In my experience, it seems that most women defer cooking rights to men when it comes to grilling. Of course, this is not always the case and does not suggest that either gender is better or more suited to the job. However, I do notice that the men of the house will generally take care of cooking when it comes to the grill. Why? I think it has to do with our mental makeup, especially when it comes to focus and patience.
You see, we women are usually used to multi-tasking. While doing one task, we have twenty million other subjects we are thinking about. Many men, on the other hand, tend to focus on just one thing. They can wait for several minutes to even several hours if they are very intrigued with something (ie fishing, golf).
In our household, for example, my husband is in charge of the grill. It’s not that he doesn’t allow me to touch it but, rather, I’m more than happy to hand that portion of the cooking to him. When I cook, I do several things at the same time. That means I’ll start cooking one thing, then use a timer so I can go off to prep another portion of the meal. I have no patience to sit, check the meat, wait forty minutes, insert the thermometer, wait again, cut a piece to see how cooked it is, etc. My husband can just chill outside the whole time until it’s done. He might mess on his iPhone a bit but, aside from that, he can keep a close eye on the food and not get as distracted as I would.
Why do you think barbecuing is mostly associated with men?
3 comments
I never thought about it, but you’re right! Nine times out of ten, I’ve noticed there’s a gender split on the grill … and that includes my house AND my parents’ house.
Interesting piece. I once heard a lecture by an ardent feminist who chalked it all up to misogyny! And I tend to agree. Her lecture was called “Men grill steaks. Women make salads.” The gist was that while women were doing all the real work behind the scenes, men stepped in to a relatively simple task to bask in all the glory.
Thanks. I don’t think it’s always wrong but people should restrict themselves from learning new things because it’s a “guy thing” or a “girl thing.” And, yes, men tend to get applauded for much less as being a wife/mom is mostly thankless.
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