The “Man Cave”.
Marketers objectify it endlessly.
Has the man cave jumped the shark?
Adam Tschorn thinks so and explains in the LA Times:
The spirit of the man cave has been co-opted by so many marketers hawking grill tools, barware and even neon lights in the shape of the words “man cave” (in case it needs to be spelled out for the fairer sex, one presumes) that if we don’t roll a boulder to block the mouth of the cave now, the strip-mining will continue unabated until Hallmark rolls out a line of man cave cards (“Greetings from the grotto!”) and guy-asylums across the country will groan under the weight of scented candles.
Tschorn also points out that the first known (or mass published) use of the term preceded — by only one month — the publishing of the book “Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus”. That book’s author, John Gray, says the male needs to retreat as a way of dealing with stress — which Tschorn and Gray both liken to the man cave.
That DNA and male hardwiring is why I believe the concept of the man cave will never go away, though the term probably will.
Importantly, Gray also explains that the man cave manifests itself in different ways for different people. The cave can be a physical place, or even just a mental one.
For me, the man cave manifests in several different places and states of mind.
For example, there’s a little bit of man cave that exists in:
Mentally
- My dreams at night.
- The music via my headphones during my commute.
- My quiet mood while I write, wherever I may be.
- Our basement kid playroom, which features a refrigerator dedicated to beer.
- My black Jeep Wrangler 4.0, which has leopard-skin seating, roll-bar speakers and bullhorns (which are still waiting for me to mount).
- My garage, where my tools, lawn mower, snow blower, weed wacker and other tools live.
- Our kitchen, which has my cutlery, my food and my booze.
No man can survive the world without planting little bits of man cave throughout.
(Photo: uLight.Me)
absolutely!