This weekend celebrate the blokes in your life

acotrel says:

05:13am | 24/11/12

‘But the reaction to the First Bloke Tim Mathieson illustrates how hard gender bending is for men. When he divulged in an interview recently that he blow-dries his wife’s hair and draws her a bath after a big day, he quickly became a laughing stock.’

It is funny about that.  A while back, one of my mates was visiting us.  When I washed a few dishes, he carried on as though I was letting the side down.  I think he must have been one of those guys who was afraid he might be gay, when he was young.

Carz says:

07:21am | 24/11/12

If your all for men’s rights in any way shape or form why wasn’t this article published on International Men’s Day instead of nearly a week later. Poor form Punch.

Rosie says:

07:21am | 24/11/12

How regimental and bloody boring if men had to behave exactly how the modern age well schooled women wanted them to be. Sorry but variety is the spice of life and some of us women like to know that our confidence in the judgement of men is fine and don’t need to be reminded or told.

Some women need men like the ‘first bloke’ men that other women see as having their female partner doing what their men do. My husband for example brings in the bacon while I took care of the kids, the house and him and when the kids went to school I got stuck into doing the things I loved, stuff that others don’t normally take up until their retirement from the work force. Also did a lot of voluntary work with children - in tennis, their reading and art and crafts. Now that my husband has retired, he is enjoying taking care of the grandchildren for our children. He takes them to and fro to school, takes them to tennis coaching, listens to them read, check on their homework, everything that I did while our kids were at schools as I refuse to do it a second time. This is so because two incomes are needed these days if you want the best. He loves it and the space I had while he was bringing in the bacon was never invaded. When we are not doing our thing, we go out for a game of golf.

I don’t agree with the behaviour of husbands of a lot of our friends but know that their wives love them dearly and that kind of behaviour gives certain women the confidence they need. As long as they are not psychically abusing them accept it. We also have friends where their wives like to dominate and are always picking on their husbands but put up with her because we like the husband.

Frankly, I am sick of being told how the modern age, well schooled women think men should behave.

Pamela Brown says:

08:13am | 24/11/12

The average bloke doesn’t draw a bath for his woman. or curl her hair and every day is International mens day not just one day of the year . Tim ain’t no average bloke and no woman would put up with a household lay-about in the real world , the burbs - they can’t afford such luxury- a valet to draw bath , do hair etc. .

Der... says:

09:12am | 24/11/12

I’d be really worried if a bloke spent more time in the bathroom than me…. and get out of the kitchen too. This reaks.

ByStealth says:

10:13am | 24/11/12

Thanks for the article Susie. While it would have been nice to have it actually on the day during primetime and not on the weekend after, Its better late than never.

Its a bit depressing that you have to offer platitudes to the ‘women have it worse’ crowd before you can even start talking about the problems that men face.

Even the article on equlity in the workplace has the header ‘Time to be helping men do their share’, as if 50 hour weeks at the office away from their kids is a way to shirk their duties to their family.

In any case, I can see things changing. In 10 years the seriousness of the problems men face in our society will become much more visible as publicised. With luck, we’ll see the mainstream media do more than pay lip service.

Sarah says:

10:49am | 24/11/12

I think men get the raw end of the stick these days. Original feminism was needed and equality was needed but it seems we’ve gone way too far in the wrong direction.

As a female I think its sad to see the way our society demands men act ina certain way and live up to a certain ideal - that suit woman only. We should celebrate the diversity in our sexes and realize that feminism has gone way too far in its aims.

No bra burning, man hating, ‘women can do everything and men are not needed’ from me!

Tubesteak says:

11:18am | 24/11/12

“Perhaps (don’t tell my mum I said this) we now need an International Men’s Day as well?”

The only reason there is a need for IMD is because there is a much-heralded and advertised IWD earlier in the year. I didn’t even notice there was an IMD and only knew about it because someone pointed out there was an IMD on IWD. I didn’t see any advertising, celebration or articles about IMD in any of the major media areas (not SMH, news.com.au or even The Punch).

I woud prefer an International Pull Your Finger Out and Help Yourself Day Because You only Get Out of Life What You Put In Because We’re All Units in the Economy So You Have to do Something Profitable In Order to Earn Money Be Useful and Support Yourself Day. But that might be a bit unwieldy.

“Sure, there are lots of ways women are still struggling: there are only 15 per cent of women on ASX 200 boards, men still earn 17 per cent more than women for doing the same job, and in the SA Parliament only 27 per cent of members are female”

There are fewer women on boards because fewer women attempt to make it to the top. Men aren’t paid more than women; men earn more than women because men pursue higher paying careers and spend more time working. More men stand for parliament than women and more men play the political game than women. No point looking at outcomes and crying discrimination or disadvantage when they can be easily explained as lack of requisite effort.

Men do need to focus more on their health but I think this is improving with younger generations. I generally associate with men my own age (30s and 40s) and notice there are a lot of us into health and fitness. We spend more time talking about our gym sessions than we do talking about football. Movember could help with this as it allows us to consider symptoms. I’ve had a few convos with mates who’ve mentioned that they have one type of symptom or another. My only advice is to see a doctor. I don’t know much about medical things.

This might close the gap partially with life expectancies. But more men die in the workplace due to accidents and die whilst driving (men drive more and further than women which increases risk of accidents) so the outcome won’t be the same when you look at the average.