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Toxic Masculinity meets DIY renovation
Jul. 26th, 2019 06:04 amBack in March, a photo of a truly hideous bathroom made the internet rounds. The home owner, a single male whose proclamation that "woman play an unfair role in the home-buying process" (sic) made it clear that we were dealing with a men's rights activist, possibly an incel. He said "my bathroom is designed with a woman in mind. It will have a powder room that will be completely useless to me, but is the kind of thing a woman would look at and say, OMG I want this" (I should say that by "powder room", he meant an alcove in the bathroom with a make up table).
This person regarded himself as a DIY expert, and set out to do the remodel himself. The original bathroom in this person's high end home looked like this:
(Image shows a large and expensive white bathroom with three big windows on the left filling one wall, a hot tub against that wall centred under the middle window and extending into the middle of the room. The near and far walls have matching big vanities against them. Three doorways to the right lead, presumably, to the toilet, shower, and an door to the rest of the house).
After two years and many misadventures due to his incompetence (he cut through floor joists, for example), the person finished their remodel, achieving this:
(Instead of white, the bathroom is now black and dark metallic grey with red highlights. Glitter wallpaper on the walls. One window and one vanity have been replaced with a ridiculously huge walk in shower. The other vanity has been replaced with a pair of much smaller vanities. The hot tub has been replaced with an ordinary (but expensive) bathtub, sitting in a bed of gravel in the middle of a black slate floor). Thanks to the walls of the walk in shower, the vanity and tub area looks cramped).
And the highly appealing to women makeup table, taking the place of the original shower:
(this shows the back wall of the bathroom. To the left, a closed door presumably leading to the toilet. To the right, a makeup table. In the middle, your escape from this black/grey/red nightmare of bad taste. The makeup table has a small mirror above it, lit dimly by a single chandelier. A hideously garish painting is visible on the wall next to the makeup table).
When women helpfully pointed out to this person that his bathroom design lacked adequate storage for personal care products, especially in the shower and around the tub, lacked adequate light for the makeup table, and looked like a dark and gloomy cave, he condescended to them.
Intrigued, I investigated and learned that the same person had remodeled his bedroom a few years previously:
(A blue wall is dominated by a ridiculously huge black built in headboard towering over a mattress covered with red and grey bedding. The foundation of the mattress is enclosed inside a black box. The far wall is white and is mostly storage cabinets. light timidly ventures into the room through windows with dark grey blackout curtains on them).
Proving once again that while some sexist assholes are aesthetically challenged, others wouldn’t know aesthetics if it jumped out and bit them in the leg.
When I showed the before and after images to Morgan, she told me that it's hard to do makeup properly in a high humidity environment, so another point against his master plan to make the women swoon when they see his washroom. Morgan also said,
"The only way I can see myself using that bathroom would be if I was high priestess of a blood cult into human sacrifice, in which case it would be the perfect place for my handmaidens to wash me when I was having my period."
That pretty much sums it up.
This person regarded himself as a DIY expert, and set out to do the remodel himself. The original bathroom in this person's high end home looked like this:
(Image shows a large and expensive white bathroom with three big windows on the left filling one wall, a hot tub against that wall centred under the middle window and extending into the middle of the room. The near and far walls have matching big vanities against them. Three doorways to the right lead, presumably, to the toilet, shower, and an door to the rest of the house).
After two years and many misadventures due to his incompetence (he cut through floor joists, for example), the person finished their remodel, achieving this:
(Instead of white, the bathroom is now black and dark metallic grey with red highlights. Glitter wallpaper on the walls. One window and one vanity have been replaced with a ridiculously huge walk in shower. The other vanity has been replaced with a pair of much smaller vanities. The hot tub has been replaced with an ordinary (but expensive) bathtub, sitting in a bed of gravel in the middle of a black slate floor). Thanks to the walls of the walk in shower, the vanity and tub area looks cramped).
And the highly appealing to women makeup table, taking the place of the original shower:
(this shows the back wall of the bathroom. To the left, a closed door presumably leading to the toilet. To the right, a makeup table. In the middle, your escape from this black/grey/red nightmare of bad taste. The makeup table has a small mirror above it, lit dimly by a single chandelier. A hideously garish painting is visible on the wall next to the makeup table).
When women helpfully pointed out to this person that his bathroom design lacked adequate storage for personal care products, especially in the shower and around the tub, lacked adequate light for the makeup table, and looked like a dark and gloomy cave, he condescended to them.
Intrigued, I investigated and learned that the same person had remodeled his bedroom a few years previously:
(A blue wall is dominated by a ridiculously huge black built in headboard towering over a mattress covered with red and grey bedding. The foundation of the mattress is enclosed inside a black box. The far wall is white and is mostly storage cabinets. light timidly ventures into the room through windows with dark grey blackout curtains on them).
Proving once again that while some sexist assholes are aesthetically challenged, others wouldn’t know aesthetics if it jumped out and bit them in the leg.
When I showed the before and after images to Morgan, she told me that it's hard to do makeup properly in a high humidity environment, so another point against his master plan to make the women swoon when they see his washroom. Morgan also said,
"The only way I can see myself using that bathroom would be if I was high priestess of a blood cult into human sacrifice, in which case it would be the perfect place for my handmaidens to wash me when I was having my period."
That pretty much sums it up.
