102 Times Men Did Something So Baffling Women Had To Ask, “What Were You Thinking?”

It was a man who invented the lightbulb. A man who first set foot on the moon. A man who brought us the telephone. Heck, a German inventor called Jacob Christian Schäffer was the first to design one of the earliest hand-powered washing devices, which would later evolve into a washing machine.

Yet, ask some men to do a load of washing and all you get is blank stares, or white shirts turned pink. Call it laziness, weaponized incompetence, entitlement, or being a few cards short of a deck, these guys are the ones who expect women to do the bulk of the heavy lifting.

A quick scroll through this listicle provides more than enough proof that weaponized incompetence is alive and kicking. Painting around the coats hanging on a rail, asking your wife to wrap her own Christmas gifts, writing "Today" as the date on a juice bottle, not understanding the concept of thawing meat... Really?

Psychology Today defines weaponized incompetence as "strategically avoiding responsibility—by pretending to be incapable or inept at a task so that someone else helps, takes over, or stops delegating tasks to them."

In this way, adds the site, the imbalance becomes entrenched over time. And quite frankly, we're over it.

Some of these posts are so infuriating that they might make you dream of migrating to a women-only, remote island nation. Oh, if only there were such a thing... But wait, there is. Almost.

In the heart of rural Kenya lies a village called Umoja. It's entirely run by women, and no men are allowed. Umoja was founded in 1990 by Rebecca Lolosoli, after she was thrown out of her community and beaten by a group of men for speaking out against the mutilation of females.

Umoja means "unity" in Swahili. The village began with 15 women but has been home to up to 50 families at a time since its inception. Only women and their children, of course. They build homes for each other, and have also constructed a school. The women also sell honey and handmade beads to tourists.

“I don’t want to ever leave this supportive community of women. We don’t have much, but in Umoja I have everything I need,” one resident, known only as Mary, told Salam Lab. Mary sought refuge in Umoja after being sold to an 80 year old man in exchange for a herd of cows, at the age of 16.

Umoja isn't the only women-only village in the world. Over in Egypt, lies Al Samaha. It was created in 1998 by the Ministry of Agriculture. The initiative was aimed at giving divorced women and widows a place to live, as well as a source of income.

"In Al Samaha, the government provides women with plots of land and furnished houses. Residents are able to pay off the costs of housing due to the profit made from agriculture, tending cattle and selling handicrafts," reports Salam Lab. 

Today, Al Samaha is also a refuge for women who have survived domestic violence.

Syria also has a women-only village. Jinwar was officially opened in November 2018, and was created by a group of activists striving for democracy, ecology, peace, and diversity. Like the other two villages, Jinwar is a refuge for women who have escaped violence, have been widowed or divorced.

"It also welcomes women wanting to escape from a capitalist and patriarchal society, regardless of their faith or ethnicity," notes Salam Lab. Jinwar has dozens of buildings and dedicated spaces, including homes, a school, a community garden, a playground, a library, a bakery, and a natural health centre.