This is my life

How can I become a greek man? Besides growing a lot of body hair of course.

Dimitrios, you will have to answer that one...

First of all, i appreciate that you took the time to write the post. Let's see now:



@Christian: Unfortunately, you cannot. The fault lies in how you are brought up, from a very early stage. You learn that the two sexes are equal, you take cooking classes in school, you learn to do all the things that "girls" are supposed to do. So, eventually when you come to a "relationship" age, it's too late to change anything



@ Tessan: my reply is coming shortly. Since i will have to write a lot of things, i am trying to decide if i will post it as a comment, or have a reply on my blog

So, i decided to reply here, although i believe that the comment will end up being a sociology study of modern Greece



Let's start from the beginning. Boys and girls grow up with totally different values. While boys play with cars, soldiers and video games, girls play with mini-kitchens, pretend to raise "baby dolls" and follow mum around in the kitchen to see how stuff work



The same continues as we grow up and eventually we reach an age where we need to start forming meaningful relationship (romantic, work, etc). Although Greece is considered to be part of Europe, we are not Europeans. This, for example means:



- If you are a woman, 30+ and married, forget that you will ever find a decent job. Nobody will hire you, cause it is obvious that as soon as you get hired, you will be on maternal leave

- Women get jobs, but very seldom they get careers. So, the higher you move up the career ladder, the fewer women you will find

- and a million more examples that show that women are not treated as equal



Based on the above, we establish that it is the man who will have a "career" and therefore bring the money (or the better money) to the house. Now, contrary to Europe's belief, we work a lot (excluding the public sector). So, a middle to upper management manager is expected to work at least 12 hours / day



Which brings us to: after having worked 12 hours and spent at least 2 on the road (to and from home), the man comes home. Now, since his wife won't be working as "hard", the man expects that certain stuff are in order, like food, clean clothes, tidy place, etc. And unless the couple is "rich" and they can afford a maid, the burden falls to the wife, since she is considered to have more free time…



Another important fact is that even today, a lot of woman see marriage as their destination in life and their salvation. So, they put no effort in the careers, instead they just dream to "marry rich", or at least "marry decent". In such cases, the woman is considered to bring almost nothing to the table, and thus she is expected to handle all the house tasks



I hope i gave you some insight. If not, next weekend we grab some more wine, and we continue the discussion ;)

Hmmm I dont like working that much but I do like to be served. What a dilemma. One question Demitrios. Do you think the Greek way is a good way?

I wonder if should get in to this discussion since i am T´s fiance....when i come to think of it, best not!

So, since most Swedish men doesn't work 12 hours a day they are not allowed to demand their women to do everything at home, right? (Tessan again, not Andreas...)

Let's see now:



@Christian: yes, for me it's a good system. If you ask me if i prefer to work more or do the dishes, i will tell you 100% work more. Obviously this is absolutely personal, since i enjoy my job a lot. If i was "digging holes" for a living, i might prefer work less and contribute at home, but for now...



@Andreas: (i prefer it over T's fiance, since i have heard the name from Tessan). Let me try to convince Tessan first, and then you can join :))



@Tessan: Depends. The thing is that if suddenly they start working more, you will "demand" that they keep up with their domestic duties, and then all hell will break loose



To be absolutely honest, i help at home as well. But if i have the choice of working more (actual work, not hiding at the office) and do house tasks, i will definitely work more

Dimitrios: I think it's a good idea to continue the discussion over some wine. But I can't next weekend though. Andreas is away skiing with friends while I will be at home taking care of the kids...

I agree with the fact that Greece is not Europe.



And also. Not all girls play with dolls and follow mommy around in the kitchen. Maby all girls do in Greece but definately not here in the north. We play with cars, hit stupid boys and like to kill things in videogames.

@Cia: It's not ALL girls that do that, but being a girl/woman in Greece does not provide you with many options. So, eventually, either you will become a boy-ish girl and do all the things you say (and i agree that is good that you are able to do them), or accept "fate" and play the typical role!



As for the "Greece is not part of Europe", i definitely agree with you, but i don't really know if this is our (Greeks) loss or Europe's loss (not being more like us)

Ha ha Cia is a boy girl!! Please dont hit me.

@Christian: Unfortunately, there is no good English word to translate "αγοροκόριτσο" to (the Greek word used to describe girls who do boy stuff - play football, play with cars instead of dolls, prefer gadgets over cosmetics, etc)

What I am trying to portray? is that a girl can do both, boys also. I liked dolls when I was young, hated team sports (still do) and today I like make up and the color pink. So I'm a girly girl who also like to hit boys, play video games and NOT cook for anybody!



It shouldn't have to be either way.

This is a truly great debate with good arguments from "both sides"...



I few days ago at the dining table i tried an argument after/because of this discussion.



I said that many men are loosers regarding gender equality, the "right way" to go theese days are that men should contribute at home doing 50% of all domestic tasks (laundry, dinner, cleaning etc) but all the traditional "male task" are still there (shuffling snow, building a house, taking care of cars etc) thus the male "work day" got longer....it became an interesting discussion :-)

@Andreas: excellent argument. Apparently, all tasks that involve physical activities (like the ones you mentioned, plus moving the couch, carrying wood for the fireplace, etc) are traditionally men jobs, since although Tessan is lovely and all, i doubt she can lift a couch ;)



Today i used the "ultimate" argument, when we were discussing something along this line with Tessan. The line was: "You should be happy that you can complain, cause if you were living in Saudi Arabia, you wouldn't even be able to complain". As it seems, I won the argument cause Tessan remained silent...

Well, Dimitrios, you may think you won that argument, but we will see at our pizza lunch tomorrow...



For the record, I did a lot of hard physical work yesterday, lifting many furnitures... by myself... I am really strong! :)

won with that argument...

When women respond with silence its never a good sign. It generally means that they have not accepted your logic and you are going to pay for it.

@Christian: Probably you are right. I will start expecting the "voodoo" any time now...



But i know that Tessas won't be that mean to me, and worst case scenario, she will just kick my ass during the football games ;)