shrews…

… they make it so hard for the rest us; running around perpetuating negative female stereotypes and scaring men into permanent bachelorhood. There are few woman I can not stand less than The Shrew, the angry woman who turns her husband into a verbal and emotional punching bag. I’ve seen women call their spouses, the same persons they promised to honor and respect, worthless sacks of excrement!

Like reverse sexism, this belittling of men seems to be 100% acceptable. It’s used as the tie that binds in building female relationships, commiserating over the miserableness of the male species. I understand it can be hard to make friends when meeting people for the first time, but making your husband the butt of jokes is not the way to endear yourself to me. It’s not just insulting to your husband but to me as well, a single woman who would love to have a spouse to promise to honor and respect. It’s like waving a steak in front of a starving person and proclaiming it tastes like garbage and tossing it to the floor.

My concern is not just directed to the married women I know how are guilty of husband bashing; male bashing seems to be prevalent everywhere. Even at my job, it’s OK to infer my male co-workers are less organized, sloppy and stupider than the rest of us.

On TV, the husband as head of the household has disappeared. The dad is the blithering simpleton who the kid’s barely tolerate and the wife makes excuses for. He is the punch line.

I’ve heard women make the most disparaging comments about their husbands/boyfriends/fathers/sons, you name it, all within earshot of the person being targeted. Never would I dream of speaking to a stranger in such a derogatory manner much less someone I loved.

You’re ruining it for the rest of us! No wonder men are in no rush to get married. It’s even worse the older you get trying to find a single man who isn’t gun shy and jaded from years of relationships full of verbal and emotional abuse.

If I have to go on one more date with some poor morose man who thinks my genuine interest in his hobbies is me being patronizing I think I’ll scream. St. Teresa of Avila is quoted as saying “God, deliver me from sullen saints”. I beg you, Lord, deliver me from sullen dates.

At age 36, the majority of men I have encountered are divorced and/or nursing savage and gaping wounds from years of being shredded apart by the women in their lives. They are cynical and weary and compliments fall on their ears with suspicion while they try to decipher if I was being genuine or sarcastic. It’s exhausting!