It's an epidemic. In my group of male friends, no one's meeting any girls. Phrases such as "she's out of my league," "I don't deserve her" and "just want to stay home tonight" have become a recurring part of my friends' dialogue, with the worst one, "I've no confidence," creeping into regular conversation. No one's taking any risks and no one's having any f**king fun. There's no guy-gossip about who met who and who's having fun with who. I fear the worst.

     Whatever happened to the enterprising, struggling spirit of young men determined to head out there and meet kindred female souls? It's been squashed on the ground like some passing bug. And I'm tired of hearing the same excuses and moans from my single friends time after time. Here we are in our twenties, ready for action but there's no action to be had. We're sitting on the sidelines watching others play the game. This benchwarming is making my ass itch.

     Take this example. A good friend of mine--let's call him Will--calls me to talk about his current range of love interests. He's enamored with a girl he's been sitting next to in one of his college classes for the past three months. But, fastidious ailment of modern love, the girl in question--let's call her Pill (why not?)--won't become involved with him since she was in a long term abusive relationship. And guess what? She happens to think now all men are scum. One poor excuse for a man ruins a great girl for the rest of her life. Go Figure.

     But that's not the point. Will has another girl he's also interested in, this one happens to be "too beautiful for him" and works at a local department store. The girl has demonstrated some interest in him, however faint, but Will won't ask her out because he "has no confidence" due to the girl's beauty. I advised Will to ask this girl out since Pill won't likely go out with him due to her issues with men. Still, Will insists going to ask this other girl out is a losing proposition. I proposed to go with him to the store and help him get out the words. He didn't called a few days later so I don't know what turned out. Though, I suspect he didn't ask the girl out after all. Scared of Girls.

     What is it about today's girls that just freeze nice guys to the spot where they stand whenever we see them. What is it about a girl's face? or her body? or the clothes that she wears? that makes us cringe. We want them yet we can't make a f**king move to attain them.

     Brothers, we've got to get off this rut. They're just girls. Human beings like ourselves. Flesh and Blood like ourselves. Why must we walk around thinking that a girl's unnaproachable because of her face, or her eyes, or her figure. Would you be scared of a life-size female robot with similar features? If no, why be so scared of that chica you've just seen at the coffee shop or record shop. To think about it, the robot will be scary since it could smash you to bits, but nevertheless--we, men, are horrified of rejection. Rejection to men, it seems, it's worse than a chainsaw-wielding serial killer. And women seem to be dishing rejection these days like it's going out of style.

     Issues like these go deeper. Women (and men) standards as to who's "f**kable" have gone into the stratosphere. Add to that the clothes they wear (Goddamn you, Contempo Casuals), the male types they look up to (Burn in Hell all of The Backstreet Boys and 'NSync). Top that off with their expectations (If you don't drive a Dodge Viper don't bother to even tell me your name) and you got countless great guys not even cracking girls these days. Physiologically, approaching a money-looking girl out of the cold is comparable to trying to stop a speeding bus by jumping on its path--9 out of 10 guys will just get run over.