Husband Training? Really?
So here’s an email that I just received a couple of minutes ago about a radio broadcast revolving around love, marriage and everything in between.
Conversations Live with Vicki St. Clair Presents
Amy Sutherland - Secrets of Life, Love and Marriage AND
Peggy Spenser, MD and Sheila Kay - Living it up over 40
When Amy Sutherland wrote about using animal-training techniques on her husband to improve their marriage for the New York Times “Modern Love” column, her article became the New York Times Most-Emailed article of 2006, led to book and movie deals (Naomi Watts is currently slated to star). And she still receives letters from readers asking for relationship advice!
Fresh off an appearance on the Today Show and with a feature in the current issue of Newsweek magazine, journalist Amy Sutherland shares the secrets of WHAT SHAMU TAUGHT ME ABOUT LIFE, LOVE AND MARRIAGE: Lessons for People from Animals and Their Trainers. Learn how working with animals and progressive animal trainers changed the author. And find out what her scariest moment was like during her research.
Also in this hour, you’ve heard of 50 ways to leave your lover. Now we have 50 Ways to Leave Your 40s: Living It Up in Life’s Second Half. Co-authored by a savvy doctor, Peggy Spencer, M.D, and award-winning writer and graphic designer, Sheila Key, 50 Ways to Leave Your 40s explains how to rock and roll your way over the hill.
Shamu? Really?
It’s interesting that I got this email, because my wife and I were just discussing yesterday evening the images and roles men and women play on television. While I agree with her that women’s images and stereotypes on are shabby at best, there is room to argue that men are just as stereotypically depicted.
Husbands on sitcoms are either gruff with a soft side, lovably dumb, or philanderers with no conscience. I’m not philanderer, but it seems that I can crack a joke, forget about chores and be moody with the best of them. Just depends on what day it is.
The sad part is that the stereotypes have some sense of validity to them. If they didn’t,
they wouldn’t be exaggerated on television and in movies. TV executives either grew up with somebody, live with somebody or know somebody who lives with these kinds of men. They get the message to the writers, who also have experienced the same interactions with men, and they bring it into our homes regularly for us to view and continue the cycle.
Even sadder, the majority of us husbands and fathers don’t work to erase them. We are content with being lampooned with blown up emotions, even if we are much more diverse than our depictions.
No wonder women feel like they have to train us. It seems that being tricked and molded into a better provider and companion is exactly what we need.
I say we take a stand. I say we cast off the shackles of labels like ‘blundering,’ ‘gullible,’ and ‘lazy.’ Let’s take up the cause of regaining our place in homes and communities around the world. Let’s partner with our wives to make our lives more exciting and fulfilling. Let’s do all the things they say we can’t do, and realize that it’s our pleasure to do them.
Right after March Madness.