So that explains why Tom Cruise is in the closet.
Posted on 05/08/2006 6:17:27 PM PDT by fanfan
Whether it is in the garage, the study or even just sitting in a La-Z-Boy recliner playing video games, men feel the need to get away from women occasionally, according to a new book chronicling the gender's favourite hiding spots.
Where Men Hide, written by James Twitchell, an English professor at the University of Florida, chronicles the evolution of the male-only space from opium dens and speakeasies to hunting lodges and strip clubs.
Men are not trying to escape out of anger or any negative feelings toward women, Mr. Twitchell said this week, but simply because they crave a place to be alone or to share the company of other men.
"My job was not to generalize so much as to particularize," he said. "Why these places and what's the history of them?"
Mr. Twitchell had some strange inspiration for the book. He became interested in male space after the capture of Saddam Hussein in 2004, when the former Iraqi dictator was found in a tiny "spider hole" burrowed in the ground.
"All over the world, people wanted to know about his hidey-hole," Mr. Twitchell said. "I became really intrigued about the interest in that.
"Men are really interested in where you go when there are no women. What's it like?"
And while Mr. Twitchell admits it was not women from whom Saddam was hiding, he said the famous dugout shares much in common with more popular male-only haunts.
"They're dreary, they're dank and they tend to be underground," he said. "If you look at opium dens or prohibition speakeasies -- they're always downstairs. The caveman motif is not entirely inappropriate."
As he began his research on the book, writing chapters about everything from the barbershop to new "mega churches" that advertise male-only activity groups, Mr. Twitchell stumbled upon a series of photographs published in Esquire magazine.
They were by a New Jersey-based photographer named Ken Ross, who had been documenting what he called "man space."
The two teamed up, and Mr. Ross's photographs now illustrate the book, which will be released by Columbia University Press this month.
The book goes back in time to look at old male-only clubs and lodges, hunting camps and cigar bars, and travels to current-day equivalents.
"Two generations ago, if you went to downtown Toronto, you'd find Masonic lodges everywhere," he said. "They were really powerful all across Canada. Now the median age is about 120."
Outfits like the Moose and the Elk were also extremely popular, and Mr. Twitchell found that in the mid-20th century, the average man would spend approximately four hours a week in his lodge and 6% of his disposable income on the outfits he wore there.
Those days are over, and Mr. Twitchell said the era of clearly defined male-space is a thing of the past. But this is not, he said, because women have infringed on their space, but simply because of the advent of technology.
"I think it's got to do with the car, the television and the Internet," he said. "These are all ways for guys to escape, if that's the word, to find private space."
He does believe there is a resurgence of interest in male clubs and activities in the Western world, just as many women are exploring the appeal of more traditional female gender roles.
And Mr. Twitchell, who usually studies and writes about corporate branding, said this is being used to the advantage of some organizations.
For his book, he visited several mega churches -- the large suburban religious institutions that boast 15,000 congregants.
"How have they done that? Well, they have really revitalized by providing space for men," he said. "If you go and look at these churches, which I have, you see that they have all of these men-only groups. So it's Men in Christ fixing their motorcycles, or Men in Christ having breakfast. Churches are, in many ways, the new lodges."
While Mr. Twitchell said there is no proven benefit to male-only time or space, he said it is definitely not a dangerous phenomenon.
"I don't think it's as snarly as some feminists might posit. It's not to exclude women or hostile toward them," he said. "I think it's really because men have a terrible time finding ways to get together with other men. Usually they have to go to war."
Some anthropologists told him these hiding spots are a vestige of ages-old hunting behaviour, because men feel the need to bond before entering a fight.
And Freud would no doubt note with interest the male desire to return to a small, dark, warm enclosure -- a topic Mr. Twitchell said he does not want to broach.
What it mostly comes down to for men, he said, is finding a place where you can smoke or fart, and be with the guys and "tell the same jokes over and over again," Mr. Twitchell said.
"It's really kind of sweet."
;-)
OMGosh, it's news that people like to get away from the opposite sex from time to time....? I can't tell you men how much we women enjoy being away from you ;)
So that explains why Tom Cruise is in the closet.
ping
See Feminization of Americans and Immigration - The LINK
Depends on what you mean by "batcave."
It is a little known fact of esoteric Biblical scholarship that the actual command in Eden was "Don't MOVE the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." Satan actually appeared to Eve as an interior decorator (snakeskin loafers.) And Satan did NOT say "Ye shall not surely die." He said,"Honey, just try it over THERE, you'll just DIE, I'm TELLing you!"
So Eve said to Adam, "Aw c'mon, sweety. I just want to see what it LOOKS like over there ...."
And ever since, Men have sought to go back to some place where things stay where they are.
I'm glad we had this little talk. (PLEASE don't tell my wife ...)
But of course, we need paid studies to tell us this!!
alls well in "the cave", hun ;)
Whenever we have moved, I make a point to initially locate the furniture in the LEAST desirable location. That way, I at least know that I won't have to move it BACK to that configuration.
One configuation down, one googol to go.
That'll work...
Mr. Twitchell. Heh.
It's probably just the Walter Mitty's of the world that need to 'get away'. That is, those whose wives are so stifling and controlling:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Cafe/6821/thurber.html
For some reason, guys like to be with me, and I am the one who needs the space! ;)
(Guess I'm just one of the guys. ;))
I haven't spoken to my wife in over 6 months...we're not fighting or anything, I just don't want to interrupt.
*LOL* You beat me to it. My husband's a Navy aircraft mechanic and there's times where I'm like 'so WHEN do you leave on deployment again?' Not that I don't LOVE him, that's not it at all. But there's times where I'm like 'Just GO to work, already PLEASE?'
I go to t*tty bars to get away from women.
Woman's need to know is just as natural...and urgent.
Nice can of worms.
(bannie smacks pissant. hard.)
Oh, I didn't think any women would read this thread. LOL
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