Ikea. Land of cubist bookshelves, affordable throw pillows and ... daycare for men?
We are all familiar with the childcare services Ikea offers: drop off your children in Smaland, where they can play with their peers in a giant ball pit under the watchful eye of paid staffers as you shop. Just make sure you keep that Smaland buzzer on you at all times so you know when to pick them up.
Now, picture that scenario, only replace that kid-friendly jungle gym with foosball tables, free hot dogs, flatscreen TVs playing nonstop sports, and video games. A Sydney, Australia location of the Swedish furniture chain is testing out their notion that men would be happier in a special room rather than cruising Ikea's notoriously twisty aisles picking out matching drapes.
The company calls this sanctum -- what else? -- "Manland."
Women are given a buzzer that goes off after thirty minutes to remind them to pick up their partners in Manland -- "or else, you know, we may have to call the authorities," a sales associate joked to a local Australian newscaster. That newscaster called the concept, "basically a creche [the Australian term for a daycare] for husbands and boyfriends with short retail attention spans, a place to hang out while their wives and girlfriends run the aisles of Ikea."
Unfortunately for the men out there thrilled by this development, the installation is not permanent -- it was created for Father's Day in Australia (down under, it's the first Sunday of September) -- but will men the world over join Kris Matheson in his proposed petition to make Manland a staple at Ikea locations worldwide?
Not if Jezebel's Irin Carmon has anything to say about it:
"The problem with the men-as-children meme is that it's self-fulfilling, particularly in conjunction with the idea that men are no good at household tasks and only women can do stuff like laundry. Some men may prefer playing video games to buying a couch or cleaning the kitchen, but women probably would rather do a lot of other things too."
And Sarah Firshein at Curbed points out another glaring omission in the "Manland" concept: what about gay couples?
I agree with Carmon -- let's give men a little more credit. Implying that half the population needs and wants to be kept occupied while the other half makes decisions about their shared living space is sad (as is the concept that all it takes to make a man happy are hot dogs and a foosball table) and in many cases, untrue.
Besides, how can men get busy creating their own man caves if they don't do the shopping themselves?
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I was in the Christmas Place in Pigeon Forge last month and they have a 'Man Room' like this, I thought it was a great idea, if I had a man with me, he would have probably been a lot happier in there, than to be dragged all over the store for two hours!!
I'm sorry, I find it horribly offensive to use gender stereotypes. Further, the idea that men are like children and need to be put in a playpen is also quite offensive.
Reinforce stereotypes in one gender, and you are unwittingly reinforcing them in the other.
I'll let your offensive first sentence pass on this occasion, but if we are to converse further, you'll have to converse as you would with other people you don't know, and show me the same level of respect that I show to you.
I could see this empowering women though...if they don't like their significant others than can 'accidentally' take the wrong man home with them.
I would never do my man cave shopping at Ikea. Ever.
Only in this backwards country could an archaic reactionary idea like this be considered for perpetuation. What kind of an idea of a man is that? I personally can;t associate with it. Actually I have to drag my girlfriend to IKEA when we need new things. I clean the house... especially the bathroom. Ever been to a "bachelorette pad"? the ladies bathroom are usually gross with old makeup stains, overfilled trash cans, color reminiscence from the last hair dying session and things are randomly lying around everywhere.
Who are these homophobic testosterone laden hot dog eating couch potatoes that seem to have no other interest in life but follow the events of their peers dressed in tight lycra only adhering to older Richard Simmons look-alikes that throw yellow hankies on the field like an upset Queen every time they're unhappy with the previous moves choreography?
Yeah: we really need this backward image of what a man is (or could be) fostered with "manland".
Good idea....
Well I have news for you: we are humans and as such capable of not only biological evolution but rather what is called "cultural evolution". (It's kind of a fast track to reflect and learn from our past mistakes)
We aren't born human, we become it. We become it based on everything that we take in. For our entire lives! One of the things we learned since 1950 is, that we are all humans before we are women or men and we all like to be treated as such.
Going by your logic, we should also prevent our children from learning to read. It just wasn't done 10,000 years ago! Oh I have an idea: How about real gladiator fights? or live hangings? how about we shoot it out? you know: like "real men" used to do.
Why wear helmets in American football? are they all girls now or what? It never used to be done...
One thing I forgot about "cultural evolution": You have to want to learn and be interested in new ideas, concepts and structures... otherwise you just stay behind. Like an ancient monument that stands as a warning reminder of who we were and who we should never become anymore.
The brilliance of this "Manland" (to me, your mileage may vary) is that it gives me a better way of avoiding being dragged through the aisles than, say, begging to stay at home. By going to the store and dropping off in Manland, I seem to participate, I'm right there if there's something urgent, and we have the day out of the house together. I don't care about the "sexist masculine trappings" of Manland, I'd probably just sit and read a book.
If the sexism really bothers you, make it more gender-neutral: provide entertainment to make any adult non-shopper happy. Call it "The Isle of Tranquility" or something, but leave these places in the store instead of ruining it for the folks who hate shopping.