Dear Men, Women aren't your financial enemies.

Honestly, I find this article very disturbing because it takes legitimate conversations about unhealthy relationships and somehow turns them into a “women are the problem” manifesto.

Yes, women can love bomb, manipulate, breadcrumb, demand unrealistic things, or exploit men financially. Nobody is denying that. But why is the conversation always framed as though these behaviours are inherently female problems? Men can absolutely do the same things. Women are also pressured for sex as “proof of love,” manipulated emotionally, financially exploited, cheated on, or made to feel like they owe a man access to their bodies because he spends money on them. Where does that part of the conversation go?

And the idea that a woman being 24 and expecting a 27 year old man to provide some extravagant lifestyle is representative of women generally is ridiculous. If a particular woman has unrealistic expectations, leave her. You are not being held hostage. “I can’t afford the lifestyle you want” is a perfectly valid reason to walk away.

Relationships are also not supposed to be financial transactions where one person is the provider and the other person is permanently indebted to them. If both people work, they can decide together how they want to handle money. If one person wants a relationship where the man provides more, that is a preference. If another couple wants to split everything, that’s also their choice. The problem is entitlement, not women having standards.

And please, the “women’s love life ends at 27 while men’s begins at 27” argument is just bizarre. Women do not suddenly lose their value because they turned 28, and men do not magically become valuable because they crossed a particular age…People mature, develop careers, become financially stable and learn what they want at different rates. Reducing human beings to some kind of football transfer market where 18 year old women are “prospects” and men are “clubs” is totally dehumanising.

The part about women having “OPTIONS” at 18 is also conveniently ignoring what those options actually look like. A young woman having men interested in her does not mean those men are good partners, financially responsible, emotionally mature, faithful, or safe.

And the sex part is especially hypocritical. If we are going to condemn women who stay with men for money, then let’s also condemn men who spend money specifically because they expect sex in return. If a man says, “I paid for this, so you owe me sex,” that’s exploitation too. Love, sex and money should not be weapons people use to control each other.

Also, “your money is our money and my money is my money” is not some universal female doctrine. That’s an individual person’s belief. If you encounter a woman who thinks that way and you don’t agree, don’t date her. There are billions of women, as the article itself conveniently points out.

And that is actually the simplest solution to almost everything in this article: LEAVE.

If a woman is materialistic, LEAVE.

If she is manipulative, LEAVE.

If she threatens you with other men, LEAVE.

If she expects you to fund a lifestyle you cannot afford, LEAVE.

If your values don’t align, LEAVE.

Nobody is forcing you to stay.

Even women deserve the same advice when the roles are reversed. If a man demands sex as proof of love, leave. If he expects a woman to finance his entire life, leave. If he manipulates her emotionally, cheats on her, threatens her, or treats her money as his entitlement, leave.

The issue is not “women.” The issue is entitled, manipulative people, and both men and women are capable of being those people.

A relationship is not a do or die situation, and neither gender owes the other a particular lifestyle. Find someone whose expectations, values, finances and understanding of partnership align with yours. That’s literally it.

And to be honest , if your biggest lesson from relationships is that there are “many fish in the sea,” maybe stop viewing women as commodities and start viewing them as human beings you’re trying to build a mutually respectful relationship with.