Leave the seat up

An excellent letter was featured today in the Age newspaper. It's from a young woman, Kim James, whose boyfriends have been of the domesticated metrosexual type. Having lived with these men, and become somewhat exasperated with their domestic over-achievement, she proposes a new list of what modern women really want:

We want an immaculate house, yet never again to see an apron or rubber gloves on our men.

We (women) want a fair share of the cooking and a superior knowledge of which detergent is best for the environment, pets and fertility.

We want out beauty products to greatly outnumber those of our partner's, but at the same time he must smell nice, be mainly soft to the touch and have good oral hygiene.

We want our cars and gardens to be tended to, yet do not want to smell grass clippings or see grease in the bathroom sink/carport.

We want to believe our men are DIY geniuses - and if they're not, they need to fake it.

Most of all, we want our sensitive new age guys to be in touch with our needs without us having to say a word.

And we want all this without (anyone) accusing us of being unrealistic. Impossible to achieve? Then please, I beg you, just leave the toilet seat up.

What's impressive about this list is that Kim James recognises first of all that she wants a combination of masculine and feminine qualities in her ideal boyfriend; second, she realises that this combination is not likely to occur; and third, that when forced to choose she would much prefer the masculine qualities to the feminine.

The moral of the story? It's still going to pay off for men to learn how to change tyres and mow lawns rather than to master the art of the manicure. Women may want a certain amount of grooming and emotional sensitivity in their men, but too much is going to seem effeminate and unappealing to a heterosexual woman.