General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I dare to write about: Men and Women Today [View all]OffWithTheirHeads
(10,337 posts)I don't fit. Let me start by saying that I am a 63 year old "boomer". By most defininitions, I'm a mans man. I spent my life in the building trades as a Sheet Metal Worker. I am a certified Scuba diver, owned and piloted a 32 foot sloop in San Francisco bay, raced Porsches and Ferraris and can, and have built houses from drawing the plans to digging the foundations to nailing the shingles on the roof. I build re creations of early American long guns as a hobby. I'm also the guy whose name is on the subscription to Phoenix Home and Garden. Most of the home decor is instigated by me. I'm not a control freak, every purchase is first approved by my wife but I'm the guy who bought the Chippendale dining set, the Chinese apothacary, the Victorian bar and most of the artwork in our house. I also do most of the cooking. The reason we have a set of French copper, a set of All Clad as well as much cast iron is because of me. I can do a Christmas Goose, a Thanks giving Turkey or a New Years standing rib roast that stops conversation because everyone is too busy saying mmm, mmm. I read cook books for pleasure. I also do almost all of the house cleaning. About the only thing I'm not allowed to do is the laundry. Something about not putting red stuff with white stuff. Go figure.
Do I have a fragile male ego? Yes. The nice thing about being 63 is that I don't much give a fuck what most people think about me at this point but my wife can cut me to ribbons with a comment. Most everybody else I can put on ignore.
We have been married for 26 years now so I guess it works for us. Am I weird? Oh hell yes but, and I can only speak about this from a male perspective, the male children and grand children in our family seem much like me.
I think for the most part, you are probably correct in your overall observations but the world is changing and some of us don't quite fit the broad brush.