I’m watching a tv drama where the husband has been a bit silly but certainly doesn’t commit adultery. In another relationship the woman “needs a break” from the man because he’s been suspended from his job and is miserable/under her feet at home.
The women decide the male has to leave the home and live elsewhere. And the male actually does it. Like with his tail between his legs.
Where the fuck did this bollocks come from?
I remember back in the day the male might sleep on the sofa. tbh, at least that way you might get some peace and quiet.
The sofa thing always bothered me too. It’s his bed, too? Why the hell is it assumed that he should leave? Anyway the few times we have been mad I generally prefer to be the one to storm out dramatically.
Now the man has to leave, too? And if he’s not working, how is he supposed to pay for it?
Yeah, the sofa/hotel thing always made me think “Hey, you’re so pissed and unhappy, YOU go sleep somewhere else.”
Granted it might be more understandable in a situation where the man is obviously in the wrong and filled with shame, such as caught in an affair or something.
Yeah, this makes no sense. Unless it’s genuinely and exclusively her house, anyway. If the bed/room/house/whatever belongs to a couple, and one partner doesn’t want to share it any more, they should be the one to find somewhere else to be. I blame sexism for this trope - some combination of ‘the home is the woman’s place’ and ‘men make the money, so they can afford to sleep in a hotel or whatever’ stereotypes. And like all the rest of the silly sexist tropes, it should probably go away.
tbh, I suspect it’s an extension of the female staying with children idea. But even that was nonsense - like the father doesn’t matter and the woman’s hurt feelings come before the kids/father dynamic.
I’m glad it’s not just me who things this feels bogus.
Not too long ago, it wouldn’t have been that unusual for a wife not to have her own finances. Making the husband go to a hotel for the night could, in part, be a function of the fact that he was the only one of the two of them who had money for a hotel.
The media rendition I’m thinking of from the OP’s discussion is the male finding his possessions on the curb and the keys to the house locks changed when he comes home (“from a hard day’s work”… seems like part of the cultural background of this particular meme is a stay-at-home woman who has the opportunity to “throw the bum out” without his presence and active resistance.)
This trope was sent up pretty well in A Serious Man when Larry Gopnik’s wife Judith and her lover Sy Ableman tell Larry they’ve agreed it would be best for Larry to move out of the house into the Jolly Roger motel.
Majority of protagonists in fiction are male. It makes for more narrative drama to follow a down and out hero to a motel than it does to see his wife storm out.
[d&r]