You’re probably wondering where the other 107 tips are that led to the titling of this post and my response to that is that your guess is as good as mine… I figured for the year of blogging I’ve put into this page, there has to be at least a 100 tips sprinkled into my posts that can help the average woman figure out how some men think. I guess you’ll just have to read some of my older posts to figure out what they are…
Anyway, I came across a gem of a conversation topic on Twitter the other day and I felt it was a great subject matter to elaborate on.
One of my female followers(God bless her naive heart) tweeted that she doesn’t understand why some girls feel like being able to cook, clean, and iron can aid them in becoming someone’s potential wife(y). I essentially tweeted back that while it’s not necessarily a deal breaker, knowing how to do those things definitely don’t hurt a girl’s chances… but let’s elaborate on that a bit more.
Now the year is 2012, and the idea of gender roles have more or less fallen by the wayside. The idea of a husband being the sole provider for the family while the stay at home wife is pregnant, barefoot, and constantly in the kitchen, is something of the distant past and will never be able to become the household standard ever again, which is fine. As society evolves and the economy changes, that closed minded way of thinking would only serve to severely hinder rather than help. If you’re not comfortable with the idea of stay at home dads, and wives being the dominant breadwinners of the family then the world must seem like a very strange place to you right about now.
However, there is an underlying problem that stems from completely abandoning that style of thinking, and it’s becoming more prevalent in my generation and the generations that will follow. (Insert my follower’s tweet here)
Because women are no longer openly oppressed and can essentially be whatever they want, anything that could possibly “remind” them of a barefoot and pregnant world is immediately shunned/rebuked/rebelled against by groups of women. This especially applies to the cooking,cleaning, and ironing aspect of things. “Why should I need to do those things for my man when he can do it himself” is essentially the mindset.
I agree with that mindset. A man should be able to do all those things and more by himself, but at the same time, it doesn’t mean that a woman should make no effort to learn those skills. Those are essentially survival skills. You may have a lot of ambition, you may be very career minded, highly intelligent, etc but if you can’t cook any of your own food, clean your own stuff, and iron your own clothes?? You’re only selling yourself short in the long run.
I can cook(to an extent), I can clean, and I can iron my own clothes, because these skills, as well as others, are what I’m going to need to survive on my own in this world. Now if I can do these things, why would I look for a woman, to marry, who can’t do those same things for herself?
Don’t get me wrong, the changes in society has affected the way men are raised as well. Despite my dad’s best efforts, I know very little about car mechanics, and outside of using a very thorough instructional booklet, the chances of me putting something together with my bare hands is slim. So if the day comes where I meet a woman who can’t see me as husband material because I can’t effortlessly change the tire on a car, then that’s just what it is… but this isn’t about me.
Overall, the point I’m trying to make is to not sell yourself short because something can potentially fall into a “gender role.” You don’t need to learn how to cook for your man, you need to learn how to cook for you, and if you can cook for your man I guarantee you he will appreciate it. You’d be surprised how much learning things to help yourself can make you more appealing to the opposite sex.
Very true.