Real Men Don't Eat Quiche

In 1982 I experienced four life changing events. I graduated from high school. I started college. I met my future husband. And I read Bruce Feirstein's (pronounced in the Yiddish 'Fire shtine') classic sociological expose, titled 'Real Men Don't Eat Quiche'. The innocent title doesn't adequately do justice to Feirsteins's pioneer efforts to help us understand the male of our species and his role in society.

It was books like Real Men Don't Eat Quiche and it's various offspring Real Women Don't Pump Gas , Real Kids Don't Say Please and other works of this nature that inspired my philosophy of life and love and marriage and family. For the business end of life, the career, the education, my social and political views, there were other readings; heavy tombs of weighty with important and ponderous thought. And probably better remembered than Quiche. But Real Men Don't Eat Quiche was the star to which I hitched my wagon of life. The truths in Quiche are what guide my knee-jerk responses and attitude on life.

From this book we learned that real men do eat fruits and vegetables: canned corn and orange soda. We see all the foibles of modern man in exaggeration. I've read a lot of criticism of this book over the year and they are all missing the point. By poking fun at the Neanderthal male, we poke fun at ourselves for making these assumptions about men and putting them in pigeonholes.

AS you may have guessed from the title, Real Men Don't Eat Quiche is tongue-in-cheek. But it is a classic in using humor to understand people. Real Men forged a path followed by Dr. Phil, Women are From Venus, Men are From Mars, Don't Sweat the Small Stuff and even to a certain extent, theChicken Soup for the Soulseries.

ON Real Men's 25th anniversary, I want pay tribute to a book which helps us to laugh at ourselves, celebrate our differences, enjoy our person-hood and take life a little lighter. It helps us to look at our expectations of behavior with the candor of humor. We can all admit that we have unfair attitudes toward each other, based on preconceived notions, not reality. And I like any book that takes pot shots at myths and stereotypes.

I had to chuckle at Mad Dog Weekly's spin on the book: 'Of course we eat quiche, we just don't know how to pronounce it. Heck, we'll even eat a croissant as long as we don't have to embarrass ourselves by ordering it.' Perfect.