After Japanese man muses that doing chores will make him less attractive to a wife, women respond that a dude who helps out in home life is dead sexy.

Up until about a generation ago, the distribution of duties between Japanese moms and dads was pretty clear. Dad went to work straight after graduation and threw himself into his career, forgoing most aspects of family or non-work-related social life. Meanwhile, Mom stopped working outside the home and took care of just about everything that needed to be done in regards to child-rearing and housework.

There’s been a marked change to that over the last decade, though. With more and more Japanese women continuing past secondary education and joining the workforce in earnest, there’s an increasingly common conviction that men should pitch in and cover their share of the domestic responsibilities. But long-followed social norms don’t disappear quickly, causing one male Japanese Twitter user to make the following argument:

“Making your wife do all the housework can make a husband and wife not get along, but if the husband is really proactive about doing housework, his wife will start to see him as less of a man.

It’s like, who does she see as more attractive: Her husband who folds the laundry, or her male coworker who’s really good at his job?”

Guys not having a good grasp on what women want is hardly a new phenomenon, but this assertion was still too far off base for the ladies of Japanese Twitter to let go unchallenged. Luckily, the nature of the Japanese written language, with its use of kanji characters, means that you can cram a lot of information into Twitter’s 140-character post limit, and so was born the hashtag “#If a husband does housework and takes care of the kids will he seem like less of a man to his wife? No, not at all. Seriously, look at how sexy the men doing housework and taking care of kids are in these photos” (#夫が家事育児をすると妻から男として見られなくなるですっていいえそんなことはありませんほら家事育児をしている男の人がこんなにセクスィーな画像をどうぞ in Japanese).

https://twitter.com/okometanisan/status/922046895479955456 https://twitter.com/hnswkb/status/922053054630735872

The photos shared with the hashtag, some of which show celebrity or in-character dads, weren’t limited to Japanese men either.

▼ Though it doesn’t get much more Japanese than actor Tomisaburo Wakayama as the hero of manga-turned-film series Lone Wolf and Cub.

In addition to the photo rebuttal, the original theory that men who do housework won’t be seen as manly was met with written resistance such as:

“A husband who folds laundry is so much more attractive than a successful male coworker.”
“Casting my vote for the husband who folds laundry”
“A husband who does housework is so much cooler than one who just does work at the office.”
“When I see my husband doing housework, it’s like a dream come true. It takes my breath away, and I just want to pounce on his back.”
“You don’t get the appeal of the mix of sexiness, cuteness, and coolness that a man who does housework has? It’s so incredibly attractive.”

So go ahead and wash the dishes tonight, guys. Japanese women won’t think any less of you.

Source: Twitter/#夫が家事育児をすると妻から男として見られなくなるですっていいえそんなことはありませんほら家事育児をしている男の人がこんなにセクスィーな画像をどうぞ
Top image ©SoraNews24
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Follow Casey on Twitter, where’s he’s not afraid to scrub a toilet, but isn’t really sure whether or not he looks sexy doing it.