Meep's Home Improvements

[dandysmom]

There seems to be a trend here away from the sensitive male and back more to the old macho image, more's the pity .......

[angieh]

I think you've done a super job with your bathroom meep! It looks so much cleaner and nicer - you'll be able to relax in your favourite bubble bath and look at serene unblemished walls and ceilings. I felt like that after having the artex ceiling in my bedroom plaster skimmed.

Well done!

[Kazz]

Looks good to me can see a television show on home improvements on the horizon .

[meep]

Kazz, maybe

Thanks Angie and Kazz! OH did comment on it more later in the evening and this morning, saying I'd done a 'good job' with lots of hugs. He's learning It looks a lot lighter and brigher too, especially in the morning with the sun coming in - lovely!

Have been thinking about the hall again - have now begun thinking that as it's a very narrow, wee hall the Dado rail may be too busy for it. It is very small and narrow, not long and narrow. Will try out testers later in the week

Eileen - I agree it is a pity the general male populus seem to be moving back to stereotypical macho type. OH adores Sly Stallone, and I do too, partly because he is a big tough guy in both Rocky and Rambo, but paritcularly in First Blood at the end he cries, unashamedly, and it's very emotional. And also in Rocky his love for Adrian, and his proclomations of it, is very overt with no shame. Rocky is a very tough guy who would protect his family at all costs, but also in touch with how he feels and, I think, all the more a loveable character for it.

Reading lots of Victorian Literature recently, or neo-Victorian, and it still shocks me (despite having studied it for four years!) how that society viewed women as prone to hysteria because of their sex (their womb) and that it was normal for women to be emotionally volatile, and they must be treated as walking time bombs. Yet men were considered far less capable of being hysterical. As if there was a genetic disposition that women are emotional and men aren't. I agree, there are different hormones in men and womn, testosterone being a more aggresive hormone, but as the Victorian era really was a foundation for our modern culture (with some evolution since, albeit, but still a foundation) you can see where our modern idea of women as PMT-ing, chick-flick watching, weak and flimsy emotional wrecks, and men as protective, macho, unemotional heroes comes from.

[dinahsmum]

Is this the home improvements or the human psychology thread?

Interesting about the gender differences though. I heard an educator speaking on the radio recently about how our teaching methods are terribly unhelpful for boys and that too many female teachers 'talking at them' simply encourage them to retreat within themselves. Here's a link to the programme and other research work.

Interesting stuff

[meep]

Oh DM, human psychology and the gender difference plays a huge role in home improvements:

meep: I can't choose between the sunset yellow 1 and sunset yellow 2. but california sands 4 has a nice hue.
OH: uh, yeh, I think they're nice!
meep: but perhaps if we got the sunset yellow 2 in matte instead of eggshell it wouldn't be so loud. but maybe california sands would be better in vinyl.
OH: i think they're all great *fires up xbox*

(the above conversation is a prediction of the conversation to follow in the next few days).

As you can see, gender difference is integral to making choices in home improvement It looks like an interesting article, will check it out this evening at home.

If we want to chat more on this we should really start a new thread!

[dinahsmum]

But but but meep, they are actually really clever and get the best of both worlds (it took me ages to realise and articulate this). 95% of the time we take the decisions, have the casting vote etc etc; 5% of the time they say 'No, I think it should be x'. We, silly fools that we are, think 'Well, he is normally so good, and lets me have it my way, so in this instance I'll step back'.

Who's the fool? He doesn't mind and doesn't even have to think for the majority of the time but, when push comes to shove, on something he is bothered about, he always gets his way

[meep]

DM I have thought the exact same thing, they do have the best of both worlds. They can use their normal silence as a tool of superiority, as if to say "I only speak when it's really important, therefore my opinions right". And they do only need to put in about 5% work But I enjoy being busy and OH enjoys taking it easy, so I guess it work out.