Idiot Hypocrisy: The Division of Labor in American Marriages (2)
Rebutting the One-Sided, Feminist-Inspired Portrayal of Work Done by Husbands & Wives
Feminists, like QAnon believers, aren’t much into reading anything that violates their sacred beliefs.
To provide simple evidence that doesn’t require (much) reading, Idiot Hypocrisy posts use images to visually illustrate why so much of feminism’s sacred beliefs are nothing but rank hypocrisy.
This installment is the second one that rebuts the one-sided, feminist-inspired accounting of the division of labor in marriages. The first one described how feminists propagated a one-sided depiction of the division of labor between husbands and wives by, for example, producing surveys that misrepresent or by simply ignoring facts that don’t support their gender-biased worldview.
Feminists have also overlooked how men are usually the ones who are usually handle most of the dirty and dangerous chores that are excluded by the feminist portrayal of “housework”.
A book by former NY NOW member Warren Farrell, Women Can't Hear what Men don't Say: Destroying Myths, Creating Love, lists 54 categories of these “husband-only” chores that feminists neglect to include in their complaints of a “gender housework gap”.
“Husband-Only” Chores
Following is a partial list of Farrell’s husband-only chores:
Activities most likely to break an arm, leg, or neck, or to crack a skull: Among couples, who climbs tall ladders or checks out the roof? Who uses ladders to do house painting; or to clean outside windows; or to go into the attic? Who shovels wet snow off a roof to avoid roof damage, resulting in many men slipping off the roof every winter?
Activities most likely to trigger heart attacks: Shoveling snow off a driveway or sidewalk; pushing a car that’s out of gas off a crowded street into the gas station.
Activities most likely to cause lower back problems or hernia operations: Moving heavy items like furniture or refrigerators
“Male-only cleaning”: Includes a variety of tasks, including car washing; cleaning out basements, attics, fireplace, & gutters (the darkest and dirtiest parts of the house); replacing heating/AC filters
Yard work: Lawn mowing, fertilizing, weeding, leaf raking, tree trimming, planting new trees and bushes
Exposure to poisons: It’s normally husbands who are exposed to toxic poisons around the house, including insecticides & foggers; weed killers and other landscape poisons
Carpentry: From building shelves to repairing decks and other house structures
Assembly: Mail-order products, toys, bikes, furniture, bookcases, beds; putting up kids’ plastic pools, backyard tents
Car buying, maintenance, and repair: These aren’t normally considered “housework”, but surely should be included as part of husbands’ contribution, right?
Digging: Holes and ditches, removing of boulders, tree stumps, etc.
Dragon killing - modern version: Killing flies, roaches, spiders, other household pests
D.A.D. = Dead animal disposal: includes killing mice or rats in home or disposing of pet gerbil who have just died or handling it when the dog been run over on the street
D.A.D. = Dead Animal Disposal Emergency prevention: noticing & repairing frayed wires, plugs, sockets; testing smoke detectors; preparing for bad weather (securing loose furniture, etc., clearing rain gutters)
Male equivalents to diaper changing: plunging backed-up toilets, wiping up child’s vomit (wife: “YOU have to do it… it makes ME want to vomit.”)
Bill paying, financial and retirement planning: Although women are capable of doing these tasks, in most cases the responsibility falls to husbands
Coaching as childcare: Coaching baseball, football other formal teams; teaching kids sports skills, like throwing and catching balls
Garbage: Men almost always take out the garbage. A must-read on how women get out of trash duty is Taking Out the Trash? That’s Still a Man’s Job, Even for the Liberal Coastal Elite.
Finally, feminists completely ignore the male job of “protector”, or unpaid bodyguard:
“What would you pay someone who agreed that, if he was ever with you when you were attacked, he would intervene and try to get himself killed slowly enough to give you time to escape? What is the hourly wage for a bodyguard? You know that is your job as a man— every time you are with a woman . . . any woman, not just your wife.”1
Farrell ends his list with the following observation:
“So if men do all this, why don’t we know about it? In part because instead of complaining, men offer to carry the luggage, barbecue, build the shelves, or shop for the stereo. And in part because we perform our roles unconsciously, as with our bodyguard role: it’s hard to complain about that of which we’re unconscious.”
Perhaps feminists might want to stop complaining about the “gender housework gap” and start appreciating the many ways that husbands DO contribute their fair share.