i'm queer, you're single, old, and anti-feminist

[soygirl]

Tonight my single, late 50s host Madame said to me, "you must apprendre le cuisine parce que c'est le raison que l'homme reste a la maison." (despite my poor french/spelling, this means: you have to learn how to cook, because it's the reason men stay at home!")

How can SO MANY THINGS be wrong with one little sentence?!

Comments

[_w_o_o_d_]

It wasn't, like, ironical ? She actually meant that ? Ask her where she was in may '68.

(also, doesn't "Madame" mean something else in english ? For just a second I wondered in what kind of place you were staying)

What if she'd said : "you must learn to cook, because it'll impress the ladies" ? (I wish I could cook)

[soygirl]

Technically in host family terms, she's my host 'mom.' But she has us refer to her as Madame and not by her first name, even though we live with her. She's a bit strange.

And if she had said that, I would have been very shocked, because I've never outright told her I'm queer. :) But - impressing people is one thing, keeping them around at home is another.

[_w_o_o_d_]

She's a bit strange

Heh, I guess she is... I've never met anybody who would say such a thing "for real".

The thing is, there are just so many good reasons why one should learn to cook (it allows you to be independent, it's fun, you can make yummy things, etc...), and she had to find the worst one !

[loccster]

Having seen many divorces in my life, sometimes I wonder what keeps people together after many years. Certain things that made a relationship great in the beginning may have long lost their luster, and so I could understand an old man loving his wife for her cooking.

[_instereo]

sophie if you do not cook me a steak i am out of this marraige.

[soygirl]

I saw Matt and Kim tonight (the HIP Brooklyn band! actually they are really fun live) and all I could think about was "Scott and I seriously have to start a band when I get back. That would be so much fun."

Do you think we could put my drum set at your Future Home?

(ps I will make you so many bloody, bloody steaks. my host lady tried to feed me cow tongue 3 nights ago. I couldn't do it.)

[_w_o_o_d_]

Cow tongue : actually nothing extraordinary. You didn't miss much, imho.

There's an old french joke about it :

An englishman is sitting at a restaurant and asks the waiter :
- Excuse me, what's this on the menu ? "Langue de veau" ?
- Oh, that's the tongue of a young cow, sir.
- What ? This comes straight from the mouth of an animal, and you eat it ? Digusting !
- If you says so, sir, and what will you have ?
- A soft-boiled egg.

[eisenwayli]

I beg to differ, cow tungue is very delicious.

[scripturemonkey]

Maybe she thinks she can't cook well enough and that's why she's single?
Or that you've only turned to other ladies because you couldn't cook well enough for a MAN?

[soygirl]

She's a REALLY good cook...

[ndgmtlcd]

This is so weird in so many different ways, from mai '68 to the fact that unlike their North American counterparts most men in France actually know how to cook.

[captaincanada]

maybe she only dated piggy american tourists (pre-food network, at that).

[soygirl]

What is funny is that even in my All American Family (well.. my dad is Jewish so we don't quite fit the mold), it is not my mom that does the cooking but my dad. But then again, unlike many American families, we used to eat dinner together every night as a family. What a concept!

Also, hello! You are one of wood's friends! Neat! I might be visiting Maine soon to check out a school and I might come by your parts in Canadiaaaa. :}

[ndgmtlcd]

You'll be able to practice your French in Montreal, but only if you insist. Once they spot your accent they'll switch to English. Just smile and say you need the exercice. Or you could stick to Quebec City (and Levis, where my mother was born, right in front of Quebec city on the other side of the Saint Lawrence river)where hardly anyone can speak two words of English.