I figured a close stereotype for men, would be that they should all be farmers. The thing is, there are under two million farmers in the US as of 2023. So statistically, an equivalent occupation/role should have a larger number.
“Women should be barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen” transcribes to “Men should be shirtless and mentally ill in the garage.”
As a millennial, if I could afford a house, I PROMISE you I wouldn’t also be able to afford mental health treatments, or a shirt.
So this tracks…if I could get a house.
Clearly you just need to be a man and work harder and more hours, at the expense of your mental health, to be a better provider because that is your only value to your family. The more emotionally shut-off and weekday war-torn you are, the better the space in which you can escape work and home stress by self-isolating and self-medicating with alcohol. Your chosen man-cave is totally not a place to hide your emotional breakdowns where you silently sob as you suffer the masculine burdens of building stress and feelings of inadequacy alone. Just remember, communicating your feelings is what women do; men dig their grave faster and deeper because that takes manly strength.
…with the exception of having a family vs living alone, you just described what my life would be life without medical issues. I mean,it’s still mostly what you said. You just left out the part about not affording to be able to pay medical bills too.
You made the classic weak feminine male mistake of going to the doctor. A real man never goes to the doctor because you are fine and you just need to be strong and it will go away because it is just a benign affliction. You can’t burden your family with worry or medical debt if you don’t go to the doctor, that’s just science. Weak men are worried about their health before it is too late, strong men fight treatable or curable undiagnosed illnesses until it kills them like a man. Just remember, a real man gets diagnosed before retirement by a coroner.
Retirement??? No. My generation doesn’t get that.
That’s the neat part, death is the retirement.
Honestly, us millenials not having houses is probably a huge win for climate change… if I had the space to setup up a forge and learn metalworking I don’t think I’d be able to resist. “But I can do it in minecraft…”
Oh my god. We’re going to have a story soon where a bunch of 35 year olds buy a vacant plot of land, and then dig downwards. Then they’ll disrupt some plumbing, or cables run underground, or gas pipes. SOMETHING bad will be cut, and when they get questioned, they’ll say they were strip mining for diamonds.
So… wanna go in on a vacant plot of land?
Obviously!
Who said it needs to be your garage?
A “garage” means any space a man can claim as his own to self-isolate and cry quietly in. Be it a garage, basement, shed, or man-cave. As long as he can suffer silently and nobody knows, he is a strong man and every strong man needs his “garage”.
@Death_Equity did.
Realistically, you only need a garage
Does being mentally ill in my own room count too?
So long as you are alone, your realized value has the ability to provide for a hypothetical family, and your liver can tank a half a bottle of brown liquor a night without the spins.
Men should swallow their feelings and go break their bodies and mind for a paycheck. Then die younger because of it.
We’re looking for fake answers, not real ones.
That’s definitely still a thing. I’m too tired and sore to move today, but at least I’ve got the day off I suppose?
That men should be able to fix things and be mechanically inclined.
Yup, I have an essential tremor and fucking hate that one. I don’t mind strength based tasks… but if I try and screw in a light bulb I’ll probably crush it accidentally… don’t even get me started on appliances like blenders and shit - in the best case scenario I’ll brick the device… but I’ll probably injur myself.
Unpopular opinion: We should. Obviously as someone who builds and fixes things for living I’m a little biased but I do look down on men that lack any handyman skills (and so do many women). I think doing things like being able to change a tire on a car is about the bare minimum a man should know how to do. I’ll cut you some slack if you don’t own a car or a licence.
Yeah I think men and women should all have some basic level of repair skills. I feel like somewhere along the line everyone got too afraid to break things or hurt themselves.
Why a man though - why not just a person?
What is it that means that men ought to be able to do those things, but not women?
All my best workers in shop and on site have been women, hands down. No egos; they listen and learn super-fast; they take great pride in acccomplishment and quality; they don’t tell me how their dad did it or that they’ve “just always done it this way”.
Because in general men are good with things and women are good with people. There’s a good reason the vast majority of construction workers, mechanics and engineers are men and it’s not (only) because women aren’t welcome on those fields.
I think that’s a massive over-generalisation to be honest. Women are just as capable at any of those things.
I’m not sure why you would want to look down on people who don’t know how to do a thing, but at least do it equally.
Ofcourse it’s a generalization. I’m speaking of all men and women as groups. This isn’t about individuals.
If you pick random 100 men and random 100 women from the population and give them the task of building/fixing something the men are going to perform better every single time.
I’m a little biased but I do look down on men that lack any handyman skills
That is a lot biased to the point that you can’t even see that other men’s lives may have put them in a position of not learning those things or even wanting to learn those things. It’s great that you know how to do those things but just because someone has a penis doesn’t mean they have to learn how to be handy. That doesn’t make them any less of a man, just different from you.
Protectors & providers
It’s one of the worst kind of inequality which women don’t (or rarely) ever examine and question if it’s compatible with modern ideas
I don’t know about the provider thing these days but I feel like the protector part still holds true. If you hear a person messing with your door lock in the middle of the night it’s the guys job to go check out on it. Statistically virtually every man is stronger than all women so ofcourse that’s who you send in when there’s a risk for physical altercation.
I agree and that’s still poison.
The idea that when something growling outside the cave has everybody shaking inside, it’s the guy’s job to get a pointed stick and go outside, knees knocking, heart pounding.
This is not compatible with modern life. Especially if the person scrounging around outside is a meth-addled woman, and I happen to go out in uppercut her.
Men should be climbing the corporate ladder
Aside… as a technical expert, can I just mention that the fact that we envision it as a “corporate ladder” is the biggest fucking load of bullshit?
I can confidently state that I’m much more competent than my fucking CEO.
Men bring home enough bacon for the whole household to live off comfortably.
I think I’d just get tired of bacon.
Heresy
That every man has to be a breadearner, a handyman and be able to physically defend their home&family.
Anecdotal, being from Louisiana, this is what I’ve been pressured with my entire life.
Doing manual labor in general, not just farming. Or being in charge at work
Men should be the breadwinners, men should be the one to ask the woman out, men should pay for the first date, men have to be the ones who propose, men should be 6 feet tall… It sucks especially if you’re an introvert, shy, and nobody ever explained this shit to you as a teenager. Therapy ftw.
Have to be a raging bull of testosterone and manly interests while also being a round the clock worker to be a breadwinner and also being a father figure to any children in your life on demand
The most direct I can think of is that men should be the sole breadwinner of their family, and that if his wife earns more than him (or even has a job at all) then that’s some kind of failing on his part.
There are many other similar stereotypes. For example:
That men have an obligation to defend their/their significant other’s ‘honor’ with violence.
That men shouldn’t cry or otherwise show strong emotion under nearly any circumstance.
Men shouldn’t want to interact with children, especially other people’s kids.
I can go on all day.
Men not being allowed to be emotionally expressive has led to so many mental health problems…
“Men should all love football.”
Wait, which football? The one they play with their hands, or the one they play with their feet?
Actually the one you play with a skull. Most call it Griffball though.
There is only one football, and it is played by the country that has been to the Moon 6 times and won two world wars.
Everyone should love football
A man should get violent and angry and protective when someone hits on his woman.
Especially when that someone is themselves.
No wait I know the answer to this one… If you have a penis, you should be able to use tools competently and perform basic maintenance and repairs. I learned this just by watching cartoons and tv when I was a child so I taught myself all that stuff just because I thought you were assumed to. I now take $75+ per hour from men who cant figure out how a screwdriver works. I am virtual husband to many women who married paper shufflers who can’t even tighten a loose doorknob screw.
