It may come as a shock to some people but modern man is a softy.

Not the kind of softy that starts to cry at the end of Titanic but the type that allows his other half to control his life.

Hey, I'm not saying it's wrong for your partner to control your life but modern man does not have a choice anymore.

Man didn't become a softy over night but years of top rate television and gossip magazines have confused the hell out of us.

It has given women ammunition and we don't have the weaponry to defend this onslaught.

Twenty-first century women are the men and the men don't know where to turn.

We don't know when to be polite or when we might be offending someone. It is reaching boiling point in some households.

For instance I have a good friend who lives off £20 a week despite being a relatively high earner. Apparently he does it out of choice or so he thinks!

In fact, his wage goes straight into his wife's bank account and she, every Saturday evening, gives him £20 to spend on petrol and lunch for the coming week.

He has no access to any of his hard-earned money as she hasn't allowed him to have a bank account.

Being a concerned friend with too much time on his hands I tried to persuade my dear friend that he needed to stand up for himself.

That was easier said than done.

Rather than admit this was a strange situation he actually tried to defend these actions.

"I really am broke by Thursday but I complained once and never again.

"But I suppose it was the way it was meant to be," he whispered in case she could hear what we were talking about through the concrete wall.

This was in essence the problem. Modern man in his thirties, or any age that suits you, has become afraid of the dominant sex.

Most women know this and the ones that don't are simply not concentrating hard enough.

My pal even goes to extreme lengths to save an extra penny.

When told to go to the grocers he saves the change so he can buy himself lunch the next day.

I explained to him that this was what we did when we were kids and when we wanted that packet of Chewits.

"I know," he replied. "But I daren't ask for a rise."