the last time I had to help someone put on their spare I left the e-brake on like an idiot (had it on when jacking up the car since I was a little paranoid) and another dude came by and guessed that within a minute, how embarassing
― μpright mammal (mh), Tuesday, 12 April 2016 14:10 (eight years ago) link
Does changing bike tires count? I have a beard but it would be pointless for me to learn how to change tires to a car, since I don't even have a driver's license.
― Tuomas, Tuesday, 12 April 2016 14:12 (eight years ago) link
if you pass a woman on the roadway with a flat tire, it is your man duty to help her
― μpright mammal (mh), Tuesday, 12 April 2016 14:13 (eight years ago) link
by mansplaining the correct technique for changing a tire, while stroking your luxuriant beard
― Neil S, Tuesday, 12 April 2016 14:15 (eight years ago) link
i learned how to change a tired not through any innate sense of masculinity but by being stranded and reading the car manual. it's pretty simple! you do get dirty though.
― ryan, Tuesday, 12 April 2016 14:15 (eight years ago) link
ive never had a flat tire tbh
― marcos, Tuesday, 12 April 2016 14:16 (eight years ago) link
feel like the real test of masculinity should be higher level plumbing or carpentry.
― ryan, Tuesday, 12 April 2016 14:16 (eight years ago) link
i learned how to change a tire by watching the christmas story every year
― Karl Malone, Tuesday, 12 April 2016 14:17 (eight years ago) link
Real men will have already torn up their car manual to use as kindling.
― jmm, Tuesday, 12 April 2016 14:18 (eight years ago) link
imo the true test of masculinity is being man enough to call a plumber instead of saying "oh yeah, I've got this" 30 minutes before water is spraying all over
― μpright mammal (mh), Tuesday, 12 April 2016 14:19 (eight years ago) link
the only "I am now becoming a man" moment in my entire life was when my dad decided to teach me to shave because my sisters were complaining about my incipient teen 'stache.
― ryan, Tuesday, 12 April 2016 14:19 (eight years ago) link
if you have a full grown beard but can't learn a blatt gemara... SHAVE
― Mordy, Tuesday, 12 April 2016 14:29 (eight years ago) link
electrical too
can we just agree that every expression of modern masculinity is terrible and we should all be thrown into the ocean― i like to trump and i am crazy (DJP), Tuesday, April 12, 2016 8:55 AM (44 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― art, Tuesday, 12 April 2016 14:42 (eight years ago) link
yeah but then all the men would compete to see who could hold their breath the longest while acting like it wasn't a big deal
― Karl Malone, Tuesday, 12 April 2016 14:55 (eight years ago) link
omg lol
― eyecrud (silby), Tuesday, 12 April 2016 15:14 (eight years ago) link
I like that the beard police meme tacitly accepts the idea of gender as purely performative, even hinting at a possible third gender for unbearded males
― ogmor, Tuesday, 12 April 2016 15:37 (eight years ago) link
if you are a man who doesn't know how to shave tuomas, it's time to change your tires
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Tuesday, 12 April 2016 15:43 (eight years ago) link
― μpright mammal (mh), Tuesday, 12 April 2016 14:10 (1 hour ago) Permalink
not trying to call you out but i've had my fair share of flats and i'm pretty sure standard procedure is to set your parking brake because it prevents the vehicle from rolling away once it is lifted
if there is one common mistake i've seen is a lot of people struggle to put the jack below the strongest part of the vehicle, the pinch flange
everything else is pretty straightforward
― F♯ A♯ (∞), Tuesday, 12 April 2016 16:20 (eight years ago) link
i'm pretty sure standard procedure is to set your parking brake because it prevents the vehicle from rolling away once it is lifted
i know this from terrifying first hand experience.
frankly i think the main thing separating those who can change a tire from those you cannot is that the former have gotten a flat in an area where help was not nearby.
― ryan, Tuesday, 12 April 2016 16:23 (eight years ago) link
I've changed a flat before but it never occurred to me that it was masculine. But then I'm on team throw-men-into-the-sea.
― eyecrud (silby), Tuesday, 12 April 2016 16:42 (eight years ago) link
Like the whole point of a jack is to use mechanical advantage to make the car go up, it's basically cheating, if someone were to change a tire on their own without a jack and just hoisting the car into the air while also unscrewing the lug nuts I might give them credit for being the beard-meriting paragons of hot masculine sex they see themselves as.
― eyecrud (silby), Tuesday, 12 April 2016 16:44 (eight years ago) link
back to the thread topic, though, people just dislike the alpha male, not necessarily a man who conforms to stereotypical masculinity
i was taught stereotypically masculine things because of my age and background (chivalry, how to wear a suit, do a tie, shoot guns, hunt/kill an animal, cook)
but i know a few men who were also taught the same things and it's their domineering, loud, impatient attitudes that make them less than amiable people, and i never want to interact with them, not if they have beards. it's this calling attention to yourself that is funny
― F♯ A♯ (∞), Tuesday, 12 April 2016 16:51 (eight years ago) link
i *patched* a tire once, felt very accomplished. this was in not-great weather, outside my apartment. at the time i had no beard. this is my contribution to the thread at this time.
