OOH WHAT A LUCKY MAN HE WAS

As very few people know, over the last several years, I have spent an enormous amount of time on an NFL message board. It’s a place that is primarily male-dominated. It’s safe to say that 95% of the users are male. And in the course of these years, I’ve gotten to “know” a lot of these people a bit. Many of them share their personal lives, as do I. Hell, most of the fun takes place in the non-football forums anyway.

One thing that I’ve discovered is that many of these guys fall into the stereotypical husband role. That is to say, many of them are miserable. Now before anyone jumps on me, let me clarify that many of these guys fit the STEREOTYPE of the “whipped” man who does whatever his wife says, and has to ask permission to do anything. Whether it’s true or not, this stereotype does in fact exist. And from what I’ve seen, in some cases, the stereotype rings true.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen the line, “My wife would never let me…” And this is in regards to small, trivial things.

And that’s sad.

Of course I then look at my own situation. When talking about my wife to others, I’ve always referred to her as a “cool wife.” And she is. She’s very liberal and open-minded about everything. If I wanted to “go out with the guys” it’s no problem with her. If I wanted to go to the strip club, it’s no problem with her. Hell, she’s gone to the strip club with me. NOTE: For the record, if you bring your wife or girlfriend with you to a strip club, the strippers are MUCH nicer to you, in every way.

I was reminded of this stereotype while listening to the radio this morning. The subject of the life of a married man came up. And to a man, they all said that the above-mentioned stereotype is true. One guy went so far as to say that every married man he knew was miserable.

If someone called me on Friday afternoon, and said, “Hey, let’s go out drinking tonight,” or “Hey, let’s go to the strip club tonight,” as long as I didn’t have prior plans (and assuming I wanted to go) I would say, “Sure!” I wouldn’t need to say, “I’ll have to ask my wife first.” Now don’t get me wrong here. I of course would call my wife and tell her about the plans I’d made. And I know for a fact that unless we had something else going on that I’d completely forgotten about, she’d encourage me to go and have a good time.

This works both ways also. We’ve been together since 1998. Since that time, she has probably “gone out” a lot more than I have. I have no problem with that. Why should I? I’m not sure Milwaukee has any male strip clubs, but if she finds one, and wants to go to one with her friends, that’s fine with me.

Tell me, am I the strange one here? Am I a minority? Am I lucky? Do I have it made? Or am I not unique at all? It’s pretty common in life that only those who have negative feelings about things speak up and complain about them. While the happily content say nothing because they have nothing to complain about.