By Mark Keenan
October 27, 2025
Across the Western world, men are facing a crisis few dare to name aloud. The facts are undeniable: fathers torn from their children, men ruined by divorce courts, and masculine identity hollowed out by a culture intent on rewriting gender itself. Beneath the surface of everyday life, an unspoken war is being fought - not on poverty or crime, but on men.
I never set out to write about men's struggles. But through my own experience, I realized it isn't only celebrities like Mel Gibson or Johnny Depp who are dragged through the grinder. Ordinary men everywhere are fighting the same battle - often in silence.
When Mel Gibson's breakup with Oksana Grigorieva exploded into scandal, custody wars, and financial ruin, it showed that no man, no matter his wealth or fame, is safe from the machinery of the modern divorce system.
We saw the same script play out with Johnny Depp and Amber Heard. Years of accusations, media bias, and legal warfare turned Depp's private life into a public spectacle - a global case study in what happens when a man is presumed guilty from the start. If even a Hollywood star must fight tooth and nail to clear his name, what chance does the average man have in court, facing bias and weaponized accusation without Hollywood wealth to shield him?
This isn't an exception - it's a symptom of a much deeper problem, the very war on men that my book exposes.
Like many men, I was simply a man who thought he was in love. She was beautiful, charming, full of "I love you's." To the outside world, we looked like the perfect couple. But behind the façade of romance, I found a darker truth.
The woman I loved - shaped, like so many today, by modern ideas about men and relationships - expected my time, my energy, and my money. Her affection felt increasingly transactional. When I finally ended it, I was hit with accusations and financial pressure that seemed to appear from nowhere. For the first time, I saw how easily the system itself could be used against me - even without evidence.
That was my red pill moment. The mask slipped. I saw that the problem wasn't just one relationship - it was the machinery behind it. The system rewards exploitation and punishes men who refuse to play along.
That realization led me to write The War on Men: How the New Gender Politics Is Undermining Western Civilization. Not out of anger, but out of clarity. My story is not unique. It's part of a much larger pattern - a silent war waged against men everywhere.
Many men sense this truth but can't put it into words: the very systems once meant to protect family and fairness have become weapons against them. This is not hyperbole. It is lived reality for millions. And it begins, all too often, with the institution of marriage.
The Marriage Contract: A Trap in Disguise
Most men step into marriage full of hope - believing it's a covenant built on love, trust, and shared purpose. But as The War on Men reveals, the legal reality is very different.
Signing a state marriage license isn't just pledging yourself to a spouse. It's entering a three-way contract where the state is the senior partner. The husband and wife become secondary parties, while the state claims ultimate jurisdiction over the union, the home, and even the children born within it.
What was once a covenant between husband, wife, and God has been reduced to a civil business arrangement - a contract of adhesion, unequal by design. The state offers its "consideration" in the form of a license; the couple unknowingly surrenders authority. From that moment, the state holds the upper hand.
The implications are staggering. Children are treated as the "fruit" of that contract, belonging first to the state - which is why child protective services can seize them with alarming ease. This isn't conspiracy; it's codified law, rooted in Roman civil code and embedded in modern family statutes.
Most men think marriage is the reward for love. Few realize it's the point at which the system quietly claims their freedom.
Marriage is the only major decision in life where men are told to ignore risk. In every other area - business, career, finance - prudence is praised. In marriage, you're told to close your eyes, follow your heart, and sign on the dotted line.
Love, we're told, makes it all safe. But it doesn't. The truth is brutal: a bad marriage, or even a cohabitation gone wrong, can destroy more than your bank account. It can take your home, your children, and the best years of your life.
That's why I wrote The War on Men - the book I wish I had read before learning firsthand how modern relationships and courts are stacked against men. If marriage feels like a gamble where the odds are against you, this book explains why - and how to protect yourself.
Divorce Court: The Battlefield Where Men Lose Everything
Divorce court is where the imbalance of modern marriage reveals itself in full. When the vows collapse, the man discovers he isn't an equal party but the least protected, least privileged actor in the drama.
Under "no-fault" divorce, a woman may leave for any reason - or none - while the man is left begging for fairness. Judges wield almost unlimited discretion, and outcomes depend not on justice or constitution but on civil statute.
The results are devastating:
- Men lose half their income, forced into support payments that leave them barely surviving.
