I say blame it on the same douche bags that complained and brought about the changes that made Cookie Monster now eat vegetables and Oscar The Grouch to be a kinder gentler grouch. Bunch of namby-pamby whiny bitches that have nothing better to do than find something to blame their troubles on. Like its a PUPPET'S fault that your kid is a lazy fat-ass!

Here's the thing. Men and women have always had gender roles. The women's movement has systematically tried to destroy these gender roles except when it benefits them.

For example:
laundry, cooking, cleaning - traditionally female roles.
changing oil, dig holes, plumbing - traditionally male roles

Nowadays, if you don't cook, clean, and do the laundry when asked, you are a jerk that does not apporeciate her. And if you don't know who do to, you are immature and mother must have spoiled you. If you ask her to change the oil, dig holes, or plumbing, what kind of man are you?

Another example:
flowers, ballet, fashion - traditionally female interests
cars, sports, poker - traditionally male interests

Nowadays, men are expected to take more interest in the things that women find enjoyable like any of the above. They are expected to "broaden their horizens", "release their inner child", and "open up their minds to new things" like flowers, ballet, and fashion. Women (not all) make little effort to even fake interest in cars, sports, or poker and seem to find them boorish and crude.

Here you go:

What seems (from a societal point of view to be more acceptable?

"I divorced him because all we did was stay and home and he wouldn't take to to the ballet, never brought me flowers, and I was depressed because I could never buy new clothes."

or

"I divorced her because all we did was stay at home and she wouldn't go with me to the races, wouldn't watch football with me, and wouldn't let me play poker."

In either scenario, the man comes off looking like the jerk. Eventhough they are both saying the same thing but about different subjects.
A man is expacted to do "man-things" and help the woman to "woman" things while women are expected demand this to be the case. Otherwise, she will divorce you, take your kids, take your money, take your house, and sling leg for someone else while you just sit at home and start writing country songs.

Richey, Excellent reply! To be honest, my wife is very fair when it comes to those things. She will occasionally drag me to craft shows, I will occasionally drag her to a horror, or action movie, (she always wants to see romantic comedies, or anything with Julia Roberts, or Steve Carrell), but most of the time she goes with what I want to see, though she puts her foot down with certain horror movies. You have to help her with the cooking and dishes, your on your own with the flat tire, or rat killing, (we eventually get a rat from the field. They love to go after the bird feeders. She will wake me up out of a sound sleep and tell me to kill the rat. I enjoy this, though. I get to pull out my AR-15 w a 1x9 scope on top, and blow his filthy little ass away like lint.)
DC, thank you for picking up this thread! I tried to get it going twice, but for some reason, it wouldn't work. Let me know if you ever need me to kill a rat.8-)

right on...and why do men have to become MORE sensitive to make it work? Why can't women become less sensitive? I have an idea! Why don't everyone just marry someone they like the way that they are instead of trying to make someone what they want them to be. Brilliant! Thank you!

I'm seeing signs of this crap everywhere. At the college where I work, I saw a group of guys who looked like they were 18-20 years old...riding scooters down a hill repeatedly. I'm thinking, gee when I was 18, we all had cars. Great big cars, with very fast motors! If the guys I grew up with saw me doing something like that, they probably would have kicked my ass. That would have been death in the getting laid department. I don't know man. I think some of these suburban soccer mommies with their cell phones, and SUV's are out of control.

This was a constant in my last marriage. I was a complete jerk while she sat on her ass and expected everything to be done for her. The exception here is that she would reach out and annoy my employers as well, which usually resulted in a layoff, or some other job ending experience. She beat me up with the "fact" that I couldn't hold a job.

10 years later...

I have the same job I had when I left her. She's had 15 jobs, none of which she's left voluntarily.

Some women are simply poison.

"Some women a just poison."

I was in a relationship with a woman who just would not stop picking at me. Everything I did was wrong. She was relentless. After several years of that shit on and off, I finally went off like a hand grenade. I mean, it was a good thing we were on the other end of the phone line. We called each other everything in the book. I think it was the one and only time in my life that I was truly homicidal! If I had let her treat me any way she wanted to, I would have been driven insane. She probably would have had me chained to the kitchen sink by now, while she was banging some other guy.

Yesterday, I called my son in to watch Shootout on History International Channel. We we definately into it until my wife decided to insert her thoughts. So I ended up turning it off. My son knew the drill. I just preferred to keep the peace rather than getting into an unwinnable argument.

Yea, maybe I'm a little emasculated. But I do get to work on the car and take out the trash! Woohoo!

I often hear things like "Men are such babies, if they actually had a baby, they would know what pain is" but men can't have babies. We simply are not biologically, or emotionally set up for it. To me, it makes no sense to use this argument. We wouldn't put a woman on a professional football field. The second somebody yelled "hike" those animals would murder her, but it's ok to put a woman in a combat situation? Hello? Is anybody home??