WRITERS NOTE: Ladies, this article is not written to the female audience. Please don't try and understand men as God just made is different.  Or as I'm known to quote often as Hi said in Raising Arizona.... "H.I. Junior cepts me as I am, I think ya just better had to!"

In today's society many of us men have the difficult duty of being not only a man, but father and/or husband.  This means everything changes in regards to your male hormones and instincts. 

Yes... I'm referring to that dreaded word... Domestication. :) LOL  You could even call them... suburban values. 

What is 'domestication"?  For one, it is not the dumb ass metafictional guy following his wife around who doesn't know how to open a stroller.  TV commercials may dumb us down with these type representations,  but I assure you the domesticated man is not insulted by this title.  The crux of the problem men have with the term “domestication” is the key word “taming” and the process an animal goes through to become domestic or more human.  The intellectual male knows better.  You can be civilized, dignified and cultured and still be wild at heart.  The stereotype of the domestic man is evolving.  It has evolved.   Some even throw the term, “metrosexual” at men whom have a domesticated edge so to avoid the term “domestic”.   A domesticated man may have an ego, but that confidence is relegated to days off when out playing paintball with the guys perhaps.  This behavior is unrequited and women are not delirious for a man with these qualities despite their espousing that this characteristic in a man is priceless.   Domestication is more than just a textured, cultured personality.   It is certainly not just the fact you know what colors go together when painting the living room.  Being domestic at one time meant “settling down”.  In modern terms it means settling in.  The urban setting we men have been exposed to and expected to adapt to is not so daunting as it is different.  We can’t all be football players and there certainly isn’t any place to sign up to be Indiana Jones either.  The fact is we men have far more adventurous lifestyles to experience, those are marriage and parenting. 

To the unwashed, it can be rather unbearable to consider being a parent or husband when you think about the lifestyle change ahead of you.  At least that is how you see it before it happens.  But let me tell you, as a man that has been married and is a father of two amazing boys, it really isn't a bad gig.  And if you nail it with class, women will consider you a commodity.  You are... a find.

So do you still think being a domesticated man is effeminate?

Let's start with the bad news.  Yes you have to learn to live in a clean home.  Yes you have to learn to cook, yes you have to do dishes and laundry and the list goes on.  But really guys... don't you agree this is something that rounds you out?   OK, bad choice of words... perhaps I should put it this way.  Do you want to look like an ass for not knowing how to use a sewing machine or even how to separate clothes for the wash?  Being cultured in knowing art history or diverse in background like knowing world history is great but those things do nothing for you at the end of the day.  That is of course unless those are your trades.  Knowing sports history, relating to modern music, having dance lessons... these things are wonderful in attracting a woman.. OK not sports history but the rest maybe... 

Those things can really sell you to your would be mate, but in the end... sooner or later you will or should wind up with someone.  You find that each of you has to find similar interest or else you drift apart.  You either spiral in a positive direction or a negative direction.  In the end, if you want to spiral in a positive direction you learn what is known as "domestication".    As a man that has come through that process let me share through my prism of sight that you really do become someone better.   You may start as an idealist, but in the end you learn that being a compromisationalist is a path you are better suited for ...if you want a stress free life.   You learn to become a domesticated man.

Guys... I should also add that if you are with someone you give a damn about... you really can keep her on a pedestal where she belongs if you clean the toilet.  This starts just be wiping up every time you finish whether you miss or not.  And at least twice a month, just flat out clean the toilets. Scrub them etc... It's not a chore, it's 5 minutes of your time.

OK... let's assume you are not even with a woman.  Damn! You better get the idea fast that if you don't clean the toilet, nobody else will.  You can pay a maid service if you have money floating around and your lifestyle is so busy you can't do it, but sooner or later you better damn well figure it out.  Sooner or later you will be with someone or in a situation where it has to be done.  Learning this task is not belittling, it just is. Oh.. for you single fathers... teach your boys to put the seat down always.  One day that habit will yield a major dividends in the respect women give them.   In my home, I simply let my boys know... "We are Hindsley's, not heathens."   Now they say it to each other in correcting each other on domestic issues.  

We men are victims of hype if we think domestication means emasculation.  The world is changing guys and if you want to be a Neanderthal and damn proud of it, then you deserve everything that happens to you.  If you are smart, and I know you are if you are reading this, then you are committed to the level of responsibility (yes I said that word... responsibility) of taking care of the world around you.  This means your home, your apartment whatever it is that houses you. 

While I can advocate to you that the domesticated man wasn't always cool, it is the way of the future.  It is now.  Nineteenth century men resisted this change by scorning their fellow men for respecting themselves and their women in this way.  What difference that attitude made is inconsequential now.  My point... change or become irrelevant.  While your sexual prowess may be on your mind... I assure you that if you are a man's man, your woman will respect you if you are domestic in nature.  But remember this beyond all things... if you had no woman... if you were utterly alone... what is your self respect worth?  Become domesticated for you.  Do it for yourself and the respect of a woman will follow.  When I say a woman, I mean the right woman. 

Now guys... before you assume this article is a celebration of love and women... I'm really not headed in that direction.  Heck... the fact is we men could all resent women for the domestication of men! LOL   Or we can thank them.   ...Or we could do neither.  The fact is men have benefited from this change.  It means we men don't have to feel guilty for wanting a home life, or making the sacrifice to spend time with our children.  Domestication means we don't have to feel guilty for being sensitive.  And a sensitive man is really at the core, a romantic man.  It DOES NOT mean you are any less a rugged or tough man when needed.  On the contrary, you are both.  While for decades women have been fighting for equal employment rights and more... we men have been just as disenfranchised from a basic function, to be happy in the home.