In what this reporter can only presume is an attempt to lure all of Perth’s potential school shooters into one location, this is an event that promises to teach research validated “fair fighting skills” to men seeking to learn the “Impossible Business of Keeping Women Happy”.  With tickets roughly a hundred bucks a go, it’s sure to be a sell out at the Rendezvous Hotel as people scramble to hear from a counsellor who voluntarily resigned after his anti-feminist emails were leaked to his former employers.

Learn how to initiate and encourage more enthusiastic sex in female-friendly ways from Rob Tiller, a man who’s so good at relationships that he once wound up in court with said former employers. The mind boggles at Mr Tiller’s ability to pad out a lecture, as this shitshow is an all-day affair that runs from 10:00AM to 4:00PM.

This reporter is uniquely qualified to comment here as he regularly bounces from one failed relationship to the next and readily admits to having all the communication skills of Stannis Baratheon, only with more hair. Presumably, if one’s at the point of parting with a hundred bucks to have some washed up hack like Rob Tiller “fix” your dating life then it’s fair to hold that you’re in the same boat.

It’s also worth keeping in mind that the event description here has been changed to one that Tiller probably sees as less offensive. Previously, you could find advice on how to “coach” your woman into being “happy and hanging on to your house” and “sexually generous.” For the record, if you want your partner to be caged in your home and open to having sex 24/7 at the drop of a hat, I’d recommend investing in a sex doll instead.

Rob’s particular brand of snake oil is that he tells men struggling with rejection what they want to hear. That it’s her fault, it’s the Family Court system and it has nothing to do with pissing up your pay at the pub each night before coming home to smack the missus around. It’s a move straight out of Business 101; invent the problem then sell the solution.

According to Rob’s personal website, the problem is that 70 percent of all separations and divorces are instigated by the female partner with little to no notice. Where these statistics come from is a mystery. The solution? Attend Rob’s classes and learn the “tools to cool” disputes with your woman. The tool of the trade appears to be some sort of nonsense called “relationship leverage”. It’s breathtakingly at odds with his claim of teaching “mutual respect” and having all this next to “holding your own with a clever lady” is downright disturbing. Realpolitik is what led Bismarck into laying the groundwork for the First World War and playing these sorts of manipulative power games with your girl will only lead to similarly tragic outcomes.

Rob Tiller shifts the blame onto the partner’s internal factors while failing to address the possessive, entitled and manipulative attitudes that drive the men he provides services for. It’s diabolically dangerous stuff, a Bunnings warehouse for immature malcontents, that absolves the bloke of any blame whatsoever. Manning the fuck up and realising that change starts with YOU is hard but falling into fundamental errors of attribution is easy.

Don’t reward the espousing of dangerously unsubstantiated and actively harmful bullshit by giving your money to Rob Tiller, instead take that hundred dollars and buy yourself a year’s Spotify subscription. Find George Thorogood’s classic “Treat Her Right” and play it on repeat a few times ‘till that classic blues rock message sinks in.

You see, George has the right idea and it’s not a bloody hard one to grasp either. All you need to do is treat them right. That means gently, with respect and realising that sometimes things just don’t go your way. Now this is a hard one to grasp at first as society basically tells blokes all over the world that they’re promised a perfect ten, preferably one on each arm. Every woman will have stories about young men taking it in a less than gentlemanly manner when society doesn’t deliver on this promise.

Any intro psych or even the otherwise contemptible MGMT1135 Organisational Behaviour unit will tell you that internal factors aren’t entirely everything when it comes to predicting behaviour. Turns out that people are mostly their external environments and that’s what needs to change here. There’s no shortage of awareness campaigns for misogyny and domestic violence; what’s required is some action. We need to get to the bottom of whatever it is about our structures that enables young men to think it’s a rational choice to degrade women. It’s not enough to merely stamp out the controlling, entitled and manipulative behaviours espoused by folks like Tiller. We need to drag the men putting them into practice out back for a little bit of attitude re-adjusting, a dose of their own medicine.

This reporter doesn’t claim to have anything other than a crippling addiction to caffeine; however, he has no answers. But he’s savvy enough to know that folks like Rob Tiller don’t either.

Save your money, buy her some flowers.

Treat her right.

Patrick Roso

By Pelican Magazine

Pelican is the second-oldest student publication in Australia and the only independent paper at UWA. If you like having opinions, writing, drawing, and/or free tickets to local events, then Pelican is the place for you! We print six themed issues a year, and run a stream of online content.

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