[wijvenweek] On the subject of men

After some comments that the winners of Belgium's most recent blog awards were just 'wijvenblogs', a bunch of Flemish female blog authors felt that this was somewhat denigrating and most definitely incorrect. In fact, the type of comment made by your typical male blogger that thinks the blogosphere is his domain, and his only.
So they want wijvenblogs, they'll get them. This week female bloggers have been invited to contribute to wijvenweek, where women will blog about exclusively feminine subjects...
So bear with me, while I break out my tiara and unleash my feminine wiles on you!

Since today's theme was 'men', it kind of placed me in somewhat of a quandary. After all, this domestic demi-goddess has been sharing the last 11 years of her lifetime with... a woman. And while I do know men, I don't actually sleep with them, wake up with them or even work with them at this point.

So I thought, and thought, and thought. And then the infamous light bulb popped over my head. What about a post about the ideal man? Except there is no such thing, and I can certainly profess to not having found one, since I finally opted in favour of a woman instead.

Then I reflected on my professional career, where in my last job, before self-employed land, I was the only girl batting on a team of five of the most chauvinistic men I've ever met. Considering that I started my career working as one of three girls on a team of 13 men, I should have come prepared... I mean, what better way to start your Monday mornings than to have your boss walk by your desk and ask you if you had sex this weekend? Uh no, I've been out dancing since Friday night, have slept all of two hours, had too much whiskey and disgusting BiFi rolls, at what point of the weekend do you think that I had the time for some sex, was my standard answer, which inevitably would elicit a guffaw...

The little scouts troop with which I worked, for lack of a better expression since their favourite passtime was outdoor sports during office hours, might have invented the glass ceiling for all I care. God forbid that a woman should actually have, gasp, brains, and even a head on her shoulders. 'Sois-belle et tais-toi'...

So I turned my blogging mind to my male friends: invariably all the men in my life, whether relatives or friends, have always been courteous, caring, loving, in loving relationships, sexy, cute, sweet, intelligent, fun to be with, always up for a joke, clean, good cooks, good house decorators, fun-loving, flaming queens when they need to be, sturdy shoulders to lean on when I needed them, reliable, dependent, ...

Wait, on reflection, they are the ideal men! Dang, if I only I had noticed ;-)

And a dance clip thrown in for extra measure, just because I'd like to stick with my faves. Very 50s, extremely un-PC and on the subject of man... Ann Miller in 'On the Town':