In the past, Ryan Gosling has demurred when asked about his status as the Internet’s poster boy for supporting and loving women thanks to the Feminist Ryan Gosling Tumblr and “Hey Girl” memes. “I didn’t make those [memes], you know? It’s not by design,” the actor told The Daily Telegraph in June 2015. Gosling can’t help but feed the flames, though, in a new interview with Evening Standard magazine. He basically assumes his final form as Feminist Ryan Gosling, hero of the men-who-support-women cause. He gets it. Ryan Gosling feels the male gaze. He understands that women are often objectified in an uncomfortable and unwanted way.

“I grew up with women so I’ve always been aware of it. When my mother and I walked to the grocery store, men would circle the block in cars. It was very, very scary, especially as a young boy. Very predatory—a hunt,” Gosling told the magazine. He thinks it’s time males felt that sort of objectification (although probably not in a predatory manner). “It’s our time as men to be on the receiving end of the stick,” he says when the interviewer asks whether he minds the strong response he tends to elicit in fans.

Later on, Gosling takes up the banner for females more emphatically. “I think women are better than men. They are stronger, more evolved.” (Why thank you, Ryan Gosling; you’re pretty evolved yourself.) “You can tell especially when you have daughters [he now has two with Eva Mendes] and you see their early stages, they are just leaps and bounds beyond boys immediately.”

Even though Ryan Gosling will protest until the end of his days that he never actually said “Hey Girl”; girl, Ryan Gosling is here for us. And hey Ryan, thanks.