FUCK YES. This is why I love you and your wife. I have been working on a piece like this for ages and can't seem to put it together, but you nailed it here. This is all rape culture talking.

"Nice guys finish last" is a great way to position decency and kindness as a guarantee to not get what you want in romantic and sexual situations, thereby normalizing the idea that a man should NOT be nice and that aggression and rudeness are okay.

And the friend zone is ALL about rape culture. Like you said, there IS NO FRIEND ZONE. To use that phrase, as if being friends with a woman is a prison she put you into against your will is normalizing the concept that a man should have whatever access to a woman he wants, regardless of her feelings and boundaries and it breeds bitterness and resentment toward women.

God, I really need to work on my article about this! LOL.