― goole, Tuesday, 12 April 2016 16:52 (eight years ago) link
or basically giving yourself more credit than you deserve
like you say silby, there is nothing inherently masculine about changing a tire
― F♯ A♯ (∞), Tuesday, 12 April 2016 16:53 (eight years ago) link
what if you change it with your penis
― i like to trump and i am crazy (DJP), Tuesday, 12 April 2016 16:58 (eight years ago) link
Trans women and nonbinary people can do that too.
― eyecrud (silby), Tuesday, 12 April 2016 16:58 (eight years ago) link
i change my own tires and then eat the old tires
― nomar, Tuesday, 12 April 2016 16:59 (eight years ago) link
there's a repair shop in our town whose motto is "fixing transmissions is our trans mission"
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Tuesday, 12 April 2016 16:59 (eight years ago) link
not really
have you ever spread the resulting paste between two intact tires?
― i like to trump and i am crazy (DJP), Tuesday, 12 April 2016 17:00 (eight years ago) link
think i read about that in a savage love column
― Karl Malone, Tuesday, 12 April 2016 17:01 (eight years ago) link
i *patched* a tire once
*bows down*
― ryan, Tuesday, 12 April 2016 17:02 (eight years ago) link
I agree with ∞ that most stereotypical male activities are just an assortment of applied skills, often useful ones such as using a saw or changing oil in a car (nb: this is equally true of stereotypical female activities such as cooking or cleaning). What makes them odious is their association with the domineering attitude adopted by some men to emphasize their imaginary ascendancy over others.
― a little too mature to be cute (Aimless), Tuesday, 12 April 2016 17:02 (eight years ago) link
GIS for "manly tire"
http://www.capecentralhigh.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Blown-tire-01-26-2014_5905.jpg
― nomar, Tuesday, 12 April 2016 17:02 (eight years ago) link
note the beard
― nomar, Tuesday, 12 April 2016 17:03 (eight years ago) link
Patching a tire's trickier than changing a tire.
― pplains, Tuesday, 12 April 2016 17:06 (eight years ago) link
Though I wouldn't know first-hand, having never patched a tire.
― pplains, Tuesday, 12 April 2016 17:07 (eight years ago) link
yeah well the way i'd go about it is, first, grab th
― goole, Tuesday, 12 April 2016 17:13 (eight years ago) link
goole? GOOLE?
― i like to trump and i am crazy (DJP), Tuesday, 12 April 2016 17:15 (eight years ago) link
i think a certain fetishization of "self-sufficiency" is what is really at the root of this stuff.
there's a paradox at the root of all this: that to sufficiently pursue "manliness" is to more or less call your own manliness into question. I think advertisers get around that by knowingly ironizing masculinity (like those diet dr. pepper commercials) so that your investment/detachment from notions of masculinity can always be subject to a kind of plausible deniability. hence you can enjoy your constructed "manliness" as derived from consumer choices while also being so manly as to know that your manliness is a real inherent quality not affected by consumer choices etc.
like, this is why hetero-normative guys wear pink shirts so often, maybe.
― ryan, Tuesday, 12 April 2016 17:16 (eight years ago) link
it's really all kind of clever way to preserve, in the last instance, some essentialist notion of masculinity.
― ryan, Tuesday, 12 April 2016 17:19 (eight years ago) link
Can we get into the cultural connotations of "peacocking" and how that factors into masculinity for a second? Because ryan's explanation doesn't make any sense to me in the context of why African-American men would wear brightly-colored clothing.
― i like to trump and i am crazy (DJP), Tuesday, 12 April 2016 17:22 (eight years ago) link
yeah scratch that...i just notice frat type dudes wearing pink a lot...no idea why.
― ryan, Tuesday, 12 April 2016 17:24 (eight years ago) link
in this context i often think about how brad pitt is sort of feminized towards the end of fight club (eye liner, i think, and fur--fashion conscious choices that also try to pass themselves off as not fashion-conscious)
― ryan, Tuesday, 12 April 2016 17:25 (eight years ago) link
idk the right term for it, not "contrary indicator", but something like that. the negating or shoddy effect of a fashion choice just highlights the underlying strength or desirability of the body -- shows of the essential (unfair) differentiation of bodies
like, american apparel can get away hawking garish and ill-fitting clothes because it's meant to be worn by skinny 19 y/o's -- ie people for whom clothing can 'cut against' rather than flatter. we sell ugly shit because it's meant for the beautiful, for people for whom fashion doesn't even matter (for now)
so pitt in FC can wear p much the same wardrobe as helena bonham carter because he's already brad pitt
white frat dudes in the prime of life can wear whatever goofy or fey getup they want, because it advertises what they can get away with and still be themselves
― goole, Tuesday, 12 April 2016 17:33 (eight years ago) link
good stuff
― ryan, Tuesday, 12 April 2016 17:34 (eight years ago) link
i don't mind the preppy pink shirt thing, it's just another version of the pale blue/yellow summer shirt thing.
i'm less on board with dudes dressing like they're richie tenenbaum getting ready for coachella.
― nomar, Tuesday, 12 April 2016 17:35 (eight years ago) link
i think people should wear whatever makes them feel good
― Karl Malone, Tuesday, 12 April 2016 17:41 (eight years ago) link
well of course. we're just doing amateur sociology here.
― ryan, Tuesday, 12 April 2016 17:47 (eight years ago) link