Men going their own way (MGTOW)

And “This is rubbish.”

Obviously I’m speaking from my own viewpoint, from my own particular niche in society, and there’s no doubt cultural expectations vary from culture to culture. But I can’t imagine any of my friends - male or female - saying “housework is women’s work”. I’ve never heard any of them say that.

Now, some people are slobs and some aren’t. (Or, conversely, some people are neatniks and some aren’t.) And it wouldn’t surprise me if more women - on average - cared more about what their home looked like than men.

But I don’t know it’s a sexism issue.

I do more cleaning, because if I don’t do it, it doesn’t get done. My sister - who’s married to a woman - does more housework as well. I suspect for the same reason.

Anyway, it’s not like it’s a cosmic issue. I’m just saying.

It doesn’t have to be explicitly said for that message that is communicated.

This messaging starts in childhood. Households where chores aren’t split down gender lines is a very recent phenomenon. Even in my fairly egalitarian childhood home, my brother was taught to do yard work and take out the trash. My sisters and I were trained to do everything else. My brother was allowed to keep his room a pig-sty. Us girls were expected to keep our rooms much tidier.

I’m not sure what this means.

When I was a kid, a common story line was a husband and wife swapping jobs around the house. The way this usually played out was the woman could do the man’s job easily, but the man was a total klutz, wrecking everything, unable to cook, etc., etc.
Sounds like pro-woman - but the real message was that men were excused from housework, since the end was the woman taking her job back over.

Even today when my wife is away people ask me all the time if I need help in cooking, which is funny since my father came from a restaurant family, ran a lunch counter, and when first married taught my mother how to cook. But there is an assumption still it is woman’s work.

Do women get told in this kind of way that it is okay and expected if they can’t do mechanical things?

Absolutely, everyone is amazed that I can do basic repairs and maintenance on my car. (Um, I’ve just been working on cars since I was like eight). What’s really annoying is the people that think this is because my husband or brothers neglected to help me with car problems. No, It’s not that they won’t help me it’s that they are forbidden to touch my car.

All I can say is that every “male” job is still a male job at my house: yard work, fixing things, putting things together, anything that involves tools, etc. Female jobs are supposed 50/50, but not really, because she really really hates cleaning. :slight_smile: To be fair, she does do the laundry. The deal was, she’d do the laundry if I did the dishes. She really hates dishes, and I hate laundry.

this is pretty nosy and intrusive, if you don’t mind me saying so.

He’s only referring to things you’ve chosen to share with everyone here before. I’m confused as to the intrusiveness.

was I speaking to you?

You were posting on a public messageboard. If you intended for your remarks to be private, they should have been made via private message.

You were kinda speaking to all of us.

Hey, you talkin’ to me? Huh? Huh? You talkin’ to me?

Yes.

Oh, well, in that case, can you speak up a bit, and use shorter words?

LinusK in all seriousness and sincerity I suggest to you that your failure to understand the sarcasm in this remark would indicate that there is a lot you have misunderstood when reading or listening to things feminists (and perhaps people in general…) have said. This failure to note ironic, sarcastic, or otherwise non-serious intent may mean you are getting an inaccurate picture of things.

Yeah, but an answer would pretty likely have to include more personal information. I don’t think it’s unreasonable for jz78817 to not want to discuss it.
With that being said, though, RNATB is a decent guy, jz78817; it sounds like his overall point was that a bunch of others (the MGTOWs) have similar experiences and reacted by becoming shitty and misogynistic, but – unlike them – you’re a good person . I think he would/will understand why you don’t want to answer. :slight_smile:

Yes yes yes yesyesyesyesyesyesyes.

LinusK, this is a very real possibility. A LOT of feminists (especially when posting/commenting casually as opposed to, say, writing an academic paper) use sarcasm, satire and whatnot. A LOT a lot.

If this is the issue, then it’s potentially just an issue of misunderstanding/miscommunication. That’s good!

no, you know what? instead of being pithy (or just plain pissy) I’ll answer. I’m just not a social person. I don’t like the whole “going out and meeting people” thing. I’m extremely anxious and uncomfortable among groups of people I don’t know. throw me into a situation like that and I’ll look for the first opportunity to get away. I prefer quiet and being by myself. Which means the chances of me meeting someone I really like are slim to none. Can’t find that which you don’t look for.

the difference between me and the dudebros we’re talking about is that I don’t blame other people for this.