Poor men. They are doing it so tough these days. You have to feel so sorry for them. Their "out-of home leisure" time is decreasing and they are no longer fancy free as they once were.
We men can no longer just slip down to the local for a quick beer after dinner with ya mates, have a chat about Tim Blair, then duck around to the local brothel for some sexual relief before trotting back home to pick up the fast car and have a quick burn down the freeway with ya mates in the small hours of the morning.
Bettina Arndt thinks the women have got the men on a very short lease. No more sex, drugs and rock'n roll. Men are tied down to the family and they are staggering under the weight of family responsibilities whilst working much longer hours. Rarely are they allowed off the lease so they can roam the urban environment as they once did. The glory days of the lifestyle recommended by Tim Blair, fast cars sex and guns are well gone. The women are just not allowing the men to have the unrestricted leisure necessary for their libido says Bettina.
Poor men. No doubt their being home-bound cleaning the floors, changing the nappies and doing the cooking has all to do with feminism
Wasn't it not so long ago that feminists were being attacked by conservative women for their prejudices against motherhood and putting their careers above family?
So, now that men are having to carrying some of the unpaid burden of the reproductive economy (ie. housework, child-rearing, etc) does that mean we are going to have a decreased working week and finally start getting towards the leisure society that we've been promised for the last fifty years?
Socialist feminists wrote about this years ago. Bettina probably wasn't listening.
Posted by: dj on June 5, 2003 11:49 AMWe men can no longer just slip down to the local for a quick beer after dinner with ya mates, have a chat about Tim Blair, then duck around to the local brothel for some sexual relief before trotting back home to pick up the fast car and have a quick burn down the freeway with ya mates in the small hours of the morning.Heh. Speak for yourself!
On a more serious note, I should note here that men like me owe a debt to the feminists.
There's no longer the pressure on men to actually get married and have a family. It's perfectly acceptable now to be a 30something bloke and be single.
My dad, now, he was in an unhappy marriage working away at his career to keep his unhappy wife and 2 screaming kids happy when he would rather have been ambling by in the pub. Why did he do this? Because that was the expectation on men when you grew up in rural SA.
Instead of being in the rat race, paying off a mortgage I am free to potter away in my undemanding factory job. It brings in enough money for me to pay for my Foxtel and my DSL internet, and I happily spend my nights blogging away instead of being a 'family man'.
And in part I owe that freedom to feminists. So let it not be said that I'm ungrateful. Here's to you, feminists everywhere.
Posted by: Scott Wickstein on June 6, 2003 02:11 AMgary, i blogged on her article too. talk about a weird spin she has.
Posted by: Gianna on June 6, 2003 10:05 AM