MMA and beard care and creative street tacos and craft beer as mainstream American male culture in 2019

I'm not sure what all this adds up to, it's just something that seems like something. "Art of manliness" in this very nu/middle-class way that makes room for certain kinds of expression beyond NFL and grilling burgers, but is still limiting, and also tying in to that whole "creative class" attempt at revitalizing post-industrial cities -- every ex factory town now has a brewery and art studios in a former industrial space, food trucks that make spicy all-the-flavors-mixed-together burritos are everywhere, tons of restaurants seem heavily influenced by food network.

It's like "fast casual" hipsterism

OTM

performative authenticity

Beard oil + beard brush makes beards so much more pleasant to have and be around though.

Judith Butler used to be mind-blowing, now it's just life in 2019

look i'd love to be dapper but it's 90 degrees out

marketing of masculinity

on the one hand it is kind of odd that a distinct cultural evolution of this generation is the proliferation of pretty good beer and low barrier to entry farm to table restaurants; on the other hand, i like good food

TS: crafting your own beard oil from scratch vs. spraying that shit down with some WD-40

I am unaware of where MMA fits into this, but maybe it's a not having cable thing?

also all these things just seem like basic bitch city things.

on the one hand it is kind of odd that a distinct cultural evolution of this generation is the proliferation of pretty good beer and low barrier to entry farm to table restaurants; on the other hand, i like good food

― J0rdan S., Monday, May 20, 2019 12:27 PM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

https://twitter.com/search?l=&q=chipoltle%20from%3Ajordansarge&src=typd

It seems less limiting than it is defined by the limits of what some plurality of people are interested in... I know a lot of dudes who happily buy into this marketing, but they already had beards and liked drinking beer, so... I dunno? Marketing likes to think it is creating societal trends instead of just getting lucky positioning itself in front of them, which is easy when you position yourself everywhere - what capitalism does with culture nowadays, because it IS culture.

i think MMA got lumped in here confusedly b/c all beard oils are required to have an old timey fisticuffs picture on them

If I didn't have so much bubble bath, my bathroom shelf would in fact look like an apothecary in an old Western.

btw there's a whole aisle full of this shit at your Targets and Walgreens but they apparently can't find room for a men's conditioner that doesn't also contain shampoo???

(1) thread isn't necessarily intended to be critical so much as observational -- I agree we're far better off for all the craft beer and farm-to-table-ish restaurants we now have in places where 20 years ago it was all bud and burgers.

(2) "beard care" was just kind of a stand-in for beards -- the fact that every store (e.g. target) now has an aisle of beard products just speaks to that, but also maybe to a new kind of "manly" grooming culture

(3) Maybe MMA doesn't fit into it so much, it's just another male thing that seems very much on the rise. Maybe crossfit would be a better one? I guess I see a lot of MMA gyms and crossfit gyms in these same "revitalized" ex-industrial areas so that's what made me think of it.

Also it's another thing that's a big departure from NFL culture, but maybe in another direction. It's one of a number of things that seem to be loosing the hegemony of sunday football watching and wings, even though plenty of beard and craft beer guys watch football.

Dudes fall apart, SportsCenter cannot hold

with the exception of beards, tacos and beer and even crossfit are pretty gender-neutral. i think this is just a general shifting of mainstream usian culture rather than a gendered thing? idk. everyone i know likes tacos and beer.

Dudes fall apart, SportsCenter cannot hold

― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Monday, May 20, 2019 12:02 PM (forty-six seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i kiss you for this

I think there's something to be said for the impact of rising income inequality, or perhaps a The Hipsters Have Won narrative about the creation of these permanent-hip hubs. But I think this (whatever this is, exactly) maybe goes back to 2003, which according to the internet marked the first known use of the word "manscaping" and also the premier of Queer Eye. There was this relatively fast shift of things that used to be dismissed or ignored as girly, like shaving your body or makeovers, to be accepted as manly, good enough for "the straight guy." Then I think the trend got amplified/crossed with the craving for bespoke/artesian stuff - Etsy launched 2005 - into a further buttress against criticisms of femininity. You could get away with body care products because they look like you'd find them on a shelf behind the bar in the Wild West, and goddamit, I've got a beard, like a man, I've got to take care of it, right? Pass me my hand-crafted straight-razor, my carefully cured leather strop, my hemp and jojoba oil I picked up at the Beer & Beard Festival.

is beard oil linked to increase in chin-stroking?
news at 11

these things seem kinda specifically white? idk ... maybe it's just the beard stuff?

Def. white, the primary beneficiary of rising income inequality.

these things seem kinda specifically white? idk ... maybe it's just the beard stuff?

