: By pretending to be the "weaker sex" or victims of society, women shift the burden of responsibility and physical labor onto men.
: Vilar describes the "typical" housewife of the time as a "parasitic prostitute" who avoids the workforce by manipulating a man into doing the "bare minimum" to support her lifestyle. Tactics of Manipulation The Manipulated Man
: Vilar points out that men often have little influence over whether they have children, yet are legally and socially bound to support them for life. Reception and Criticism : By pretending to be the "weaker sex"
: Using over-dramatized emotional reactions, such as crying or feigned distress, to force compliance from men. In this view, women use sex as a
Vilar’s central thesis is that women are not oppressed; rather, they have cultivated a position of power by conditioning men to be providers and protectors. She claims that:
According to Vilar, women employ specific psychological tools to maintain this dynamic:
: Marriage is framed not as a romantic union but as a "selfish creation" of women. In this view, women use sex as a tool to coerce men into a lifetime of hard labor to support them and their children.