Gender Statement In Dave Berry's 'Turkeys In The Kitchen'

A good thesis is a statement that catches the reader’s attention but an even better thesis is one that makes the reader laugh. Dave Berry shows character in his essay “Turkeys in the Kitchen” by adding humor to get his point across. His thesis statement is amusing but yet interesting, he opens his essay by saying “Men are still basically scum when it comes to helping out in the kitchen.” This statement is unusual, because you would think that since Berry is a man he wouldn’t be talking down on his own gender. The essay is about gender roles during Thanksgiving and Berry uses a humorous tone throughout the essay to make his arguments relevant. The author adds humor to his essay to make the readers not think of Berry as being bashful towards …show more content…
After he talks about men being useless in the kitchen in his thesis statement he says “Thanksgiving night must be the slowest night of the year in terms of sexual activity. Nobody wants to engage in human sexual activity with somebody who smells vaguely like yams and is covered with a thin layer of turkey grease.” This statement targets male readers more than females because Berry’s thesis statement isn’t completely true for all men, and some men might get offended and that’s why he adds humor. He isn’t trying to make the focus of his thesis go away by adding humor, because his point is still made throughout the essay. Berry talks about something seriously and then adds humor to it which makes readers keep reading. Another example of this is when Berry says, “My point is that despite all that has been said in the past 20 years or so about sexual equality, most men make themselves as useful around the kitchen as ill-trained Labrador retrievers.” In this statement he is bashing his own gender by saying men are not …show more content…
Women used to feel useless when they were always sitting home, watching the children and cooking for their husbands, but now they feel like they are important because they can do something men aren’t good at. Men were always looked at as being superior and being able to take care of everything and Berry tries to show that men now feel like they aren’t good at everything. Berry shows the stereotypes of women and men during Thanksgiving, even though men are enjoying watching football, while the women are cooking, they still feel guilty because they want to help. The author is trying to show that women turn down men when they ask to help out because women are always being looked at as being saved by a man and getting help by a man. Women want to feel independent and do things on their own and that’s why Berry feels that men are useless in the kitchen, he doesn’t understand why women turn down men when they ask for help. When a woman is good at something they don’t want or need the help, Berry thinks its offensive when women reject men when it comes to cooking, but women also think it is offensive because they are always being asked if they need help, and what they really want is to feel