Hell, if we’re gonna talk about bringing back old-timey styles for men, why stop at the 1900s? Let’s bring back fucking dandyism – I’m talking makeup, plucked eyebrows, immaculate curls, brightly coloured fabrics, waxed moustaches like architectural edifices if you can pull one off, dudes all swanning around in tight corsets so as not to disrupt the smoothly tapering lines of their frock coats, the whole nine yards. I mean, why not?
Tag Archives: prokopetz
I love the phrase “what the entire fuck” because it implies that there exists some scenario that warrants only a “what the partial fuck”.
Well, since there are clearly scenarios which warrant giving zero fucks, it
seems plausible to infer that there exists a 0 … 1 scale of fuckitude, containing a potentially infinite number of fractional fuckery scenarios.Fractional Fuckery Scenarios is going to be my first short story collection.
I think my biggest “huh” moment with respect to gender roles is when it was pointed out to me that your typical “geek” is just as hypermasculine as your typical “jock” when you look at it from the right angle.
As male geeks, a great deal of our identity is built on the notion that male geeks are, in some sense, gender-nonconformant, insofar as we’re unwilling or unable to live up to certain physical ideals about what a man “should” be. Indeed, many of us take pride in how putatively unmanly we are.
Viewed from an historical perspective, however, the virtues of the ideal geek are essentially those of the ideal aristocrat: a cultured polymath with expertise in a vast array of subjects; rarefied or eccentric taste in food, clothing, music, etc.; identity politics that revolve around one’s hobbies or pastimes; open disdain for physical labour and those who perform it; a sense of natural entitlement to positions of authority (“you should be flipping my burgers!”); and so forth.
And the thing about that aristocratic ideal? It’s intensely masculine. It may seem more welcoming to women on the surface, but – as recent events will readily illustrate – this is a facade: we pretend to be egalitarian because it suits our refined self-image, but that affectation falls away in a heartbeat when challenged.
Basically, the whole “geeks versus jocks” thing that gets drilled into us by media and the educational system isn’t about degrees of masculinity at all. It’s just two different flavours of the same toxic bullshit: the ideal geek is the alpha-male-as-philosopher-king, as opposed to the ideal jock’s alpha-male-as-warrior-king. It’s still a big dick-measuring contest – we’re just using different rulers.
It’s just two different flavours of the same toxic bullshit: the ideal
geek is the alpha-male-as-philosopher-king, as opposed to the ideal
jock’s alpha-male-as-warrior-king.oh my god
That’s rather illuminating.
You know what I’d like to see?
More fictional couples where the whole Belligerent Sexual Tension thing actually plays out the way it does in reality.
Struggling not to crack a smile as you call them a total asshole.
Deliberately feeding each other straight lines for insulting comebacks, and thinking you’re being subtle about it.
Managing to pronounce “fuck you” as a term of endearment.
Getting really territorial about it when you see anybody else badmouthing them – like, excuse me, that’s my prerogative you’re treading on there, pal.
Also:
Acting theatrically offended by extremely minor flaws.
Telling each other to shut up when you didn’t even say anything yet.
Having entire arguments so well-practiced that you can set your partner off with a single word or gesture, and doing so on purpose.
Being deliberately rude and obnoxious to each other in really dorky ways and competing to see who breaks character by cracking up laughing first.
I-want-my-IWTV 