Hey there,

We’ve spent a lot of time talking about the growing split in dating — the one between how men show up, and how women feel about how men show up.
Last month, we wrote about women being exhausted from doing all the emotional heavy lifting. This week, we’re flipping the lens.

Because underneath every “emotionally unavailable” meme and every “men don’t communicate” TikTok, there’s a quieter truth:

Most men don’t actually feel allowed to have needs.
And most women are exhausted from dating men who pretend they don’t.

Dating isn’t broken because men don’t care. And it’s not broken because women expect too much. It’s broken because everyone is misinterpreting each other through a lifetime of bad scripts.

Let’s get into it.

– Team Necterine

THE GAP

*Men were told to be low-maintenance.

Women were told to be endlessly understanding. Now nobody’s okay.*

Here’s the pattern we keep seeing, everywhere we go:

Men are lonely in ways that feel dangerous to admit.
Women are lonely in ways they’re tired of explaining.

Men often withdraw because they think they’re failing. Women interpret the withdrawal as not caring. Men assume they’ll disappoint someone. Women assume they’re being abandoned.

Nobody’s actually wrong — but everyone is exhausted. The divide isn’t moral. It’s educational.

Women got emotional practice. Men got emotional prohibition. And now we’re all dating across that gap like it’s not the size of a small canyon.

THE PART WE HAVEN’T SAID OUT LOUD

Most men genuinely don’t know what being well feels like.

Emotionally, yes. But also physically.

You can’t be emotionally present when you’re taught to ignore half your internal experience. You can’t build connection from depletion. You can’t “lead” in love when your baseline is survival mode.

Men aren’t detached — they’re under-resourced. Not just in their relationships, but in their own bodies.

Which brings us to something important. If we’re serious about helping men show up better — for their partners, for dating, for themselves — we also have to talk about the part of men’s wellness that’s still treated like a punchline.

So here’s the truth: Prostate wellness is foundational to men’s long-term pleasure, comfort, and health. You can’t separate emotional wellbeing from physical wellbeing. They are the same ecosystem.

And that’s why we’re partnering with MV.Health this week.

Improve Prostate Wellness the Pleasurable Way With This Doctor-Designed Vibrator

There’s no butts about it (sorry, we had to): prostate wellness is key to long-term pleasure and overall wellbeing. And MV.Health has an actual smart, doctor-designed way to support it.

Meet Molto — the award-winning, ultra-slim, ultra-flexible prostate vibrator created by urologists to mimic their own fingers. Its powerful motor and ergonomically slim neck bend to deliver targeted stimulation that massages the prostate for stronger erections, ejaculations, and long-term prostate wellness.

Listen, there’s a reason the P-spot is known as the male G-spot. This is not a gimmick. This is anatomy. And honestly? This is pleasure men deserve to experience.

Discover the underrated celebrity of male pleasure with the FDA-registered Molto.

Not convinced? It’s gifting season — treat yourself (or someone you love) with 35% off plus an extra 15% with code H4PPY15 during MV.Health’s biggest sale of the year.

Prostate wellness isn’t taboo. It’s self-care. It’s adulthood. Men deserve a relationship to their bodies that isn’t shame-based, avoidant, or purely functional. They deserve pleasure that’s informed, not improvised. They deserve wellness that goes beyond “I’m fine.”

THE SHIFT

Connection gets better when men stop pretending they don’t have needs.

Women aren’t asking men to be perfect. They’re asking them to be present. To treat their emotional and physical wellbeing like something that matters. To have needs — and not hide them under a shrug and a “whatever you want.”

Because the men who can name what they feel…The men who take care of their bodies…The men who let themselves be supported…Those are the men who build relationships that don’t collapse under silence.

Those are the men people can meet — and stay with.

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CLOSING THOTS

Men don’t need a rebrand. They need room to be human.

If dating is going to get better — for everyone — it starts with men being allowed to know themselves. Not the masked version. Not the stoic version. Not the crisis-only, last-resort version.

The whole version. With needs, care, softness, strength, fear, desire, anger, pleasure, confusion, and hope.

We’re not asking men to be different. We’re asking them to be allowed. And that alone would change everything.

We’re rooting for you.

xoxo,
Team Necterine

Dating sucks, but it doesn’t have to.

Necterine is a next-generation connection app to help you cultivate relationships.

Our mission is to redefine connection by celebrating every interaction. We provide tools and experiences that empower our users to discover themselves through the spectrum of relationships, from fleeting encounters to lifelong partnerships.

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