{"id":46049,"date":"2012-12-31T13:00:57","date_gmt":"2012-12-31T18:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=46049"},"modified":"2013-10-31T04:44:55","modified_gmt":"2013-10-31T09:44:55","slug":"the-bachelor-pad-myth-and-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2012\/12\/31\/the-bachelor-pad-myth-and-reality\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bachelor Pad: Myth and Reality"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the last week of December, we\u2019re re-posting some of our favorite posts from 2012. Originally c<\/em>ross-posted at Inequality by Interior Design<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

There is not actually a great deal of literature on \u201cman caves,\u201d \u201cman dens,\u201d and the like\u2013save for some anthropological and archeological work using the term a bit differently.\u00a0 There is, however, a substantial body of literature dealing with bachelor pads.\u00a0 The \u201cbachelor pad<\/a>\u201d is a term that emerged in the 1960s.\u00a0 It was a style of masculinizing domestic spaces heavily influenced by \u201cgentlemen\u2019s\u201d magazines like\u00a0Esquire<\/a><\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Playboy<\/a><\/em>.\u00a0 Originally referred to as \u201cbachelor apartments,\u201d \u201cbachelor pad\u201d was coined in an article in the\u00a0Chicago Tribune<\/a><\/em>, and by 1964 it appeared in the\u00a0New York Times<\/a><\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Playboy<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>as well.
\n\"\"<\/a>
\nIt\u2019s somewhat ironic that the \u201cbachelor pad\u201d came into the American cultural consciousness at a time when the median age at first marriage was at a historic low (20.3 for women and 22.8 for men<\/a>).\u00a0 So, the term came into usage at a time when heterosexual marriage was in vogue.\u00a0 Why then?\u00a0 Another ironic twist is that while the term has only become more popular since it was introduced, \u201cbachelorette pad\u201d never took off\u2013despite the interesting finding that\u00a0women live alone in larger numbers than do men<\/a>.\u00a0 I think these two paradoxes substantiate a fundamental truth about the bachelor pad\u2013it has always been more myth than reality<\/em>\u00a0(see\u00a0here<\/a>,\u00a0here<\/a>,\u00a0here<\/a>,\u00a0here<\/a>, and\u00a0here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The\u00a0gendering of domestic space<\/a>\u00a0had been a persistent dilemma since the spheres were separated in the first place.\u00a0 Few men were ever able to afford the lavish, futuristic and hedonistic \u201cpads\u201d advertised in\u00a0Esquire<\/em>and\u00a0Playboy<\/em>.\u00a0 But they did want to look at them in magazines.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A small body of literature on bachelor pads finds that they played a significant role in producing a new masculinity over the course of the 21st century.\u00a0 As Bill\u00a0Ogersby puts it, \u201cA place where men could luxuriate\u00a0in a milieu of hedonistic\u00a0pleasure, the bachelor pad was the spatial manifestation of a consuming masculine subject that became increasingly pervasive amid the consumer boom of the 1950s and 1960s\u201d (here<\/a>).\u00a0 The really interesting thing is that few men were actually able to luxuriate in these environments.\u00a0 Yet\u00a0Playboy —\u00a0<\/em>along with a host of copycat magazines — spent a great deal of money, time, and effort perpetuating a lifestyle in which few men engaged.\u00a0 Indeed, outside of\u00a0James Bond movies<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Playboy Mansion<\/a>, I wonder how many actual bachelor pads exist or ever existed.<\/p>\n

In the 1950s — despite a transition into consumer culture — consumption was regarded as a feminine practice and pursuit.\u00a0 Bachelor pads — and the magazines that sold the images of these domestic spaces to men around the country — helped men bridge this gap.\u00a0 More than a few have noted the importance of\u00a0Playboy\u2019s<\/em>\u00a0(hetero)sexual content in helping to sell consumption to American men.\u00a0\u00a0Barbara Ehrenreich<\/a>\u00a0said it this way: \u201cThe breasts and bottoms were necessary not just to sell the magazine, but to protect it\u201d (here<\/a>).\u00a0 Additionally, the masculinization of domestic space took many forms in early depictions of bachelor pads with ostentatious gadgetry of all types, beds with enough compartments and features to be comparable to Swiss Army knives, and each room designed in anticipation of heterosexual conquest at a moment\u2019s notice.<\/p>\n

Paradoxically, bachelor pads seem to have been produced to sell men thehistorically \u201cfeminized\u201d activity of consumption<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m guessing that many of the \u201cman caves\u201d I\u2019ll see in my research wouldn\u2019t necessarily fit the image most of us conjure in our minds. \u00a0But the ways men with caves talk about them are replete with images not yet fully realized by men who are most often economically incapable of architecturally articulating domestic spaces without which they may never feel \u201cat home.\u201d<\/p>\n

———————<\/p>\n

Tristan Bridges<\/a>\u00a0is a sociologist of gender and sexuality.\u00a0 He starts as an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the College at Brockport (SUNY) in the fall of 2012.\u00a0 He is currently studying heterosexual couples with “man caves” in their homes.\u00a0 Tristan blogs about some of this research and more at\u00a0Inequality by (Interior) Design<\/a>. \u00a0You can follow him on twitter @tristanbphd<\/a>.<\/p>\nLisa Wade, PhD<\/a> is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of <\/em>American Hookup<\/a>, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender<\/a>; and a forthcoming introductory text: <\/em>Terrible Magnificent Sociology<\/a>.\u00a0You can follow her on Twitter<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>.<\/em><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the last week of December, we\u2019re re-posting some of our favorite posts from 2012. Originally cross-posted at Inequality by Interior Design. There is not actually a great deal of literature on \u201cman caves,\u201d \u201cman dens,\u201d and the like\u2013save for some anthropological and archeological work using the term a bit differently.\u00a0 There is, however, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[55,2088,2087,253,8080,10514,272,120],"class_list":["post-46049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-gender","tag-gender-marriagefamily","tag-gender-masculinity","tag-history","tag-housingresidential-segregation","tag-leisure","tag-marriagefamily","tag-sex"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46049"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46049\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58077,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46049\/revisions\/58077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}