Writer Wednesdays: Redbook's Aaron Traister Digs Deep to Give the Husband Perspective to a Female Audience

Aaron Traister is a brave man. His audience is primarily women which means that based on our divorce statistics, half of his audience may hate him at any given moment just because he is a man, a husband, or both. Tough crowd.
However, he is tough to hate when he lays out the truth about the weaknesses of his gender and himself month after month. He recently took on a self-made challenge: "30 Days to a Better Husband" for July 2011's issue.
He kept his agenda a secret from his wife to see if she would notice and so as not to taint the experiment. His goals? "Among other things, I changed up my clothes and returned to my teenage wrestling workouts--because nothing says maturity like playing dress-up and trying desperately to relieve high school." Ha! His self-deprecating sarcasm and wit always make me chuckle.
He is quick to showcase his flaws, yet he is also a realist and views his own marriage from an arm's length at times (a necessary evil for his writing I suppose). I also like that he focuses on how he is as a HUSBAND a majority of the time, instead of how he behaves and thinks as a "husbandandfather." Sometimes, it's nice to separate the two, and I appreciate (as I'm sure his wife does!) that he really consciously ponders how he is measuring up as a husband.
The result of his experiment? While changing his wardrobe didn't happen, he did become more thoughtful and sexually patient (aka letting her initiate). After reading his column, I always wonder how I can get my husband to write about his role as a husband for a national magazine so that he can be more self-aware. A gal can dream, right?
Definitely worth reading to get the male point of view (and cutting out and leaving somewhere for your husband to learn from too!).