it's 1957 in the 905

[the_siobhan]

One of the things that is really common in my work place is fund-raising campaigns. Every spring the_axel participates in the Ride For The Heart, and in fact we even came back from this year's Convergence road trip a day early so he wouldn't miss it. The company is a major sponsor for Run For The Cure. The yearly United Way campaign is just winding down. Last year a bunch of the people I work with even got together to gather funds and supplies for one of the local women's shelters.

So last month one of the guys in another department got the workplace involved in our first ever Movember campaign. It's to raise funds for something to do with prostate cancer - what exactly is a bit hard to tell because the website is kind of crap - but I assume it's a good cause and money raised will go to reduce the number of people affected by what is really a very nasty disease. During the fundraising they sponsored a men's bake sale, a casual week, and a whole bunch of the guys growing mustaches and wandering around looking self-conscious.

So I'm going into the bathroom one day, as you do. And as usual there are a pile of posters on the door. There are always posters on the bathroom door, it's the one part of the building that they can pretty much guarantee every employee will visit at least once over the course of a week.

And it had an ad for the men's bake sale. Only usually the ads for the ubiquitous fundraising bake sales say, "Bring food! Eat food! Good cause!"

And this one said, "Can your husband/partner bake? With a few simple lessons could he learn how?"

What?

There is a certain amount of mild peer pressure that goes into these things - the organizers go from desk to desk and ask people if they can contribute anything. So they were going around and asking the men if they could ask their wives to bake something from them to bring in.

What?

Everybody here knows I'm Axel's partner. I was just waiting for somebody to come up and ask me if I would bake something for Axel.

For some reason they didn't.

Comments

[reddragdiva]

Shirley they'd go up to Axel and ask him to bake something for you.

[50-ft-queenie.livejournal.com]

I just love the assumption that men don't know how to bake and will have to be taught. It cozies up nicely to the assumption that all women do know how to bake and are good at it.

[(Anonymous)]

"For some reason they didn't."

Maybe they were afraid you would be offended. You don't exactly look like a traditional-stay-at-home-and-cook-and-clean-while-hubby-works kinda gal. Can't blame 'em, just because there are people who get really defensive about that kinda thing.

I'd get offended if someone assumed I was the person who did all the "tranditional" household roles. But if someone just asked me first if I like to/know how to bake in a way that didn't assume either way, it would be no big deal. Personally, I think it's an excellent excuse for partners to do yet another thing together. Making food is a survival skill I think every individual should know at least a little bit about.

Jenn*

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I would be offended that they think my partner is so completely helpless that he isn't capable of opening a recipe book.

[peculiaire.livejournal.com]

Bingo. I mean, some people are more inclined to cook or bake than others, but really...

[eveofdstruction.livejournal.com]

Is it wrong that I'm kind of sorry they didn't? That would be a really great story.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I was all revved up and waiting for them, too!

[dark-phoenix54.livejournal.com]

Gee, Tim is a much better baker than I am. At least where bread is concerned.

But I do wish they had asked you, if only so I could have seen the picture of them with bagels up their butts.