A Place to Call His Own

Ya’ gotta feel sorry for guys these days. They just don’t get any breaks, and certainly they don’t’ have any place they can call there own any longer. James Twitchell, author of Where Men Hide can provide you with some entertaining reading as long as you don’t take the text too seriously. Accompanied by some great black and whites, Ken Ross has the ability to capture stark male realism underscoring that a picture is worth its weight in a short essay.

This light read stirred up some interesting memories. I think about the males in my life – dad, stepdads, brother, husband… seems the woman of the house has always had a way of stripping the guy of his sacred places. None have been deer hunters, or boxers, or members of secret societies, but each has longed for his territory. A place, like a dog that marks his spot… and speaking of four-legged critters… One had a dog, I remember, but late in life he “got” allergies and his lifelong golden was replaced by two frou frou shitzous; a far cry from the manly man’s dog.

Today there is just no way any self-respecting woman would allow a man to take hold of her garage. Have you noticed that garages are being sanitized and organized and finished off with high gloss or carpeted flooring?

Real men have been chased out of salons especially since barbershops are now frequented by guys with dyed purple hair sporting mullets. And ever since hairdressers went franchised like Fantastic Sam’s or Super Cuts - a guy has to get in and out and under for less than $10 bucks; that Andy of Mayberry hair cutting experience is long gone. And so it all boils down to one place; one sacred male space: the bathroom.

It didn’t occur to me the importance of the bathroom until we had three males living under one roof with only two bathrooms. Every home should be equipped with one bathroom per occupant. That is not a luxury it is a necessity. It has been well documented that the bodily functions performed in a bathroom by both male and female take the same amount of time. So why is it that a woman can do in 3 minutes what takes a man 30 minutes? Newspapers, books, magazines, why even catalogues, anything to take into the privacy of his highness’ only quiet space.