many to make a community. Everyone has it harder and easier than you in different aspects of life.

That is why I have stopped watching the influencers for men recently. It seems once an influencer gets to a certain level they start talking insanity.

Like Fresh and Fit for example who used to help men get back on the train to life now tell us that men can sleep with as much women as they want and not be affected by it.

Body count for men doesn't matter.

But again, they are young men themselves, have never been married before, or have never met the right person that has them in a hypnotic trance.

But it does seem that way. Feminism started off really well, throwing in some decent points about men with the attitude of live and let live.

As did this whole men thing on YouTube; they started off with some great points, helping men along the way who have had troubles with claiming their masculine side.

But then they all just seem to go too far. It's like the slippery slope is real.

You have Feminism telling us that all men are rapists, and the manosphere telling us that men can sleep with as many women they want.

It's like there is no middle ground and no-one talks about the nuances between both.

I bet if I was to talk about it on YouTube it would not get many views because people are geared towards the sensational.

I actually remember when YouTubers began to create drama out of nowhere because it upped their view counts.

The good thing is I do feel that people are getting burned out and are turning towards more authentic and well meaning content. I do see a trend there.

Content that doesn't explicitly take an extreme position and warns you about the dangers of both. I see we are slowly headed in that direction.

And that, my dear friend, is why I'm building now!

Because this will be the future.

And we will be here to claim it in all it's glory.