On "training" men to cook, vacuum, and do laundry

A friend of mine recently joined a group called "Si toi aussi [es un] femme, tu utilises ces 10 expressions!" (Translation: If you're also a woman, you use these 10 phrases!) Naturally, I had to see what this was about, in the interests of practicing reading informal French (as opposed to textbook French) and taking a break from my Hebrew homework.

The 10 phrases are:

1. Bien (well)

2. 5 minutes

3. Rien (nothing)

4. Vas-y, fais-le (go ahead, do it)

5. Soupir

6. OK

7. Merci (thanks)

8. Comme tu veux (as you wish)

9. Ne t'en occupe pas, je le fais (don't worry, I'll do it)

10. C'est qui? (who is it?)

The group's information continues with an instructional manual on "training" men. The idea is that you have to train men to make them as intelligent as women (who are perfect).

"Objectif pedagogique: Cours de formation permettant aux hommes d'éveiller cet organe, appelé, cerveau, dont ils ignorent l'existence." - The lesson in formation allows men to stimulate this organ, called the brain, whose existence they ignore.

 

Among the topics covered were teaching men to not depend on their mothers, to not treat their wives/girlfriends like their mothers, not making a mess in the bathroom, doing laundry without losing articles of clothing, having a cold without crying "I'm going to die!", being able to dress themselves and buy clothes on their own, doing chores, and how to cook.

Now, most of these things seem obvious. It is a little pathetic, though, that a domestically and/ or socially inept man becomes the topic of several Facebook groups, Dave Barry essays, and family sitcom plots. I cannot imagine a domestically inept woman becoming the subject of pointed, but playful mockery, though, because women who cannot cook/clean/etc. are generally viewed with much less sympathy than men who depend on their mothers/sisters/wives to do these things. Also, if a man were to joke about "training" a woman in anything (outside of athletics or academics), most people would think he was a heartless chauvinist.

After all, the domestically inept men in sitcoms who are told to change their ways are usually forgiven when they fail to learn how to do their laundry or even to look after their own children. When their wives do call them out on their incompetence, the wives are often shown as just being bitter or harsh and quickly give in for the sake of keeping peace. In the rare case where a husband is actually compelled to learn how to do laundry, or the even rarer case where a woman has to learn how to cook something besides pasta (Desperate Housewives), it is often at the urging of an outside party, often a friend or mother-in-law.

I'm interested in seeing people's responses to these questions:

1. Is joking about "training" people to do chores/cook/etc. worse than believing they cannot learn to take care of themselves?

2. What do you think of "jokes" about men being incompetent at taking care of themselves? Do they have any truth to them? Are they just mean? Or is it more complicated than that?