The State is the de facto father to these children, hitting up some chump for child support and throwing him in jail if hedoesn’t pay.

The chump could be totally unrelated to the child (see here) or a male teenager that was molested by an older woman, who can gain custody of a child and collect child support from her victim (see here for a broader background).

Oh, and if you don’t pay your alimony or if you are believed to be hiding money for alimony, you can be sentenced to years in prison by a family court judge without the benefit of a jury trial, rules of evidence, or the right to confront your accuser (see here).

Not a surprise that the situation has turned to where it has.

There is such a thing as power dynamics in relationships. The fact that bringing this up from a male perspective instantly makes people think of cracking whips and “creepiness” shows how completely unacceptable it has become for men to assert their masculinity in certain circles.

I find the complete unwillingness to engage with anything approaching intellectual honesty rather disheartening. My response would be “Some *snarky dudes* read economics blogs.”

My argument is simple and actually rather tangential to Robin’s point (which I make clear in the original post, if you take time to read it). It is this: Some men assume that to keep a relationship going, they must constantly tiptoe around on eggshells lest they disturb the queen bee; and that it doesn’t have to be this way. And that many, many (in my experience most) women and men are far happier in relationships where the power dynamic runs the other way, at least some of the time.

But getting to this point takes many men out of their comfort zone, and so they daren’t try, or they try in a very half-assed way that indeed comes across as creepy or just bizarre.

Robin’s careful editing of my words (notice there are four ellipses) is done for dramatic effect, I can only assume. And he never responded to my objection above about how he totally mischaracterized my argument.

I am dating a woman right now who wants to get pregnant and had went to a bluegrass festival to get pregnant and then raise the child herself. She also had a best friend offer her significant other as a source of sperm if she wanted a child. She didn’t, she says, because she felt her financial situation wouldn’t allow it. She doesn’t have a problem with the idea at all.

She also approached me with a similar proposition, that I would be a minority stake parent with little say or responsibility in the parenting but contribute financially.

She is a graduate degree holder, teaches at a university, and nearing forty years of age. This is not quite what Psychohistorian said, an “active dismissal” but it is decently close. I offer this anecdote for whatever value it might hold.

This, of course, is the constant position of a supplicant.

YOU HAVE COME TO A WORLD CALLED GOR *whipcrack*