# do you do the dish and other "women work" ? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 22, 2006, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-do-the-dish-and-other-women-work/357745 "2006-05-22T13:59:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tastes_of_chocolate/32/3232_2.png) [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-do-the-dish-and-other-women-work/357745/81 "2006-05-22T21:52:46Z")
My personal theory is that someone is looking for an excuse to not do the chores mom told him to do. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-do-the-dish-and-other-women-work/357745/82 "2006-05-22T22:06:55Z")
> [@SHAKES](#): > > If you see my woman with a black eye. Yew, knowed its b’cuz she aint been doing her house work… What do you say to a woman with two black eyes? Nothing, you already told her twice. And that is why I am responsible for all the dishes in my house. At least he put “women’s work” in quotes; he must know it is a misnomer. ---
**Author:** ![Lilairen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lilairen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lilairen)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-do-the-dish-and-other-women-work/357745/83 "2006-05-22T22:08:05Z")
> [@Savannah](#): > > I wash the dishes that are too big to fit in the dishwasher, but that’s only because my husband hates washing dishes. And I despise washing dishes, so that’s officially my husband’s job unless I need one _right now_ and he’s not available to prod into doing it. 😉 I do most of the housework for much the same reasoning as the division of labour in **Bricker** ’s household – I work at home, so I’m available to do it. There isn’t a formal distribution of labour (aside from the dishes and cleaning the stove, the first of which is his job because I hate it, and the second of which is my job because he hates it), just whoever gets to it. Which has led to the amusing situation where I am happy to do laundry, but I’m not going to roam the house looking for socks – if it’s not in the hamper in the closet, it doesn’t get done. So he does his own laundry 'cause he’s too damn lazy to put his dirty clothes in the closet. (When his mother sent a couple of collapsible hampers for no particular reason other than she likes sending us things that might be useful in her care packages full of seasonal Peeps, I said, ‘Ah!’ and went and put them in the corner where he dumps his laundry. So now at least things go in a hamper.) ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-do-the-dish-and-other-women-work/357745/84 "2006-05-22T22:14:46Z")
> [@Minotaurus](#): > > let’s face it - housework isn’t exactly the kind of job that men do that often, mostly because i lays in our genes Wow, I never thought in all my life I’d see such a casual, out-in-the open [coprophagic](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shit_eating). You sure swallowed that myth without a second thought. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-do-the-dish-and-other-women-work/357745/85 "2006-05-22T22:22:30Z")
[**Noone Special**](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=7416566&postcount=46) and [**McNew**](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=7416649&postcount=53) and anyone else I missed, knock it off. It’s probably the simplest rule on the board: do not call anyone a troll or imply, however slyly worded, that anyone is a troll. Use the “Report This Post” button. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-do-the-dish-and-other-women-work/357745/86 "2006-05-22T22:31:51Z")
Frank is a spoilsport. FUCK that wimmins work shit! I ain’ts be doin it, NOPE. Built me a robot for that, a GIRL robot. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-do-the-dish-and-other-women-work/357745/87 "2006-05-22T23:04:05Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > And if you have to point out that you’re a “real man” then you probably aren’t. This really bears repeating. If you’re a “real man”, I’ll know without you telling me. And lots of women have different definitions of what a real man is. ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-do-the-dish-and-other-women-work/357745/88 "2006-05-22T23:14:40Z")
My definition of a real man? He can bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan, serve it to me on a pretty plate, wash the plate and the pan, clean up the kitchen, and provide me with 3 - 5 orgasms per 24 hour period. Oh, and buy me stuff, because girls like pretty sparkly things. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-do-the-dish-and-other-women-work/357745/89 "2006-05-22T23:16:06Z")
I’m a little disapppointed in you, **NoClueBoy**. That should have been [GIRL robot!](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4714135.stm) Oh yeah, the OP. If he and his wife have an arrangement where she does all the housework and he does none, and he calls it “women’s work” and she doesn’t disagree, then that’s their business. Out in the real world, however, men and women are different but equal, and people of both genders do what suits them. Your concept of “women’s work” is basically flawed, **minotaurus** , even if it is working in your own household. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-do-the-dish-and-other-women-work/357745/90 "2006-05-22T23:16:39Z")
> [@DianaG](#): > > He can bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan… A _real man_ fries bacon in the nude. ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-do-the-dish-and-other-women-work/357745/91 "2006-05-22T23:17:23Z")
