Cooking As Post-Feminist Signaling for Marriagable Women...???

This is so true.

“One of the effects of feminism is that men of my generation have had a much wider opportunity to cook. I can’t think of any men my age or younger who don’t know how to cook. Moreover, I can’t think of any men of my generation or younger who don’t enjoy cooking. This is in stark contrast to the women of the same generations, who (typically) view cooking as an indignity. The reason for the difference in attitude boils down to what cooking is all about. Cooking is an act of love, an act of service to others. It is an opportunity to care for others in a very fundamental way, to literally nourish them through the work of your own hands. This is precisely what troubles the modern woman so much about cooking (or cleaning, or changing diapers). Serving others in the mind of a feminist is an indignity.”

I love to cook.  I started cooking because, well, I like to eat and I applied the basic common sense principle of "if you want something done right, do it yourself."  Cooking is practical.  It's also cheaper than having someone do it for you; and, if you so desire, it presents a world of opportunities to learn and challenges to conquer.  For these and other reasons cooking is, in fact, completely suited to the male sensibility.  At least to me, cooking and maleness go hand in hand.  And now that I have children I enjoy cooking even more as an activity I can share with my kids.  Some of my best quality time with the Baseball tykes is in the kitchen whipping up some tasty morsels.

I, however, wouldn't chalk up men's newfound affinity for cooking necessarily to feminism.  That may be part of it, but the growth of our economy, our vastly greater productivity and the expansion of leisure time are are major contributors too.  Men cook because of their wives' work schedule, yes, but they also cook because their jobs require less physical stress and/or less time away from the home and they are more productive at work.

Although, I agree wholeheartedly with the author that feminism has done a useful service by identifying the women who are constitutionally averse to small acts of kindness.  (I would never insist that a woman cook for me, but if a woman refused to cook for me at all, I'd think she's kind of a bitch.)  Feminism, having freed great numbers of women from being forced into a lifetime of cooking, has freed these same women to express more discernably who they are to potential mates.  For men seeking wives, it used to be "Can she cook?"  Now, the much more valuable question is "Will she cook?"  For women, I won't comment on whether this is a better state of affairs.  On the other hand, men, who would have otherwise married those women for whom the answer to the latter question is "no," are certainly better off.