― sarahell, Monday, May 20, 2019 1:23 PM (seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yo-x0IlgrE0

There also are downtowns if smaller cities that once had Ben Franklins and department stores, and now that it’s clear they aren’t getting major-retail replacements. Combine that with the death of some suburban big-box stores and malls, the downtowns are getting the taprooms and Food Truck Thursdays.

Working in some red states, for hotels that take over old industrial and commercial buildings, I’ve found that local beer and tacos (and beard oil at the pop-up markets) are what win over the “I’ve been going to the same diner for 25 years and I don’t want anything new or fancy” crowd. (Add to this local makers of, say, ballcaps and retro pennants.

Craft beer as an industry seems to be dragging their feet on pivoting away from marketing their beers to men. They definitely need to stop with the tasting room aesthetic where the seating is excruciating for anyone shorter than 5'10".

The craft beer industry has a large misogyny problem shocker.

all these things just seem like basic bitch city things.

in the USA city life is mainstream and rural life is at the margins, bcz that's where the majority of the population lives.

so much masculine hygiene/grooming shit is literally just “I don’t want to buy something that looks like it might be for girls + I’m afraid of briefly smelling flowery”

the grooming things feels more tied in with internet-y "Here's how to do things correctly" culture

*rolls on Elizabeth James Nirvana Black*

I have stubbornly bought the same kind of deodorant as it's vacillated, over the course of several decades, from unisex to ladies-only and back again, so clearly this style of marketing is completely lost on me. It just makes me tired.

the grooming things feels more tied in with internet-y "Here's how to do things correctly" culture

I agree, the key to marketing stuff to men is to associate it with increasing your competency, not that it will make you more appealing in some way.

in the USA city life is mainstream and rural life is at the margins, bcz that's where the majority of the population lives.

however in the USA masculinity is located in rural life

ol: Sure?

FWIW this was all prompted by me attending a "craft beer and art" festival this weekend in an ex-factory turned art studio center that also has a brewery, yoga studio etc. in it and noticing that the area and crowd were a bit more, IDK, trump country than I expected (although maybe not actual trump supporters, I really have no idea?).

also all these things just seem like basic bitch city things.

― Yerac, Monday, May 20, 2019 11:29 AM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I mean yeah, that too, but I think the basic-ifying of these particular things is kind of what I'm getting at?

xpost yeah my basic bitch comment was more about how enjoying some of these things wasn't gendered.

like as consumers enjoying craft beer, farm to table restaurants, taco trucks, nice ingrediants etc isn't gendered.

but maybe you are saying it's nice that men are starting to like nicer things?

The beard grooming and farm-to-table stuff is definitely not just a white thing, at least not in DC.

Are most beard oils also useable as decent lip balms?

And yeah basically the only gendered aspect of this is the beards imo.

One thing that came up in discussion over coffee with another friend last week - the health and fitness obsession of the under-30 set seems genuinely weird? Being a runner or a climber or a gym rat was an exceptional hobby just a couple of decades ago, and now it strikes me that not having some kind of exercise activity is the weird thing. I don’t have any real data on this of course.

in the USA city life is mainstream and rural life is at the margins, bcz that's where the majority of the population lives.

this is an interesting idea...does the majority necessarily represent the mainstream?

I mean the big "talent" shows on network TV still seem to represent the "mainstream" by appealing to a larger percentage of viewers in that smaller rural population

U.S. senate to thread

Being a runner or a climber or a gym rat was an exceptional hobby just a couple of decades ago, and now it strikes me that not having some kind of exercise activity is the weird thing.

Definitely recall a time when a propensity for slack was more the norm than the exception. I'd love to help usher in a resurgence of that golden age but, y'know...effort.

I think there's also clearly something about the internet and cord cutting in all this, like it's just more normal to have a niche hobby or interest and there's less of a sense of everything in American male culture revolving around a few pro sports (especially NFL and MLB), and part of this is the decline of the phenomenon of everyone having the same few tv watching options on a set schedule.

We already have a lot of threads about “what is up with men, anyway” (the answer being “nobody knows”)

I like seasons where I can wear a sportcoat / blazer / jacket, partly because they are chock full of pockets. It's like cargo shorts for your torso.

Normally I have a wallet and phone, handkerchief and keys. One or more pairs of glasses. With a sportcoat I can add books, a flask of whiskey, a pocketknife, snacks for the children, baby wipes, a monocular, a hat, gloves, a pen and a notebook. No manbag or fannypack in sight, hands are free.

In summer it's tougher.

I cannot go anywhere without a book, preferably three of them. So I need a bag or backpack at all times.

― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Monday, May 20, 2019

Apparently on Lyft/Uber I'm mentioned as "the sweet guy who talks for a few minutes then disappears behind a book."

