The Boy on Top
Good post.
There is also the effect of Feminism on this whole subject regardless of what end of the spectrum you view it.
I did consider heading in that direction, but its dangerous water... TO be truthful I don't think feminism has drastically altered the requirements on men in a relationship other than re-affirming the move back to pre-Victorian values. TB
Excellent post, but it has only tempered my disappointment as I was kind of expecting a post about Robo-man and bionic implants.
Sorry! You can always ask a question about the bionic man in modern fables... TB
Some wishful thinking here IMHO. Evidence is both from history and cross-culturally than there have usually, perhaps always until very recently, been activities that were exclusively or almost so the preserve of women and those that were ditto of men. The women's ones tend to be domestic in nature, like cleaning, cooking, carrying water, cleaning and feeding small children and collecting certain forms of food. What's your evidence for the claim that in a mining or farming family 100 years ago men and women would share work around the home? I agree they both did stuff, but everything I have read suggests that there was limited overlap - the two sexes on the whole had their own tasks, except maybe in crises like illness.
Men and women ON AVERAGE have somewhat different inclinations and strengths, although the two normal distributions are not very far apart so of course this has nothing to say about the inclinations and abilities of any individual. But the demand from the wackier end of feminism that all men and women should do everything equally is just stupid.
Maybe a modern man is one who accepts that if his partner is in paid employment, he has equal responsibility for keeping the home going. This could still mean that it's always him who fixes the gutters and always her who sews on buttons, or indeed vice versa.
Ah, my eagle eyed friend! I was fairly careful with my wording, and I said shared work rather than shared duties. I'll dig some references up if you like, I was taking a pundits easy trail rather than rigourously defending my argument. This is an argument based on a lifetime of acedemic grazing rather than erudite research.
Your final paragraph is more to my point. Current research shows split of time of "domestic chores" is 70:30 to 60:40. That is on an upward trend since the 60's, though there's been some stagnant periods. It used to be much closer to 50:50. As you rightly point out, that doesn't mean the man cooks one night, the woman the next. There has been a historical split of duties between the sexes, though this does vary between cultures.
However, and I'll try to dig up this reference in particular, there is some interesting Medieval anthropological research which believes post infant childcare was much more evenly split. Mostly because the kids would be put to work beside daddy.
So, my argument is more on the trend towards both parents working, and the right trend towards a more even split of time on domestics.
TB
Very good debate. I enjoyed reading that. Like you - I am not really sure of the actual impact of feminism but I admit there has been some kind of effect.If only to push things (unwittingly) closer to what they once were. You could have gone even futher back into mans history and proved your point more conclusively.
I hear what Potentilla is saying - but the basic differences between the sexes is not the issue here, is it? Or am I missing something?
I sometimes feel that I live in a place where many men are still in the dark ages. I've heard so many modern married Guyanese women say they will never again marry a Guyanese man.
I'm not saying ALL the men here are still in a dark place...but many men here can do with some enlightenment.
There is this gene in men that predisposes them to laziness. Women have it too, just not to the same extent. It is given free rein in some societies, and that's such a damn shame... TB
Is Greavsie's Gustav a modern man?
Ellie! He's a Gnome, and there for completely unreconstructed... TB
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