from The Independent: A new book claims that a shopping trip to Ikea improves marital harmony.
Great Ikea! A Brand for All the People, published later this month, attributes much of the store’s success to the fact that its self-assembly furniture allows men to reclaim their hunter-gatherer roots, and so keep their relationships healthy – by demonstrating to their wives and children that they are capable of masculine tasks.
Relate, the relationship guidance charity, said shopping was a major source of conflict for couples, although improving their home environment was a way of increasing domestic harmony.
“My experience of couples visiting Ikea is that it has caused a great deal more arguments and frustrations,” said Denise Knowles, a marriage counsellor for Relate, who is not a fan of Ikea.
“In a sanitised world, about the only way people can show the practical side of themselves is through DIY. But I think that it is more about improving their environment. That is why places like Ikea work for families.”
The book presents an interesting contrast with the viewpoint of “Fight Club”–when Edward Norton’s character used the IKEA-esque furniture in his apartment to talk about how emasculated his generation of men had become.