Wednesday 22 October 2014

Let's Talk About...

... housework. Or rather, let’s talk about how much housework chaps get up to do during the week.

Housework remains the last frontier to be crossed and conquered, the territory where we will plant our Male of the Species Flag once we have orbited around the sink and landed in front of the ironing board. This time, though, there will be no talk of conspiracy or dodgy images that might confuse viewers. We will have a dust-filled Hoover to prove our case.

When the moment arrives, we will be able to say that we, men, have finally claimed true ownership of housework. The glass ceiling has been broken. And whilst you are there, smashing that menacing and ubiquitous overhead surface do us a favour and get rid of the cobwebs, please. You know what spiders are like at this time of the year.

Joking aside (well, only just and that’s half-joking, by the way), what is it with us, blokes and housework? We have crossed other boundaries, for instance, our open-minded approach to grooming gave us the “metrosexual” years ago who has now metamorphosed into the “spornosexual”. With a full Brazilian. No problems with sharing girlfriend/wife’s night cream but sorting out the dirty laundry? You might as well book a place in the next “watching paint dry” avant-garde art show (possibly a future Turner prize?).

Your blog host has a confession to make. I am fond of some house chores. Cooking, cleaning (including vacuuming), doing the washing-up, ironing and mowing the lawn (I know it’s an outdoor activity but still inside the home, so it is technically speaking, housework)? Count me in. Doing the laundry, tidying up and dusting? Don’t like them. Especially the tidying up as a lot of the mess in our house is my responsibility.

It wasn’t always thus. If I were to attempt to chart my evolution in the housework chain in a scale of one to ten, one representing minimum housework and ten maximum, I’ve gone from zero (years lived in Cuba) to seven or eight (years lived in the UK.so far). The reason is simple: I grew up with four women in a one-bed flat in downtown Havana. Until thirteen the only other man in the house was my dad and when he finally got kicked out by my mum I remained as the sole beneficiary of my late Nan, late auntie, mum and – to a lesser extent – cousin’s attentions. If I ever picked up a broom to sweep, my grandma asked me with a straight-looking face: “Are you ill?” and snatched the broom away from me.

A fellow fighter in our campaign
That is why my form of rebellion arrived in the form of housework. Whereas some of my male contemporaries still have a laissez-faire attitude to domestic chores, I am of the opinion that this is where the next revolution will come from.

Let’s talk about housework, fellas, because this will be our first wave of “masculinism” (it’s not a proper words, by the way, I’ve just made it up. Sorry, I’m still working on the marketing side of this campaign. It’s not even a good word, I confess. Unlike “feminism” with three, “masculinism” has four syllables which makes it not catchy at all). So women fought for the vote, and then for their reproductive rights and later on for their right to wear whatever they wanted to wear? Well, you ain’t seen nothing yet, because we, men, will fight against the myriad prejudices, still rife in our society, that tar us with the unfair brush of being anti-housework. We shall fight these misconceptions on the beaches, we shall fight them on the landing grounds... Sorry, wrong speech. We shall fight them at the sink (not with fists, but with our Marigolds on), we shall fight them behind the couch, we shall fight them with an ironing board; we shall never surrender.

Let’s talk about housework. And let’s also talk about the first wave of “masculinism”. Now, fellow male bloggers and male readers, who of you will side with me? You can start by helping me find a new name for the campaign and get rid of the cobwebs.

© 2014

Next Post: “Sunday Mornings: Coffee, Reflections and Music”, to be published on Sunday 26th October at 10am (GMT)

22 comments:

  1. If it is any consolation to you gentlemen out there, many of us ladies are not fans of housework, either, but we do it because it needs to get done. I do love to organize!!! I love things neat and tidy, ready when I need them, I cannot stand clutter.

    As for the laundry, I just throw anything I need to wash directly into the washer. Since my clothes don't run, there is no need to separate colours, so this makes the laundry task a lot easier to take. :)

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  2. Rather than approaching my own experience from a historical context, I will concentrate on the contemporary: Being a bachelor, any and all housework, indoor and outdoor, is solely my province.

