I remember my wife often saying how exhausting it was for her to have to tell me what to do all the time. It’s why the sexiest thing a man can say to his partner is “I got this,” and then take care of whatever needs taken care of.
I always reasoned: “If you just tell me what you want me to do, I’ll gladly do it.”
But she didn’t want to be my mother. She wanted to be my partner, and she wanted me to apply all of my intelligence and learning capabilities to the logistics of managing our lives and household.
She wanted me to figure out all of the things that need done, and devise my own method of task management.
I wish I could remember what seemed so unreasonable to me about that at the time.
It’s not just about equal division of labor. It’s also about, “this thing is important to her. If he ignores it, he’s saying that what she wants is irrelevant to him.”
And that’s a guy saying, “I’m only spending time with you because it’s pleasant for me.” He’s already decided what’s “really” important, and her input is not welcome.
If he won’t do the dishes and laundry, he’s looking for fun, not a partnership. And his “leftist” ideals will be the same–something he studies because it’s interesting to him; a form of activism that he thinks will bring him a better life. If he can’t do household tasks that matter to a person he loves, he sure as hell can’t support policies that help people whose struggles he doesn’t even acknowledge are real.
“Stevie Nicks surrounds herself with girls. Wherever she goes, she brings girls. “I can’t imagine you in a bathing suit,” someone says in an interview for Rolling Stone, when Stevie says she likes to play in the pool in her backyard. “Yeah, well, you never will,” Stevie says. “And there is never — ever — a man in the backyard. If there is, he is banished to the front of the house.” Men don’t get to look at Stevie Nicks unless Stevie Nicks wants men to look at Stevie Nicks.”
Is it just me or does Nova Scotia as a province seem to produce a disproportionate amount of ‘WTF is going on’ stories/news compared to its population.
Like my Nova Scotia tag probably has more posts in it than all the other atlantic provinces combined.
Like every few days there’s something weird or messed up going on in Nova Scotia.
It only has about 900,000 people.
I’m a Nova Scotian and I endorse this post.
We’ve always got weird shit going on. Come check out our giant sinkhole that is currently threatening to swallow a town. Come hop on a zodiac raft and ride 4-foot-high tidal waves that flow backwards up our rivers twice daily. Come grow an 1,100lb pumpkin, hollow it out, optionally strap an outboard motor on it, hop in and race other pumpkins across a lake. Come to Dagger Woods and see if you can hear the screams of the Hidey-Hinder, our local cryptid. Visit the Drowned Forest, the Everlasting Barrens, the Garden of Eden, or the Hellgate - all completely real places. Come visit one of our two completely different and separate museums on opposite ends of the province dedicated to the Tuna Fish.
