[quote=“urodacus”][quote=“rocky raccoon”]
Granted, I’m probably a little jealous because this is probably how Yanks are perceived here:
[/quote]
in what way is that off the mark?
[/quote]
Well, he’s too slim for a start…
[quote=“rocky raccoon”][quote=“Funk500”]My Mrs used to believe (courtesy of TV and her mates who had never been there) that all people from the Britland were sophisticated, wine drinking types like Hugh Grant or Jude Law. i have changed her mind slightly but i can’t help thinking that she believes that i, and the other Brits she has met around and about, are, exceptions to the rule.
Can’t wait till she meets the likes of Barry and Joe down the Working Mans Social Club for a game of crown green bowls, a pint of mild and trip down to Belle Vue for some Speedway or dog racing.
Or some of my other mates with those funny looking jazz cigarettes…[/quote]
Well, the Taiwanese could have worse stereotypes for Brits. “Gentleman”…oh my god I’ve heard that phrase so much. I admit that I’m a classless devil spawn of Uncle Sam, but when I hear Taiwanese make generalizations about people from the UK like they’re James Bond or Jude Law (like you said) I giggle.
Granted, I’m probably a little jealous because this is probably how Yanks are perceived here:
[/quote]
Nope. The common misperception regarding Yanks in Taiwan is that they speak English… 
Why, for the love of all that’s holy, would we want to do that??? The whole idea is to get them to believe we’ve evolved, but who actually wants to do “women’s work”?? 
[quote=“StuartCa”]My missus simply see’s things before I do. She’ll notice the floor needs cleaning and I won’t until it’s worse. So she ends up doing it. It’s not her work.
Other tasks are reasonably divided in our house with her doing the supervising. I know who wears the pants in my house, I’ll go get my skirt. 
[/quote]
Actually, I’m the same. Besides, I enjoy cooking and I’ll do laundry, too. But dishes and floors? Not on your nelly!
[quote=“bismarck”]
Why, for the love of all that’s holy, would we want to do that??? The whole idea is to get them to believe we’ve evolved, but who actually wants to do “women’s work”?? [/quote]
Ha, have you seen the movie “The Breakup” with Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn? There’s that part where she’s like, “I just want you to want to do the dishes.”
“No one WANTS to do the dishes,” he replies.
True dat.
[quote=“Funk500”]My Mrs used to believe (courtesy of TV and her mates who had never been there) that all people from Britland were sophisticated, wine drinking types like Hugh Grant or Jude Law. i have changed her mind slightly but i can’t help thinking that she believes that i, and the other Brits she has met around and about, are, exceptions to the rule.
Can’t wait till she meets the likes of Barry and Joe down the Working Mans Social Club for a game of crown green bowls, a pint of mild and trip down to Belle Vue for some Speedway or dog racing.
Or some of my other mates with those funny looking jazz cigarettes…[/quote]
He, he. I can’t wait to hear the stories when you guys come back from UK.
Maybe you should let her watch Only Fools And Horses before you go? YOu know, break one outdated stereotype with another 
Hi everyone - I’ve just joined Forumosa as I’m planning to move to Taipei next Jan for a year…so I hope it’s OK if I join in the discussion! 
Just wanted to say that I think there’s a bit of gender stereotyping here - (and I don’t mean that in an indignant feminist way! ) - but it’s not true that all women are neat and all men are slobs. I am far messier and slobbier and much less bothered about dirt than both my husband and my brother. I’m always leaving dirty cups and socks around the house and my poor husband is always picking up after me…it’s not that he has to but that it bothers him and although I’ll get round to it eventually, he just can’t stand the mess and so he sorts it out first! 
And as for my brother -whew! - he’s the epitome of minimalist neatness. You really could literally eat off the floor of his apartment. (And by the way, I’m Taiwanese - so that racial stereotyping of Asian women being neater and cleaner is out too! )
So I think it’s really more to do with individual personality and preferences than gender.
Having said that, it’s not like my husband is a henpecked house slave - I do the majority of the housework but not because I’m the woman but because he has a harder job with longer hours. Also, I cook a hell of a lot better! 
But he pretty much always does the dishes, as he thinks it’s fair given that I’ve done the cooking. He also does the laundry because I hate that - but I do the ironing. We share the other chores around the house.
But I have to agree that there probably are some cultural differences - at least, traditionally-brought up Asian men probably aren’t as good at helping in the house. I have Taiwanese friends who have married Taiwanese men and they come home from a long day to find the sink full of dirty dishes and their husbands expecting them to go across to have dinner with the in-laws and then do their dishes too!! 
