The Men Who Sabotage Housework
My laptop was busted. The IT guy in my office was sitting by my little desk, setting up my replacement computer. It was nearly Thanksgiving, so by the Unwritten Rules of Office Etiquette, he was required to ask me about my plans. To be polite, I asked about his in return.
“The wife does all the cooking, so it’ll be great for me.” He laughed, as if this was the greatest of jokes. I cringed. The wife. Reducing his romantic life-partner to a common noun who cooks robbed her of any semblance of personality or person-hood. The IT guy continued, undeterred: “I’m not allowed to cook anymore.” Not allowed, I thought.
Not allowed?
He then told me The Epic of the Green Bean Casserole, which can be boiled down to him putting two cups of salt into, yes, a green bean casserole. He then placed a ban on his own cooking at home, leaving all the food preparation to “the wife.” He never once referred to her by name.
The IT guy utilized a common tactic employed by many cishet men to avoid housework. By being purposefully inept, the woman in his life — a romantic partner in this case — felt forced to swoop in and take over. And for anyone out there who believes this was an honest mistake, I ask you to get out a measuring cup and fill it with salt twice, then imagine someone looking at that amount of salt and thinking, “Sure, seems…
