My View: Don't get shirty – you don't have to iron to be a smooth operator
Of course, I know how to iron, and I have to do it sometimes during fashion shoots, but I haven't ironed at home since 1994. School shirts don't need ironing and I make sure I don't buy any clothes that look as if they may require it. My husband buys and irons his own shirts and would be shocked and deeply suspicious if I ever offered to do it (which I never have).
If men insist on wearing non-iron shirts, they should iron the darned things themselves, so it's outrageous that, in a study of 1,200 adults, it was found that women were more adept than men at ironing two shirts in three minutes.
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Hide AdWomen also beat men at threading needles, making beds and mopping kitchen floors, and the explanation is that women have better hand-eye co-ordination, although my explanation is that men can't be bothered,
The study, on behalf of Gaviscon, the indigestion remedy, aimed to find out what men and women could achieve in three minutes, which is apparently how long Gaviscon takes to work (although I don't think the volunteers had indigestion at the time – it might have made more sense if they had).
Anyway, the men had their strengths, too, outperforming women at changing wheels, putting up tents, wiring plugs and changing nappies (worth remembering at three in the morning), because these are tasks that require good spatial reasoning.
I like a man who can read a map and change a wheel – what's a man for? In fact, rather than televised debates, this would prove a useful way of testing the three men vying for the post of Prime Minister. The ideal leader, after all, should be a good all-rounder, capable of performing well both the male-preferred spatial tasks and the female-friendly hand-eye ones.
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Hide AdTherefore, after Harry Hill's TV Burp, I would like to see Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg take part in a three-minute iron-off, followed by wheel-changing, and then a task where Nick Clegg works with each of the other chaps in turn to assemble an Ikea flat-pack bed.
In Generation Game spirit, the would-be first ladies would have three minutes each in which to style the perfect PM wife's day-to-night outfit, followed by another three minutes (the study showed that women are better arguers) in which to explain their husband's policies on the economy, education and using mobile phones at the dinner table.
Presented by Tess Daly, with a judging panel from Grazia and Mumsnet.com, it's a Saturday night must-see.