God, I’d bloody tell him where to go! Maybe that’s the thing though - it’s all about what you would put up with…but that’s why I always thought I couldn’t marry a traditionally-brought up Asian man. I’ve grown up in the West so I suppose that makes me more Western than Asian in my attitudes - and more willing to stand up for myself.
Oh, by the way - my husband IS actually an “English gentleman” - for example, when we first got married, my poor mother used to get so confused because he’d always be standing behind her waiting to pull out her chair and push it back in for her at dinner - or running around the car to open the door for her. Old-fashioned courtesy! So they do exist!! But I suppose he’s an exception. It’s quite nice in a way.
The only thing I DON’T do is cook. And the only reason I don’t is that my wife thinks my cooking stinks (it doesn’t but whatever, she’s a great cook).
In fact, I would add that I probably do more cleaning day to day than my wife , mainly because I cannot handle even a slight mess. A few things laying around will drive me crazy. She has a higher tolerance for clutter.
I do the cooking, will fill the dishes into the dishwasher 50% of the time, I get a maid in to do the cleaning, and will wash the clothes half of the time.
On the rare occasion I will mop a floor.
I do not:
- Help toddlers taking their bathes, and will refuse a chance to try. I got some nasty memories.
- Clean up the toilets.
- Supervise the childrens homework.
I don’t know if my gf expected it before we moved in together but I do housework. I’m Swedish for god’s sake, we’re all for equality here 
:bravo:
There really aren’t that many of them.
And any man who won’t either pay for someone else to do the housework or do it himself is a big pussy.
Enjoying life is impossible if you are always doing housecrap. This is why it needs to be split up evenly. Nobody wants to clean the stupid floor, but everybody wants to be able to eat a pita that fell on the floor.
Men often don’t do housework, and they aren’t willing to learn. What’s the deal with that? It’s a pain in the ass sure, but no more so than going to work every day. Put in some effort, really, or else your girlfriend will feel like a haggard housewife and want to get away from her lazy and cruel slavemaster.
Same here as a German. Simply was brought up to accept that all work should be shared…
I’m a girl. I don’t do housework. I used to feel guilty about that, but now I just accept myself as I am. I pay for someone to clean my house. Actually, my house is pretty small, so I should be able to take care of it myself, but I don’t want to. I prefer to spend my time doing other things. My future husband should expect to be doing most of the housework, or have no objection to hiring a housekeeper.
rocky raccoon - care to come over for dinner? I don’t mind cooking, but I hate doing the washing up and sadly, so does my GF and as such I tend to get stuck with it, as when she does it, she doesn’t do it very well 
We do the laundry together, but she’s doing the folding, as I suck at that, I can’t even fold a T-shirt straight… 
I don’t mind cleaning up and I get stuck doing some of the things she doesn’t like doing, like using a toilet brush, washing out that gunk you get at the bottom of the sink and of course emptying the gunk in the kitchen sink trap, as she just won’t touch it, despite the little nets you can get here.
I think the garbage has become my job as well, but I don’t really mind, as it’s a 5 minute job.
Then again, growing up in “the country of equals” has made me slightly brainwashed me thinks, despite the fact that I’m a bit messy, but luckily, so is she 
I know a white man who does housework. He’s my boyfriend.
…and it really is split 50-50 or just about. If anything, he does more housework than I do.
I clean the living room, he scoops the litter box (we have a cat).
I organize the kitchen, he sweeps and mops.
I cook, he does the dishes.
I clean the bedroom, he cleans the bathroom.
I feed and care for the cat (other than the litter) and he does the laundry.
We take turns on garbage.
It took a lot of boyfriends to find someone like him, and even he needed to be shown how to do certain things…but women willing to accept less than fair, even division are selling themselves short. Why should girls get all the boring work?
Western men do it eventually, when they realise nobody else is going to do it and they’ve not seen the remote for a fortnight.
I told my wife the Bible says women have to do all the housework.
That’s a tad harsh, isn’t it?
That’s a tad harsh, isn’t it?[/quote]I think Buttercup is talking about the remote being buried under a pile of trash on the sofa.
I just use the buttons on the TV. You get used to it after a while. I pretend I’m living in Victorian times when they didn’t have remote controls.
Not necessarily.
My guy notices things (like the dishes, the recycling and the dry laundry) need to be taken care of long before I do. Or rather, I notice but really hate doing those things so I put it off.
He’ll even do the naggy wife thing where he’ll dump my dry clothes on my side of the bed so I have to put them away, thus freeing up the line for new laundry. I love him, yessirree!