THE SADDAM IN US ALL

Male need to 'hide' from women is natural (Siri Agrell, National Post, May 8th, 2006)

Whether it is in the garage, the study or even just sitting in a La-Z-Boy recliner playing video games, men feel the need to get away from women occasionally, according to a new book chronicling the gender's favourite hiding spots.

Where Men Hide, written by James Twitchell, an English professor at the University of Florida, chronicles the evolution of the male-only space from opium dens and speakeasies to hunting lodges and strip clubs.

Men are not trying to escape out of anger or any negative feelings toward women, Mr. Twitchell said this week, but simply because they crave a place to be alone or to share the company of other men.

"My job was not to generalize so much as to particularize," he said. "Why these places and what's the history of them?"

Mr. Twitchell had some strange inspiration for the book. He became interested in male space after the capture of Saddam Hussein in 2004, when the former Iraqi dictator was found in a tiny "spider hole" burrowed in the ground.

"All over the world, people wanted to know about his hidey-hole," Mr. Twitchell said. "I became really intrigued about the interest in that.

"Men are really interested in where you go when there are no women. What's it like?"

And while Mr. Twitchell admits it was not women from whom Saddam was hiding, he said the famous dugout shares much in common with more popular male-only haunts.

Lucky dude.