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essdogg:

Second, see that couple? Now, I’m sure they’re nice people and they seemed to love their children very much, but I had to use the boy as a decoy to get a picture of them to share with you because of the t-shirts they’re wearing. His says “I love my wife.” That is all. No joke on the back. No joke on the front. Just that. I have a strong suspicion, thanks also to the promient cross dangling outside of his t-shirt, that it’s some sort of Promise Keepers thing. Are those weirdos still around? Her shirt says “It’s all about me.” So, there are several things at play here:

1. He is either sincerely in love enough with his wife that he felt he needed to buy a t-shirt that proclaimed, albeit humbly, that his love is undying.
2. While he gives gives gives his love, she apparently takes takes takes it. I’m no psychoanalyst but I would venture to guess that this would classify as a “codependent” and/or “unbalanced” relationship.
3. These people have obviously forgotten they’re in public. I can see wearing those t-shirts to bed, but not to the playground.

I’m 99.9999% sure that’s a Promise Keepers’ shirt, and wearing it outside is the whole point, to tell the world that—unlike those other guys who are not wearing these shirts and therefore are probably having affairs—this guy loves his wife.

(I’m not sure about her shirt, but that may be part of the “PK” movement. The style seems similar enough.)

Factoid: I went to a Promise Keepers’ event back in ‘96 or ‘97. A friend had organized a group and at the last minute someone couldn’t go. Everything was paid for, and the guy who had to cancel said “Give my ticket to someone who wouldn’t go otherwise.”

So my friend asked me if I wanted to go.

This was the year after someone at a PK convention had made a whole lot of controversy by asserting that “husbands need to reassert themselves as the ‘head of the household’” — which sounded very sexist to a lot of people.

I went with a lot of skepticism, and viewed it almost like a sociological observation as much as anything else.

What I heard that year was a lot of emphasis on:

• Men being more caring and affectionate with their wives
• not leaving the raising of the children to the wives
• not staying at work late because it’s easier than going home and being engaged with your family
• etc

All in all, it was pretty not-controversial stuff, and none of this “You’re the man and the wife is supposed to submit to your authority” bullcrap.

Let this not be misconstrued as an endorsement, as this was one meeting 10+ years ago and I really haven’t bothered to keep up with them, and I’m 99% sure that most of their political leanings would be towards the extreme side of conservatism.

Sure you can say guys shouldn’t need this — and certainly not all do, and certainly not all who need it actually go — and I have no idea what the long-term effects of PK conventions are, but in general I think of most of these guys as the same guys who probably love their wives a lot, but don’t say it often and don’t bring home flowers, etc unless it’s an “occasion.”

So I’m willing to hope that the overall net effect is more positive than negative.

For what it’s worth.