SBM: Man … sometimes I wonder if I will be able to keep the future Mrs. SBM happy.  Will I be a good husband?
Old Black Barber: What you talking about young buck?
SBM: I’m saying, even with all the information I’m dishing out, I still don’t understand women. They remain batsh*t crazy a mystery.
OBB: What? Ain’t nothing to understanding women. Sheeeeet. Only one thing you gotta learn when it comes to marriage!
SBM: Really? There is only one thing I need to know to keep my wife smiling and cooking me the big piece of chicken for the rest of my life.
OBB: Big piece of chicken, a smile on her face, and head while watching football.
SBM: Word! Dome and the game!
OBB: Yessir.
SBM: Well come with it man (pause). What is the secret?
OBB: Three words … “She’s always right”
SBM: WTF! That bullsh*t is what you had to tell me.
OBB: Man … trust me … you need to heed wha
SBM: *cutting him off* Man … get me out this chair and get off my head.

Since I was a kid, television, books, and old men alike seemed to have reiterated one concept over and over again. One nugget of “wisdom” to staying happily married:

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The Woman is always Right!

Even at a tender young age I was able to see this statement for what it really was:

Good husbands are first and foremost punks when it comes to “her” wishes

If there was one single overriding factor that led me to permanently put the word “single” in my online name … this was it.

Sitcoms to me always had this indirect notion that the husband never really wore the pants.  Sometimes it was blatant like “Married with Children”, but sometimes it was more covert like “I Love Lucy” where Ricky’s word never held up to Lucy’s whims.  Can you really think of a good sitcom that didn’t show a husband constantly admitting fault in fights?  Was there a domestic dispute which ended with Mrs. Banks saying “honey … you’re right. We shouldn’t bring my nephew from the ghetto to live in our house with his dope boy friends”?  No you say … exactly.  But more importantly, I remember hearing this a lot from older men I was a kid.

“You know you can’t argue with a woman boy … you’ll always lose. I might wear the pants, but I don’t run sh*.”

“Yeah, I really wanted to buy a truck for when I go fishing, but you know the misses wasn’t having that and set me straight.”

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There seemed, for a very long period of my life, to be this thought that, for a man to get married, he had to instantly give up every argument, whether right or wrong.  If not, he was sleeping on the couch with dry balls.  The only way to keep peace in the house was to submit on any major argument.  Basically, marriage was a really a commitment to taking L’s for the rest of your life.

Now … as an adult we all know this isn’t true.  The ideal marriage is a give and take with enough compromises to keep everyone happy.  Also, if the husband is being a real husband and taking care of his family, then he will get the big piece of chicken and the final say in major matters.

In addition, it rarely seemed to go down like this in real life.  I don’t remember seeing families in real life where the husband simply said “yes, honey”.  Didn’t happen in my house.  Didn’t happen at my best friends house.  Where was this even coming from besides the all female writing staff of major networks?

So why does this negative stereotype of husbandry exist? Why are young black men being turned off of commitment and marriage because of some antiquated way of handling business?  WTF is going on?

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Am I just seeing things?  Has my jaded past warped me so much that I see things that aren’t there? Am I high losing it?

SBM aka I bend over for no woman aka “Who ate my big piece of chicken?”