I'm not sure, let me call 1952 and see what it thinks.
It's the 21st century. Some women cook, some don't. Some men cook, some don't. Is it a turn-off to you if a man can't cook? No? Then it shouldn't turn him off if you can't cook. Shouldn't. Unfortunately, yes, there are probably some Neanderthals men out there who want a domestic goddess, someone who can cook and clean and do laundry and have a high-ball ready when they come home from work. But is this the kind of guy you want to date?
Cooking is a wonderful skill, and it's always nice to have a partner who enjoys it and is good at it. (In my house we're both pretty lousy, so we take turns setting the oven on fire and stinking up the house.) If you want to learn, great, more power to you. But no one should be expected to excel at something (s)he doesn't enjoy, particularly when that expectation is based on gender. My wife doesn't ask me to go out and hunt buffalo because I'm a man, so I can't expect her to like cooking or to be good at it just because she's a woman.
I'd love to ramble on about this, but it's late and those smoke stains and bits of meat on my kitchen ceiling aren't going to clean themselves, here's my short answer: Yes, some men will be turned off if their woman can't cook. Others won't, because they don't assume it's the female's job to make the meals. You just have to decide which type of guy you want to date. If he expects you to cook, you can bet your butt that it will only be the beginning of things he expects from you, Mrs. Flintstone, so proceed with caution.
Oh, and the way to a man's heart isn't necessarily through his stomach. Aim lower.
You have completely outdone yourself with this one. Starting with calling 1952 and throwing in Mrs. Flintstone and I laughed all the way through.
I rarely cooked when my hubby and I met but have learned to and actually enjoy it. And he gobbles it up, so it must be good. He's an excellent cook and I love that. But the fact that I didn't cook or only cooked simple stuff certainly wasn't a turn off for him. And if it had been, I'd have been quite leary. Oh, and I'm pretty good at the "aim lower" part, so there's that.
Smama, I don't think that putting ketchup on a banana can be considered "cooking."
Yep yep.
I haven't killed anyone yet with my lousy cooking, but that doesn't mean I haven't tried. *grin* For people I really dislike, I throw in a dash of hemlock. It gives the dish a little "kick."
Being somebody who actually enjoys cooking, it wouldn't be an issue. I have it on good authority (wikipedia, Kate Hudson movies) that women love men who are good in the kitchen. I also decided I didn't want to eat instant noodles for the rest of my life, so there's that.
If your culinary challenges are a turn off to him, let them be. What are you, his mother?
The way to a man's heart is generally through his stomach, but that doesn't mean that you have to be the one filling it with the fruits of your half-hearted labor. I think any guy likes a woman who can cook well, but not being able to cook shouldn't be a deal breaker. Merely keeping his stomach filled with anything should do the trick. There are many guys who become easily annoyed and irritable when they are hungry, and the best way to avoid this is to keep him full.
Also, the man may hope that you cook so that he doesn't have to take you out all the time or order in food every other night, which could break his bank. Even if you aren't the best cook, your man should realize that you are going out of your comfort zone any time you prepare something, and you at least deserve some credit for that.
I'm great at cooking things like breakfast. Pancakes from scratch with an egg and bacon/sausage and there we god a meal I can make great all day. However ask me to make a steak and mashed potato dinner and it becomes my personal nightmare! i tried once to do a steak dinner and let's just say it most likely looked like it sounds over at Cary's house XD However my ex has been cool and is teaching me how to cook using simple spices and whatnot to make a dinner plate that looks better than something scraped off the road!
Well said. This gave me a good laugh. Loved the "no vagina" tag too. :-)
I dated a woman who didn't cook (though she did make me a sandwich, once), and I was fine with that, because I like to cook. What I wasn't so fine with, though, was when she tried to tell me how to cook.
Honestly, if youre attractive, men compensate. LIKE REALLY. I cant cook, still get a horde of men knocking on my door. But I know how you feel, because I cant cook, I do feel insecure at times. THe thing is, I think cooking is one of those things that one can actually learn if they want to. And if its a deal breaker, he doesnt deserve you.
Did you live in 1952 or are you just pulling out some image hollywood sold you on?
Let's put it this way, I'm looking for a woman to MOTHER my children. Remember that old school thing before endless amusement and running around in circles working a dead in job as a blogger?
Kids don't need women with firm asses, who can do sex tricks, who are materialistic, who dress nice, have nice hair styles... nope. Kids need a loving WOMAN. A mother, someone who can cook soup. Someone who has secret remedies. Can patch their clothes.
I make enough money to support a full household. Women try to act like I need to be sexed. Ha! Get out of here and go get yourself a poor as blogger influenced by television garbage. He'll kiss you ass all day. As for your "wit"
"And grace and virtue, sense and reason split,
With all the rash dexterity of wit:
Wits, just like fools, at war about a name,
Have full as oft no meaning, or the same." - Alexander Pope
Knowing how to cook is as basic a civilized human necessity as tying your shoes, knowing how to dress, or to read, or to drive. But whether an inability to cook is a "turn off" or not depends on the overall distribution of labor. Does she do the dishes after you cook? Does she have a clean place? When she does eat, does she eat fast food or does she have discernment and a trim waistline to prove it?
My ex-wife could cook amazing meals, but it would take hours, leave a ton of dishes to clean up, and was generally so time consuming and expensive that we usually ate out (and gained weight). Meanwhile, I could cook up a decent, non-fatty meal in half an hour and have the prep dishes cleaned before everything was on the table. She was mean, though, in virtually every other department.
The question should't be whether the ability or inability to cook is a turn off. The question should be, does she have "feminist" attitudes that she uses to justify her apathy about a basic human survival skill.
(The way to a man's heart is below his stomach, incidentally. If prostitution were legal and regulated, given the basic lack of domestic skills so many women have today, marriage would be dead except in the case of the pathetic few men who need a women to feel "whole.")