… then your wife will cheat on you. Or so goes the logic of these Australian commercials for Selley’s sealants. (You’ve gotta love the smell of emasculation in the morning.)
The commercials depict a ruggedly handsome repairman, coyly sealing household items while a woman—purportedly someone’s wife—giggles, flirts, and fawns over his sealing mastery. The ad ends with the guy looking knowingly at the camera, asking, “do you really want me hanging around your house while you’re at work? Do it yourself before someone does it for you.”
That was … subtle. Next, they’ll dare the audience to give a geeky kid a swirly.
Of course, there’s nothing wrong with taking pride in one’s handyman-qualities. As the folks over that the Art of Manliness have proven, there’s a genuine thirst for “man knowledge” otherwise known as awesome and/or practical things to know how to do. (For instance, starting a fire with flint and steel or building an impenetrable snow fort.) And pragmatically speaking, knowing how to fix things is a skill set worth having regardless of gender.
But being a good man takes so much more than being able to caulk a shower. And hopefully it takes more than that to earn the respect and fidelity of your wife. Granted, like many commercials that speak to our collective idea of masculinity, these ads are pretty funny.
I find that having money and being very handy is often a curse.
As soon as women realize this they try to take advantage of it and make use of it.
I can think of countless instances when I have been asked to do repairs or make something simply because they didn’t think it was a big deal.
My number one rule is that I always expect women to make and effort and get their hands dirty as well.
Only suckers go out of their way to perform services for women to collect vagi-points.
…Well, I guess its okay to be clueless at fixing things as a guy these days and yet be a good guy. However, the residue of my 1950s upbringing always associates some portion of ‘positive man traits’ with being able to competently make minor car repairs, use a table saw and fix the kitchen sink plumbing .. It’s my thinking that someone who can do these things is well grounded since it takes patience and attention to detail to these things right.
Agreed.
I couldn’t help but notice that the attractive handy man in this ad was putting up a piece of speedbase with adhesive caulk; i hope he followed that up with a nail or two, for chrissakes.