--- Kevin Burton Smith <
kvnsmith@colba.net> wrote:
> While there's nothing inherently feminine
about
> cooking, there is
> something vaguely embarrassing about guys who
seem
> to think not being
> able to handle themselves in the kitchen is
some
> kind of point of
> macho honour, or that being able to cook is a
mark
> against one's
> toughness or masculinity.
>
> After all, people have definitely made
connections
> here between
> competency and toughness. And boasting about
one's
> incompetence, be
> it about not being able to boil water, if you're
a
> certain type of
> man, or about not knowing how to change a car
tire,
> if you're a
> certain kind of woman, is just sort of sad,
sad,
> sad.
Interestingly, re Parker, Spenser never seems to bake.
Everything he cooks is done on the stove top--no ovens, no
microwaves. Perhaps it's just me, but baking does seem more
overtly feminine.
And re competency, Carroll John Daly stressed in many of his
stories the illiteracy of his protagonist, as if that somehow
proved masculinity or toughness. It seems to me that Marlowe,
on the other hand, was often reading; Spenser, of course,
read constantly.
G.
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