**Frank** , a real man sees no need for clothing in my home no matter what he’s doing. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-do-the-dish-and-other-women-work/357745/92 "2006-05-22T23:19:58Z")
> [@Frank](#): > > A _real man_ fries bacon in the nude. So…real men are completely stupid? ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-do-the-dish-and-other-women-work/357745/93 "2006-05-22T23:26:53Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > So…real men are completely stupid? 😃 Actually, I know a guy who does it shirtless. He claims that if he gets spattered, he knows it’s cooking too fast. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-do-the-dish-and-other-women-work/357745/94 "2006-05-22T23:30:17Z")
> [@featherlou](#): > > I’m a little disapppointed in you, **NoClueBoy**. That should have been [GIRL robot!](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4714135.stm) !!! I saw that just the other day. Quite fascinating. Too bad the actuating mechanisms are still too big to actually fit inside the body. What I saw also mentioned the need to program in some apparant randomness and a little bit of assymetry. Without it, the real humans were slightly off put. No Data or R. Daneel Olivaw yet, but I look forward to reading/seeing more about this line of research. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-do-the-dish-and-other-women-work/357745/95 "2006-05-22T23:38:20Z")
I think, by and large, the concepts of ‘men’s work’ and ‘women’s work’ are a large assemblage of utter shite. I happen to be physically stronger and taller than my wife; (although just to put it in perspective, I am not stronger and taller than every woman on the planet and she is not shorter and weaker than every man), so I will tend to find myself doing some of the heavier lifting and higher reaching; moreover, my wife is far more dextrous than I am, so she will tend to find herself doing some of the more delicate and careful things. But apart from those extremes, we just _do stuff_ I like cooking, so I’ll volunteer for that whenever I get the chance; I dislike washing dishes, but who doesn’t? - and being a not-so-pleasant task, I wouldn’t dream of shifting the burden onto someone to whom I have vowed undying love and worship, so I wash the dishes when they need doing. To avoid these tasks would be lazy, counter-productive and possibly cowardly, IMO. What’s so frightening about washing dishes that a great hairy-arsed, testosterone-exuding man has to run screaming from the prospect? ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-do-the-dish-and-other-women-work/357745/96 "2006-05-22T23:40:07Z")
> [@Lilairen](#): > > Which has led to the amusing situation where I am happy to do laundry, but I’m not going to roam the house looking for socks – if it’s not in the hamper in the closet, it doesn’t get done. That’s how I do it. I do all the laundry, because I want it done _my_ way. But if it’s not in the hamper, it doesn’t get done. I’m not crawling under the bed looking for his dirty socks, and he knows it. There have been a few times my husband has been out of socks for work, and had to go looking for them under the bed or behind the hamper (it’s by the desk in the den and he just pitches them in the general direction of it - if they fall behind the hamper or the desk, too bad - I can’t see them). I’ll wash and fold what’s _in_ the hamper - and the kids know this, too. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2006, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-do-the-dish-and-other-women-work/357745/97 "2006-05-22T23:43:40Z")
> [@BiblioCat](#): > > That’s how I do it. I do all the laundry, because I want it done _my_ way. But if it’s not in the hamper, it doesn’t get done. I’m not crawling under the bed looking for his dirty socks, and he knows it. There have been a few times my husband has been out of socks for work, and had to go looking for them under the bed or behind the hamper (it’s by the desk in the den and he just pitches them in the general direction of it - if they fall behind the hamper or the desk, too bad - I can’t see them). I’ll wash and fold what’s _in_ the hamper - and the kids know this, too. Ditto, except for the kids part. I have almost exactly the same situation. Oh, and one more thing, which I suggest you ladies implement _immediately_. If there’s change or money in his pockets when I go to do laundry, it’s _mine_. This brings about some very amusing interchanges when I shake out the laundry to separate it, and his jeans go _jingle jingle jingle_ and here he comes, on the run, to get his change back. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Taber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ac91a4/32.png) [@Taber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taber)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2006, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-do-the-dish-and-other-women-work/357745/98 "2006-05-23T01:18:03Z")
> [@featherlou](#): > > I’m a little disapppointed in you, **NoClueBoy**. That should have been [GIRL robot!](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4714135.stm) that robot looks great and all, but what’s with the hands? I’m looking at a relatively normal looking pretty woman, but then see her much darker, liver spotted old man hands, and wonder what were they thinking? ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2006, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-do-the-dish-and-other-women-work/357745/99 "2006-05-23T01:48:09Z")
> [@Taber](#): > > that robot looks great and all, but what’s with the hands? I’m looking at a relatively normal looking pretty woman, but then see her much darker, liver spotted old man hands, and wonder what were they thinking? I’ll bet it’s from doing the dish. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2006, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-do-the-dish-and-other-women-work/357745/100 "2006-05-23T01:57:20Z")
> [@saoirse](#): > > I’ll bet it’s from doing the dish. Pre-vert! :dubious: She _does_ have a real purdy mouth… :o [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-do-the-dish-and-other-women-work/357745.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-do-the-dish-and-other-women-work/357745.md?page=6)