Masculinity

This week in class we watched a few videos depicting what our society considers a "real man." The video by Lajoie about stay at home dads was espeically funny to me, since my dad is currently a stay at home dad. When we moved to Illinois 6 years ago for my mom's job, my dad had to leave his business in Cleveland. He is still able to run his business from our home in Illinois, and he goes to Ohio almost every other weekend to maintain it. Therefore, he is at home most of the time while my mom is in Chicago working. My dad is the one who takes my sister and I to school when we need a ride, and he sometimes takes us out to dinner or even makes dinner for my sister and I, and has it ready for my mom when she gets home from work. In our society, many people think that it is the woman's job to stay at home and take care of the kids, while the man goes out and makes money. This morning on my way to school I was listening to the radio and I was shocked to hear the talk show people supporting this idea. They were having women call in to say how they plan to have a good relationship if they can't cook for their man. They also said that after a woman has a baby and goes on maturnity league, they are expected to stay home with the baby and cook for it and their man. After they said this, an angry woman called in to argue that men can stay at home too and that it is ok if a man knows how to cook better than his girlfriend or wife does. The talk show hosts refuted that idea and said that if a woman doesn't know how to cook, then she will end up alone because no man will want to be with a woman who can't cook for him. This whole discussion made me very uncomfortable and upset, because the talk show hosts were extremely WRONG to say that it is a woman's job to cook and clean, and that it wouldn't make sense if a guy took on that role. My dad can cook, and he does a pretty good job of it. That fact shouldn't make him any less of a "man", at least not in my opinion.