- Custody laws defaulted to mothers.
- Fathers are denied real time with their children, reduced to visitors.
- Even stepchildren, not biologically his, can become his financial burden under expanding court powers.
This system wasn't built to protect men - it was built to exploit them. The state profits through enforcement revenues, while social engineers advance an agenda that weakens fathers and strengthens bureaucratic control.
The man who once saw himself as provider and protector is recast as debtor and defendant, trapped in a system designed to break him.
Governments panic over falling marriage and birth rates, yet never ask the obvious question: why would men risk marriage when the system punishes them for it? Men aren't rejecting commitment - they're rejecting a rigged game. Until that changes, both marriage and civilization will continue to crumble.
Social Engineering and the Feminist Trap
How did we get here? Not by chance or cultural drift - but by design. The modern marriage contract and family court system are the products of deliberate social engineering.
The rise of feminism coincided with the expansion of state power into private life. From the late 19th century onward, the traditional covenant of marriage was replaced with state licensing. At the same time, feminist activism pushed for legal reforms that tilted marriage and divorce law heavily toward women.
Each new "advance" brought greater power to the courts:
- No-fault divorce erased accountability.
- Custody laws defaulted to mothers.
- Support formulas guaranteed lifelong payments from men - regardless of fairness or survival.
This wasn't reform; it was re-engineering. The objective was clear: weaken men, weaken families, and strengthen the state. Strong men are difficult to control. Broken men are not.
As filmmaker Aaron Russo once testified, the Rockefeller banking dynasty helped finance early feminist movements - not to liberate women, but to tax the other half of the population and transfer child-rearing from family to state. Once both parents worked, the state could shape children's minds through institutional education.
I explore this dynamic further in Climate CO₂ Hoax, showing how environmentalism has been used as another vehicle for central planning and ideological control. The UN's so-called Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) advance the same agenda - presented as benevolence, but rooted in control.
Modern feminism, like environmentalism, cloaks power in moral language. Yet one question exposes the lie: What legal right do men have that women don't? None. Men have no rights denied to women - and in many cases, fewer.
Despite this, the myth of "systemic male privilege" still dominates politics, media, and academia. This distortion fuels laws and attitudes that strip men of rights in family courts, workplaces, and public life - turning equality into an ideological weapon.
The Human Cost
Behind the legalese and political agendas are real men, flesh and blood. The stories echo in every town and city:
- A father bankrupted, unable to keep a roof over his head while forced to support two households.
- A man driven to despair, stripped of his children and identity by a court that sees him as expendable.
- Sons growing up without fathers, learning that men are secondary, that masculinity itself is suspect.
The toll shows up in numbers: suicide, homelessness, addiction, disconnection. But statistics can't capture the wound. For countless men, the betrayal is not just financial - it's existential. They did everything asked of them: worked, provided, sacrificed. And in return, they were treated as disposable.
Why The War on Men Matters
The War on Men is more than a book - it's a lifeline. It tells the truth men need to hear - not to sow bitterness, but to open eyes. Inside, readers will find:
- The Divorce Machine - how courts profit while fathers are punished.
- The Feminist Trap - hidden dangers in marriage contracts.
- The Silent Epidemic - men betrayed by false accusations and bias.
- The Path Forward - how to reclaim power, purpose, and peace.
This is'nt about hating women. It is about rejecting illusion. It is about seeing through the lies - that marriage is safe, that the courts are fair, that men are privileged. It is about reclaiming the masculine strength needed to stand tall in a world that would rather see men bowed.
The Path Forward: Awareness, Strength, Clarity, Freedom
What, then, can men do?
- Wake up. Marriage today isn't the covenant it once was. It's a civil contract stacked against men - approach it with eyes wide open.
- Reclaim purpose. Masculinity isn't toxic; it's essential. The strength to build, protect, and lead are virtues - and when they're lost, society collapses.
- Break the silence. The war on men thrives on isolation. When men tell their stories and refuse to accept the lie that they're expendable, the tide begins to turn.
- Choose freedom. Any contract with the state - from marriage licenses to other legal traps - carries a cost. A man who retains his independence retains his power.
This is a time for strength, clarity, and courage - to reclaim the dignity of masculinity. For the sake of your children, your future, and your soul, you cannot afford to ignore the truth. Read The War on Men - and see what they don't want you to see.