The Rational Male (edició 2013)

Tomassi makes some fair points, although I don't agree with everything he says and not much at all with the way he presents his argument. Even though he hides behind the claim that he's dishing out the unfiltered, sugar-free Cold Hard Truth, the tone at times made me question whether he was coming from a place of love and respect, or from one of bitterness. I can see why he is accused of having a chip on his shoulder towards women, though I am trying to give him the benefit of the doubt.

I'm open to the possibility that my sensibilities have been ruffled by the ugliness of the reality he describes. However, Coach [a:Corey Wayne|576172|Corey Wayne|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] makes a lot of the same arguments about the dynamics of dating but I don't get that icky, empty feeling reading his stuff as he seems to come instead from a place of love and respect for women and a desire to get the most out of our relationships in a way that is optimal for both parties.

There were quite a few poorly worded/structured sentences and paragraphs, and he overdid the 'blue pill, red pill' analogy. Sorry, but life's not that simple. People's motives, needs and emotions are far more complex than Tomassi would have us believe.

The 'in group' jargon and buzz words have a somewhat cult-like feel to them, unsurprising since his readership has mainly been the incel frequenters of niche online discussion forums. I have been increasingly convinced of this since following the author on Twitter and seeing how he and his fans/followers interact.

Tomassi has cleverly framed it so that anyone who dares question, challenge or oppose his theory is simply not 'red-pilled' enough by default. He has framed it so that those who don't buy into it are the 'brainwashed' chumps, too weak and beta to see or accept the 'truth'- his version of it. There is something manipulative and dishonest about that.

This is a guy trying to pull off Alpha, but he's not fooling me. Probably one of the worst books I've read recently. ( )

If you are interested in this book, you are probably a man who has taken the metaphorical "red pill" - that is to say, you are questioning the values and assumptions, particularly about sex and gender, that have no doubt guided you to some disastrous point in your life and relationships - and are looking to deepen your knowledge about what to do at this point in your personal crisis. The good news is that this book will be a great help to you.

I have now read a number of books on this topic, and this is one of the few that is worth reading (I hate the self-help genre, so any book of this kind that I don't throw down in disgust must be doing something right). Its greatest strength is the mindset of the author: Tomassi is direct, practical, honest, and you never feel as though his ideas are just a way of selling you some sleazy product or "secret" formula. The best insights he has come from a) his understanding that human desire, both male and female, is inherently paradoxical, a topic that often requires him to strip away the misdirections and social conditioning that conceal that paradox and b) his emphasis on practical, rational strategies for self-improvement. I don't agree with everything he says, but "red pill" newbies will be dazzled by the various pearls of wisdom on offer here.

I do, however, have some caveats and qualifications.

First, be aware that this is not really a "book": Tomassi writes a popular and long-running blog, and much of the content for this "book" is recycled, verbatim, from his online posts. While there has been some (minor) attempt to organize this material into a coherent text, it still reads very much like a collection of blog posts that have been loosely sewn together. In my opinion they should have been a bit more honest and marketed/presented it as such.

Second, although Tomassi mentions talking to his editor at one point, and in another chapter weeds out one woman as being unsuitable for attraction due to her atrocious writing skills, his own book is riddled with basic writing mistakes. Tomassi doesn't know the difference between "compliment" and "complement" (he always uses the latter, while meaning the former), for example, and the book contains a litany of errors in which "who's" and "whose," "your" and "you're," "its" and "it's" errors sit alongside run-on sentences and various malapropisms. A few errors might be understandable, but the cumulative effect of so much bad writing really drags down the effect of the book. Maybe it's time to make that editor do some work.

Third, will authors in this genre PLEASE rely on something other than just simplistic evolutionary psychology to explain human sexual behavior?! It is such flawed assumption that cultural and social structures don't have a powerful influence on human behavior as well. Just look at Tomassi's constant references to the SMV (Sexual Market Value) of men and women, an idea that, while building on evolutionary competitiveness, is also clearly shaped by the rise of capitalism, a social condition that is historical rather than natural. The prehistoric analogies in the book are, as a result, laughable: "The earliest form of proto-Game would’ve been a sexual quid pro quo. Can’t figure out how to seduce that hot, hunter-gatherer woman in the tribe? Save her ass from being torn limb from limb by a saber tooth tiger and she’ll reciprocate her gratitude with open legs." (p.183). Nonsense. Tribal sexual structures were rigid and involuntary, meaning that men and women rarely had the ability to choose whom they married or had sex with, a condition that defines much of human history. What has changed since the 1600s is a sexual revolution, described brilliantly in Faramerz Dabhoila's The Origins of Sex, which traces how modern society has been revolutionized from a culture of necessity to the one of choice that has come to define modern Game.

To sum up, then, this "book"/collection of blog posts is a great source if you are looking for practical ways to improve yourself and learn some strategies for improving your relationships with women. You should read it alongside other classics as Neil Strauss's cautionary memoir The Game, Mystery's practical guide to picking up women, The Mystery Method, Robert Glover's No More Mr Nice Guy, and Robert Greene's The Art of Seduction. It is a book to make you a more rational male - although a truly rational male would surely next dig into some social history, particularly with regard to sexuality, and learn the basics of spelling and punctuation (all while spinning some "plates," of course). ( )