The ability to navigate a culinary environment with moderate ease is a skill most often associated with those of the feminine persuasion. When a young girl enters the intimidating world of adolescence, she is faced with certain expectations. One of them is learning most, if not all, of the skills associated with cooking. However, gone are the years when education was reserved only for those with testosterone, while girls sat idly by, taking care of the house and preparing meals for their husbands. The stereotypes put in place by cultural norms of previous decades have begun to crack, as more and more women find themselves immersed in the dog-eat-dog business world. In my personal opinion, I strongly believe that with this new equality between the forces of testosterone and estrogen, it is imperative that boys and men alike learn to cook for themselves. The ability to navigate a culinary environment is one of the most important skills any individual, regardless of gender, can possess, as it nurtures an invaluable independence in the individual, ensuring their success when they leave the nest from his parents and enters the real world. for the first time. Today, boys often rely on their mothers, older sisters and, later, if they choose to marry, their wives, to cook for them. They become accustomed to having food ready to go whenever they are hungry and if their meal is delayed or they miss it, they may become cranky and irritable. A personal example of this occurrence can be found in my brother’s home. If more boys learned to cook for themselves, beyond just making scrambled eggs and toast, they wouldn't have to wait for their food to be prepared, as they would... middle of paper . .....cooking is an important ability, regardless of gender, because food tastes best when prepared by skillful hands, and food does not know or care if the hand that prepares it is a man or a woman. physically active'." BBC News. BBC, June 1, 2009. Web. February 1, 2014. Cohen, Ian. "What not to eat after a workout." Men's Fitness. Np, and Web. February 1, 2014. Sayer, Liana C. “Gender, Time, and Inequality: Trends in Paid Work, Unpaid Work, and Leisure Time for Women and Men Social Forces (University Of North Carolina Press) 84.1 (2005): 285-303. OmniFile Full Text Selection (HW Wilson). Sollisch, Jim. “Cooking is Freedom.” . January 23, 2014. IITavernise, Sabrina. "Married couples no longer in the majority, New York Times, May 26, 2011. Web.. 2014.