A while ago, I realized that while Needle, Meet Haystack may be my personal view on things, it isn’t the only view. So every other Friday, you’ll be getting the chance to read some awesome guest posts from some truly excellent people – the Needle, Meet Haystack Guest Blogger Club.
Elisa Doucette is the blogger behind Ophelia’s Webb, where she shares her perspective on life, love, friendship and finding a place in the world. She pulls double blogger duty as Portland, Maine’s own Carrie Bradshaw with her column, The Single Slice. Elisa is also the woman behind the All You Need Series, which includes my first guest post for another blog. Elisa’s post today is a companion piece to The Domesticated Bachelor.
——————
Photo Credit: Getty Images - Simon Bremner
You know that soft hazy glow that they filmed Doris Day movies in during the 1950′s & 1960′s? They achieved the look by smearing Vaseline on the lens. Some say they wanted her to look feminine and sweet with a softened view. Most believe the reason was so many years of drinking, sun damage and smoking had left her skin (rumored to be slathered with Vaseline nightly, coincidentally) leathery and aged.
This is how women used to be seen. June Cleaver managed an entire household without a spot on her pleated skirt dress. Charlie’s Angels kicked lots of ass with perfectly feathered hair and never smeared lipstick. Carrie Bradshaw managed to rock the norm of what women can and can’t “talk about” on television but she did it all while obsessed with shoes and completely unrealistic outfits (seriously, who wears ballet tutus when they aren’t in a recital?!)
As Sir Isaac Newton philosophized, for every action there is an equal but opposite reaction. So if men are losing their affinities for buffalo lodges and beer can-crushing and developing the skills of domesticated bachelorhood then it can only be assumed that women are losing their Vaseline-lensed existence of perfection and Gucci-obsession.
Is it possible that there is a growing population of Undomesticated Bachelorettes?
If there is, I’m pretty sure I’m their poster child.
Sure I’m TRYING to learn how to be more girly by wearing a Dress a Day in May. And I’ve even been known to cook an occasional meal around the apartment. And sometimes I even manage to do the dishes or clean my bedroom. Sometimes.
The Undomesticated Bachelorette is not a lazy woman, her priorities and interests just tend to lie outside the home. In fact, she is generally a very driven and resourceful woman. How else would she survive and not need a crane to pull her from her house daily if not for extremely adept take-out dining skills? (I know every place I can get a salad or 250 calorie sandwich within a 5 mile radius.)
She tends to not focus as much on the maintenance of her home because she isn’t there very often. This is not to say that she’s a social butterfly out on the town every night. She may well be, but more than likely, the Undomesticated Bachelorette is instead hanging out with friends at the local bar watching the game or chatting with co-workers late night or discussing the plot and sub-plot of the latest Owen Wilson/Vince Vaughn classic.
Life at home isn’t just hanging out in yoga pants occasionally after the gym; she’s out of heels and trousers within five minutes of walking through the door. The only thing in her fridge might be wine (white, of course, she at least knows that white should be chilled!). Her photo collection is not carefully taped into beautiful scrapbooks with swirls and twirls and girly prettiness, it’s in a shoebox under her bed. The only beauty regimen she knows is soap and water at night and Chap-stick for the day.
So does the Undomesticated Bachelorette NEED a Domesticated Bachelor to be happy? Well I’m not gonna lie, a boy who makes us dinner or can actually appreciate our best friend’s performance in community theatre DOES have its appeal.
But so does ordering Chia Sen’s Pu Pu Platter for two and having two people there to share it!
