My dad was a 30 year army reserve veteran (served in both the Gulf War and Afghanistan) I would consider him to be a typical American "mans man" and definitely made a point about my brother and I learning how to cook, because its how you make a good impression on the in laws and girls you care about (his words, more or less).

I credit this with why I know how to cook as well as I do. We grew up poor by most standards in the US, but my uncle was a butcher, both grandparents were farmers, so the one thing we had access to was fruits, vegetables and good meats.

Its also why I think i never learned good portion control as a child and still have trouble maintaining a healthy weight (among other reasons I won't get into here), we made very good savory food all the time because its what we had. We had to cook, as take out wasn't an option, and frozen foods weren't cost effective the same way for us (due to familial professions, we had access to things most people don't in this way).

That's the irony. I feel like I grew up with blander foods I'd be less inclined to eat them so much growing up, feeding a long habit of food being comfort.

My mate's grandad was an army cook. He told me that he was an excellent cook, made amazing meals, but never - after being demobbed - got his head around making not-army sized batches.

So my mate would go round to his grandparents and find his grandad stirring a pot of chilli and a pot of stew and a pot of curry each roughly the size of a dustbin, and be greeted with "Oh hello, young lad, I wish I'd known you were coming, I'd have made you some dinner!"

I got a lot of flak for wanting an Easy-Bake Oven as a boy. My mom was a habitual Burner of Things. Never could quite figure that out. I just wanted to make a brownie that wasn't rock hard crust, you know?

I received similar pushback for taking both Home Ec classes. It was really the only way out of the latchkey kid diet, which, yes, was primarily sandwiches, Steak-Umms, and so on.

Oh yeah me too, I wanted to do Home Ec at school.

"But you'd be the only boy in the class, everyone else in the class is a girl!" was the general objection from the staff doing the timetables.

Yes. That is rather the point, isn't it?

Anyway I did Technical Drawing instead because either they couldn't see what the plan was, or they could see it all too well.

I ended up doing drafting as well as woodshop on top of it. It wasn't really a "reclaim my masculinity" thing so much as wanting to be well-rounded and trying things that I wasn't already good at.

When I had to do some photography on appointment and sometimes videography, well, nervous people can mess up their clothes. A number of women were surprised when I whipped out a needle and matching thread to briefly repair a tear in their clothing when time was tight.

I felt pretty annoyed at having to defend these kinds of choices, and a surprising amount of the pushback came not from boys my own age, but girls and women.

Huh? I did my own laundry starting from like 10, and cooking the family dinners most nights (until I reached high school and football practice got in the way). Not sure what 'US' you are talking about, maybe the generation before the 80s?

> maybe the generation before the 80s?

Yeah, I overstated the reality for rhetorical effect, but it also would depend on what part of the US. Gender roles have changed in some places, but not so much in others.

> until I reached high school and football practice got in the way

That says a lot about US culture right there.

Dude how are you going to get a girlfriend if you can't invite her over and make her dinner?

Girls can eat pizza rolls.

That's why nice sit-down restaurants with tables for two exist.