If you’re reading this, you’re seeking help. 

You’ve hit the ‘Gates and have been trying to talk to women, only for a six-foot-five man with a mullet and cowboy boots to draw their attention away from you. You’ve been sitting next to girls in class and striking up conversations, only to feel that you don’t really understand them and don’t know what to talk about — do you feel hopeless in your pursuit of women?

Well, you’ve come to the right place! As someone who is chronically single, I can confidently say that I have as much experience commentating on this topic as the people on the Talk Tuah podcast commentating on, well, just about anything. 

So let me introduce you to this revolutionary idea ready to take the world by storm: consuming more female media!

And the crowd goes mild …

If you were expecting some kind of cure-all medicine, this might not be what you’re looking for, but it is the next best thing. Female media could be your key to unlocking that rizz when talking to women. 

Now, what do I mean by female media? This can include movies and TV shows, music and books and it can also feature podcasts and female influencers. Anything to get that edge above other men in knowing what women are like. 

Recently, I watched PEN15, a show about two middle schoolers trying to figure out their teenage years. While watching it, I began to rethink my teenage years and my interactions with female teens in my life. I thought my teen years were emotional — as most teenagers do — but thinking about it now, I honestly cannot imagine what girls at that age were going through; having to live up to so many societal expectations about beauty and womanhood was a complete shock. All I had to worry about was being the best basketball player on the team. 

The problem is that men don’t consider women’s point of view in anything. 

When the Barbie movie came out in 2023, it took the world by storm. However, I saw online trolls and men in my personal life say the same thing: “I will never watch the Barbie movie, it’s for girls.” My heart broke every time I saw a variant of that comment because the message of the movie was equally for men as it was for women. 

America Ferrera’s iconic monologue made me bawl my eyes out in the theater, not because I could relate to it, but because it made me understand the reality women face, something I would never have to do as a man. 

I gained a perspective that wasn’t my own, and isn’t that the point of media? 

A good piece of media is art, allowing you to see a perspective that you wouldn’t have had before, to gain empathy for something you wouldn’t have before. If you’re consuming media that only feeds into your point of view of how the world should be, how are you growing as a person? Is your life goal to just see through one perspective and never consider any others? I can guarantee yours isn’t the ultimate one. 

People are too close-minded in just about every aspect of their lives. We’ve never been as polarized from one another in the history of our country, and this is detrimental to how we function as a society. Allowing people to come together is much better for society than when we’re apart. So, I urge you to start consuming these types of media.

And listen, you can like your macho media too — no one is saying you can’t have it. One of my favorite movies of all time is Sicario, a rough and gritty action movie that most women probably wouldn’t consider watching. But Kelly Fremon Craig is one of my favorite directors, attempting to bring her perspective on femininity — something that many men can learn about. 

Slowly implementing female content creators and different forms of female-driven media in your life with the other genres that you already love can help you grow to learn about those different angles you may not have considered. 

So, now that you have the blueprint, put it into use. Watch more movies about the female experience, listen to more music by female artists, read more books that talk about womanhood and try to learn something from it. Gain that perspective that other men are too ignorant to even want to learn about. Not only will it help you with your pursuit of women, but it will also shape you and make you become a better man.

And maybe, just maybe, watch the Talk Tuah podcast. Might be a reach, but it’s ultimately about a woman’s livelihood — we might be able to actually learn something from it. 

Joshua Abraham is a kinesiology junior and opinion writer for The Battalion.