In Dave Barry's essay, “Lost in the Kitchen”, we are shown both an entertaining and eye opening tale about two men's incompetence with helping to prepare Thanksgiving dinner for their friends and families. Barry tries to put the point across to the reader to the that men are “basically scum” when it comes to helping out in their kitchen, even though Barry explains it in humorous way. The short story was entertaining, funny, and absolutely true. I agreed with Barry’s statement, that men are “basically both hopeless and helpless in the kitchen.” I felt that this was the primary message. However, as I look closer at Barry’s essay, I find the messages suggesting the uselessness of men in today’s society. I remember a specific quote from Margaret Mead stating, “Men have always been afraid that women could get along without them." Maybe that’s why men allow the women the free range to use the kitchen without second guessing what they are doing. Because men believe women were raised in the kitchen, being trained side by side with their mothers. Barry goes to the extent of comparing men to Labrador Retrievers and assuming all they want to do is sit on the couch while watching football on the TV. Barry draws our attention to the use of labels in our society. Gender to me is a social concept, specifying the socially and culturally prescribed roles that men and women are to follow, with women in the kitchen and men in the den in front of the TV. I reply back to the quote by Clare Boothe Luce. “ Nowadays, gender is a "costume” in which men and women dance their unequal dance” Most people my age have assumed that the kitchen is the woman’s “workshop” while the rest of the house is the man’s, to do what he pleases. Barry helps us better understand the point that he is trying to get across. His statements are true for many of us and our families, especially during the holiday seasons. When I read Barry’s essay, I was brought back to a time in my life that I...