And this is where I push back because I read through your thread again. I stand by what I posted, and no, I'm not taking anything that you said out of context. You clearly don't know what is that normal men go through. Even going through grade school, normal guys don't exhibit the behavior you describe with these popular boys. Heck, I'm sure the popular girls at your school bragged about their bedroom fun (or the equivalent to it) and no one told them that it was wrong. I have no doubt politics and selfishness were involved at that school you went to. The church itself doesn't promote that kind of behavior, and that's where I'm not understanding where you're getting this idea where the church is really sitting on women about this more than men because it's clearly not doing that.
I do want to address this part.
This is why I don't go to great lengths to answer your posts. You said that this is not how guys act, but at my school, they did. As I'm writing this, I'm clearing picturing the basketball game where N, one of the most popular boys in my (Lutheran school class,) pulled out his wallet to show everyone his condom stash, because I can clearly remember that he pulled out the wrapper and it was blue.
And no, the girls at my school didn't "brag about their bedroom fun" -- because they knew they would be condemned for it. Again, as I'm writing this, I'm picturing S, one of the prettiest girls in her class, and all the other girls making fun of her because they said she dressed like a whore (skirts above the knee.)
But yet you are telling me how people act and completely invalidating my experiences, or else you seem to think I make them up. I don't know if it you grew up in anything like the conservative WELS (Wisconsin Evangelical Synod) Lutheran church, but those were my experiences.
As for your statement that I have no idea about what men go through, first of all, let me say that I am truly sorry for all the things you've gone through with women.
In fact, with nearly every guy I meet, for the first several dates, I spend nearly all my time apologizing to him for what women have done to him in the past. I've spent countless hours listening to men tell me about women rejecting them, using them as an ATM machine, blocking them from seeing their kids, and, what I think is the most personal level of all, I have held a guy's hand on numerous occasions as he told me about the sexual abuse he suffered -- from another man.
You should have seen the letters and messages I've received from guys who have gone through hell and back, starting with their childhood (growing up as victims of pedophile stepfathers,) and now they are unsure of where to begin to find wholeness. Most believed it started with finding a woman.
This is exactly why I pay for the first date, no matter who asked. I take the check before the waitress can set it down, because I don't want a man to feel that he's just going to be used. And if I plan to take a guy somewhere for a special date (usually a theme park,) I try my very best to save up and make sure I can pay for everything so all he has to do is relax and hopefully have an amazing time. I've also helped men pay for their court expenses to be able to keep their children or gain visitation rights.
With one guy I dated, I never even got to tell him that my then-husband left for another girl until after about 3 dates because the whole time, he was telling ME about all the women who have used and rejected him throughout the years -- so yes, it most CERTAINLY happens to both genders.
One of the biggest problems I've found in dating is having to work my butt off to try to prove to a guy that I'm not the 50 girls who came before me and did all the things he's telling me about now (even if the guy has never been married; and when I try to tell him about my husband rejecting me for another girl, he acts like it doesn't count or just brushes it aside.)
So if I become interested in a guy, I already know I have start "gearing up" (emotionally and financially,) because I'm expecting that it's going to take an armory for me just to be able to try knocking on the fortress door of his heart.
Maybe one of these days, I'll find one I can break through to.
And I most certainly and definitely know that women can be the exact same way -- in fact, I have often wondered if a good percentage of dating is actually trying to prove to someone that you're not all the people whom they've encountered before.
Not everyone is like this, of course. Some people have moved past their hurts, and the rarest ones of all have never been hurt.
But it only reinforces the old saying that Love is (truly) a Battlefield.