Here's the thing: Mark Manson of The Subtle Art of Not Giving A Fuck fame, wrote a pickup book first. I thought very, very carefully before adding this book to the list for the simple reason of shame. Then I realised: why the fuck should I be ashamed? Because of the stigma? Fair enough. Virtually every book about this topic is filled with sexism, sleezy tactics and ascribes puffing yourself to be something you're not. The only relevant elements they convey are of evolutionary biology and aspects of hypergamy. Models is different. Whilst the function expliclity says how to attract women, it teaches you how to just be a better man.

In high school, I was a vigin, mainly by merit of feeling inferior of being the poor kid that wore donated clothes, in a school full of rich kids, plus being slightly outcasted for being the straightest A student. I turned that around in university. I became a fuckboy. It took me a long time to realize that just fucking around and being a player was a facade constructed by my inferiority complex as a result of some truly shitty teenage years – a redemption. It wasn't until I read this book in my twenties that I changed.

I realized I was hyper-anxious because of childhood trauma, that I was raised in a dysfunctional family plagued by repressed and unrepressed rage, and that my father was a brooding, depressed and broke person that couldn't teach me the basic values of being a good man. Models did a good job in turning that around. I faced the insecurities, and stopped dating for the sake of dating, and started dating for the sake of connecting with the opposite gender in a healthy way. I learned about working on myself in terms of style and honing in the importance of aesthetics which is something women do on a much greater scale and which merits our reciprocal effort, I learned the distinction between honest self-confidence as opposed to fake confidence and, most of all, I learned to be authentic and accept myself (including all the baggage from the past) and value myself and share myself with partners and potential partners.

I'm proud of who I am today, dated great women as a result of this book (and not just sexy women), and for the first time was able to hold longer-term relationships not marred by toxicity.

Feminists should encourage this book. And men should read it. No shame in reading this.