…the more they stay the same. I figured I would take a lighthearted stab at gender roles this week. I don’t think it is a secret that I am a stay-at-home dad (if this is new information for you, I suggest you have a look through my archives) so clearly the traditional gender lines have been blurred in our family. At first it was hard. Very hard. I have, though, come to enjoy it, almost revel in it (so much so I created this comic). I no longer see parenting as a gender issue. I do not refer to taking care of my daughter as babysitting. She is my kid and we spend a lot of time together. But none of this is the point of the post. This post is about a little thing that never seems to get blurred.
Spiders, big spiders in particular, creep me right out. Now, this borderline fear of 8 legged beasties is by no means rational, nor is it rooted in some traumatic experience with a deadly creature in my past. I am Canadian, so I am more likely to get struck by lightning twice than require hospitalization due to a spider bite. I am just assuming that the shiver that works its way up my spine when I encounter anything larger and hairier than a Daddy Long Legs is some kind of generic human conditioning rooted in my DNA. Given this, I had responded to the friendly arachnid with a live and let live policy, until I was married. Now we come to the point. It is my job in our house to deal with all things gross, hairy and crawly because I am the boy.
Quite simply I find this unfair, bordering unjust. At the sight of something crawling on the carpet (and it gives me shivers just to write about it) I am asked, nee ordered, to dispatch the vile creature. Now where does this come from? If I were to suggest that my wife MUST do the laundry BECAUSE of her gender I would get the glare. In fact, if I were to suggest that she do anything based on the fact that she is a girl we would have a ‘conversation’ about it. I, however, must accept my lot and clear the house of things that crawl if I personally don’t want them there. The funny part is that I not only must deal with the problem, but often I have coaching. “Don’t let it go in there!” or “Oh God, there it is!” So what is a poor boy to do? Sadly I have no answer for you save maybe this: Guys, we’ve had our run and gender roles have blurred for a reason – times change. So these little things that remain our domain should be coveted. We no longer hunt Mammoth for food with spears, we no longer fight off large hoards of invading marauders bent on destroying our village, we are left only with things like exorcising the house of lowly bugs. Embrace it, our women have been blasted with gender stereotypes for eons. This one isn’t so bad in the grand scheme of things.
Of course, don’t even get me started on rodents. Yuck.
Addendum: The first few times I tried catch and release the mighty spider, but after a few attempts that almost made me dry heave in absurd fear, I decided to take the less humane route. Yep, sorry spider lovers, I killed it and my reasoning was twofold. 1) The most recent spider was a wolf spider and I swear it was looking at me, studying me and that is just creepy and 2) the damn thing might come back. Period.
Source:
http://bythefingernails.com/the-more-things-change/
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