    I do dishes daily, make my bed each morning (unless I am ill), do laundry twice a week, shovel snow when necessary (good upper body exercise), cut grass no less than eight days and, preferably, many more days between cuts (dislike walking), dust and vacuum every three to four months or when company is known to be coming, and .... what else is there ?? Oh, yes .... buttons and guns. I usually sew buttons on the same day they come off and clean guns the same day I shoot them.

    When I was in my twenties, I could not understand why many men and women chose to maintain separate apartments when in most other ways they were very much a couple. I am pleased to say I have come to understand and to appreciate the benefits of maintaining separate residences.

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  3. Everything is as clean as can be, here with my ocd haha always been clean and easier to keep things clean then to have to clean up messes.

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  4. hey i tell you what, my wife thinks that housework is sexy...so i washed dishes, folded laundry and did some general pick up...and now i need to get off the computer...so....

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  5. Hey! No need to fight to win this battle! I'm sure the women of the world would be more than happy to "let" men do as much housework as they'd like. In fact, it's a little-known secret that seeing her man wash the dishes or vacuum the carpet is a very strong aphrodisiac for most women.

    I think younger men are much more likely to do housework than the guys from my generation. And I think that's a good thing.

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  6. Los hombres de esta generación ya han tomado el rol de hacer los trabajos del hogar, saludos.

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  7. I live alone, so if any of you blokes want somewhere to practise, I've got several rooms that could do with a hoovering and a lawn to cut!

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  8. IMO men make good housewives. They seem to be good at everything - except being tidy, which they haven't all mastered. I'm working on that; lessons come free in our house.

    How about Web Organiser for the removal of spider webs?

    Great post, Cuban.

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  9. Ha...you have just become my favourite man!
    Seriously though, I must be so lucky...my partner does so much around the house, and you've made me feel a touch guilty...think I may have been taking him for granted.
    Well never again...I promise!! ;)

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  10. Ni a las mujeres nos gustan, pero no tenemos otro remedio que hacerlas ya que todos ensuciamos, por eso hay que compartirlas siempre y cuando los dos trabajen fuera del hogar.
    Saludos

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  11. In our household we take a minimalist approach, we do the housework but we don't obsess over it. My partner always does the washing up and the vacuuming. We share cooking and laundry (though I do most of both of those).

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  12. Thanks a lot for your comments.

    Greetings from London.

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  13. I actually don't mind doing housework. In fact, I've been doing my own laundry for the past two and half decades (did not like how my wife and previously my mother did my clothes).


    Father Nature's Corner

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  14. Ha! I think you are probably quite a physical person, since you are a dancer, and physical people often don't mind housework, if they have time for it. Maybe I speak for myself who am a physical person. I am not so good at organization, but I love the actual work of the cleaning--though I don't do it enough. A wonderful candid and clever post, and especially re your childhood. Thanks! k.

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  15. Ha.. if you decide you need the practice, you may come visit any time!

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  16. Ugh - I hate housework! It is indeed something to be shared.

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  18. Interesting discussion here! My husband and I have gender reversed roles in our household. I fix stuff and do yardwork, and he cooks (enjoys it) and shops for groceries. The kids and I do dishes. I'm messier but I also do more housework. He will clean the kitchen and occasionally do his own laundry, but it's easier for me to do most since I work at home. We feel like our split is fair, but you are right about housework being the final frontier.

    Thanks too for your kind comments about my daughter's song.

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  19. Thanks for your comments.

    Sarah, it's the same here in my household. My wife does DIY and I do most of the chores except for the ones I mentioned in the column. But when it comes to fixing things, it's my wife who usually does it.

    Greetings from London.

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  20. my husband and i share the housework and it was never something that we needed to discuss really...i love cooking as well... hovering has a meditative quality - ha - sometimes i get so lost in thoughts that i'm not even sure if i hovered that part of the room already...smiles

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  21. I do a fair amount of the housework--I am always the one to make the bed (unless I leave before someone is up) and do a lot of the kitchen work and sometimes dust or vacuum. There was something I saw a few days ago about the additional time women spend on housework verses men. The US was at the bottom (there were three countries below us: Norway, Sweden and Denmark, I think, were closer to being egalitarian. India and Mexico were the worse with women spending 300 minutes more doing household tasks verse the US where it was something like 40. In no country (at least none on the list) did men do more work.

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