by William Dean
(03/12/08)
You may be aware of the book Porn for Women by the Cambridge Women's Pornography Cooperative. Selling 140, 000 copies in less than a year, the book presents women with droolingly languid photographs of fully-clothed men doing domestic chores -- cooking, cleaning, and presenting soothing cups of tea to their female counterparts. Before you dominatrixes get excited about sissy-men and guys in French maid garb, this is not about you. This porn is strictly for M-F couples who are discovering that guys in the kitchen are H-O-T.
Shared responsibility of household chores has pure "turn-on" power with all sorts of women. Diane Mapes, of Today Online, cites Jennifer Matthewson, a 30-year-old caterer from Portland, Oregon, who says, "My husband is great at cooking and great at cleaning...every time we would do an event, there would be 10 to 15 starry-eyed women standing around him, asking him all kinds of baking and cooking questions." Mapes continues to say that at a party she held recently, a single straight male guest volunteered to help the hostess with the cleaning up. "As he started scrubbing wine glasses, I glanced over at my guests. Every woman in the room was staring at him with what can only be described as pure, unadulterated lust."
Are these just examples of journalistic wishful thinking or imagination? No, ma'am! I've seen it time and again, in real life and in online chat rooms (the cyber pickup venue of choice). Let a man start talking about food and cooking knowledgeably, and even the most jaded women get bold, sassy, and flirtatious with him. Not only do real men eat quiche, they know how to creatively prepare and bake it.
If a guy can talk knowingly about the sensuality of the aroma and taste of fresh herbs and spices, it obviously shows he's got more on the culinary ball than beer-chicken, chili, and the rare pancake breakfast. And women, it seems, are quick to pick up on the cues that sensuality in one medium easily translates to all other ones as well. Add to the manly man's sophisticated sense of self an awareness that, yes, domestic chores need to get done, and once done there's more time for erotic play, and you have a combo that's more attractive than the six-pack abs of Abercrombie & Fitch models or that racy new red Lamborghini.
Women's magazines and advice columns continue to be chock full of "How to Get Your Man," but only the most wise of men's magazines are smart enough to play counterpart. Bedroom eyes and bad-boy attitude are fine up to a point, but women know that game all too well. What's knocking their "he's hot" antennae for a loop isn't the suave, idle, and vague guy in the Armani suit, but the one who rolls up his sleeves and plunges them lustily into the soapy dish water. He's the guy who not only can whip up a delicious tempting meal in minutes, but won't leave the kitchen mess behind for "the little lady" to scrub her heart out in.
And are these guys unaware of their domestic charms? Don't count on it. A handful of housecleaning guides written by men, and for men, are already on the market. The books play up the erotic power of household choring: How to Satisfy Your Woman Every Time: A Straight Guy's Guide to Housework and Good Grooming, How to Iron Your Own Damn Shirt: The Perfect Husband Handbook Featuring Over 50 Ways to Win, Woo and Wow Your Wife, and Clean Like a Man: Housekeeping for Men (and the Women Who Love Them).
Be ready, modern women, to have your man bake the cake and help you eat it, too. And aren't you just the one to show him how to creatively use that extra bit of frosting to lick?
