The Man Date
Sat, 04/09/2005 - 3:08pm
The New York Times has an article about The Man Date that discusses the social dynamics of male friendship. The Man Date is defined as
two heterosexual men socializing without the crutch of business or sports. It is two guys meeting for the kind of outing a straight man might reasonably arrange with a woman. Dining together across a table without the aid of a television is a man date; eating at a bar is not. Taking a walk in the park together is a man date; going for a jog is not. Attending the movie "Friday Night Lights" is a man date, but going to see the Jets play is definitely not.It's tough being a straight man these days. So much homophobia through which to navigate... How many Man Dates have I had? Quite a few, but now I'm a little freaked out, since getting together with a friend now has a label with Date in the title. Thanks, NYTimes.
- eric's blog
- Add new comment
Delicious
Digg
Facebook- 5202 reads
Tags:
Maybe it´s because I´m one of these "liberals" from Europe, but this was one of the weirdest and most paranoid articles I´ve read in a while - it felt like reading about some strange ancient rituals, incl. the relief of actually being in the year 2005. But hey - at least i´ve found one reason that psychoanalysis is so popular in the States!
- reply
Submitted by Peter (not verified) on Mon, 04/11/2005 - 5:16pm.Exactly! I found your site because I wanted to see if anyone was blogging about how awful that article was. As usual with the Times, it is way, way behind the curve, describing a "trend," if you can call it that, so old it's not even worth mentioning, but here goes. Each quote was sillier than the last--can the author really have interviewed 30 or so men and not have anything better to show for it? Worse, how come no women were interviewed--I think they have a big role in how men interact, because think of how many times married couples agree to go out with the guy's single male friends and then the wife bows out, etc. Guilty! Nor was there any mention of issues of class, urban vs. other lifestyles, and taste--all pretty important when discussing homophobia, by the way. Whenever I see two guys putting a seat between them in the movie theater, or on the subway, I just think they are, um, giant space-wasting idiots.
- reply
Submitted by Manhattan Married Female (not verified) on Mon, 04/11/2005 - 1:03pm.