Can't believe you poseurs didn't know what to do with your sunnies. When in doubt, consult the master.

https://thesoniashow.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/guy.jpg

Generalization Alert: every man I know who does this is a bro.

my hair isn't sticky enough to do that

It’s 2019 how is man bag discourse still happening

certain kinds of expression beyond NFL and grilling burgers

NFL and grilling burgers >>> all this "art of manliness" twaddle which is honestly pathetic. at least dudes in their man-caves are enjoying a hi-res TV & some snacks or whatever

NFL is gross, gtfo

On my person every time I leave the house: wallet, keys, phone, digital Walkman, all in my two front jeans pockets (left side: keys, Walkman; right side: wallet, phone). I wear glasses but never sunglasses. When I go "out" (say, to a show) I have a smallish shoulder bag which allows me to bring a notebook and pen, hand sanitizer, glasses case, and whatever book I'm reading (currently: Adam Morris's American Messiahs).

I don't think I've worn shorts in 20 years.

https://i.imgur.com/cyiMBg6.png

I was taught that if your sunglasses aren't on your eyes, they should be resting on your larynx.

Grilling seems like a pretty "manly" thing, though tbh I prefer when my wife grills, she does a better job. I mix drinks.

When it gets hot out I dgaf, almost all bets all off. Shorts, flip-flops, whatever. It's hot.

Grilling always seems like a "whoever didn't get to play with fire enough as a kid" thing.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/j1ztYwWXi5E/hqdefault.jpg

I have been wearing a messenger bag since I was 12 yrs old. I think It's starting to annoy my one hip so I was thinking of switching to a small backpack maybe. I can't decide. I just think of that Kids in the Hal sketch "I'm in the middle of a big bike race." xpost

― Yerac, Monday, May 20, 2019 6:13 PM (forty-three minutes ago)

I think about these sketches all the time. And I wear glasses and a green Celtics cap and carry a red backpack and I'm basically Gavin now.

Gavin looks like half the twenty-somethings out there! You’re very youthful.

I was insanely a “no shorts” guy from my teens through early 20s and doing that while ever venturing outside in a town with 90+ degree weather with 70%+ humidity in the summer is just silly.

NFL is gross, gtfo

burgers are gross too but nothing's grosser to me than the essentialist capital-d Doctrine at the root of "The Right Way to Do Maleness" pap

mh otm. unfortunately my shorts collection has dwindled down to a) gym shorts and b) three paint-splattered pairs of cargo shorts. if i weren't recovering from surgery i'd go clothes shopping.

burgers are gross too but nothing's grosser to me than the essentialist capital-d Doctrine at the root of "The Right Way to Do Maleness" pap

― she carries a torch. two torches, actually (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi)

Not a fan of burgers these days. I ate a flounder with capers and butter sauce tonight. Does this compensate?

i don't think it was intrinsically bad for the internet to remind men that personal grooming is a good idea or teach them how clothes fit. as with all things there was useful stuff to take and dumb stuff to leave behind.

also feels like we're on the tail end of this trend so i guess i can wait in dread for whatever comes next.

Hmmm maybe a fanny pack is the answer to all my problems

― change display name (Jordan), Monday, May 20, 2019 5:17 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

except looking like a dork, that problem

― j., Monday, May 20, 2019 5:18 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I thought fanny packs were a good look now, although that's the problem with normcore, I'm probably too old and dorky to make it a 'look'.

Toss yer shit in a well-worn Walgreens bag and you're good to go. Make it into a bindle if you need to.

i don't really have a stake in most of this shit these days but i would like to congratulate dollar shave club for somehow convincing men to change out their razorblades more often than once every six fucking months

good job

Jordan no — you’ll never be Pockets!! I think about Pockets every time I see someone on stage with tons of stuff in their pockets. Lol!

i dont care abt this but this is a really good thread title thx

Apparently on Lyft/Uber I'm mentioned as "the sweet guy who talks for a few minutes then disappears behind a book."

I aspire to be more like you!

the least pleasant person I’ve met recently is an MMA fighter.... he thinks that everybody is either a wolf or a sheep. I tried to tell him I’m a raccoon but he was too busy waiting to resume talking

presumably he kills whatever he eats using only his bare hands and devours it raw

xxp would really be something if riders were officially rated by Uber/Lyft drivers

clearly you should procure a wolf and next time you see him, he can fight the wolf for the wolf title

George Méliès - MMA Man Walks through Door (1901)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqoF4dgm6MY

xxp would really be something if riders were officially rated by Uber/Lyft drivers

― Dan S, Monday

I think they are?

everybody is either a wolf or a door

and it's up to thom yorke to keep them apart

how much are we trimming pubic hair on average these days my dudes

xxxp I didn't know that! I certainly don't know what my rating is, although I like the drivers in general and always leave them a tip. One time I gave a fantastic driver a one star rating in a horrible mistake because I thought I was rating the previous driver who didn't want to pick me up (it turns out they don't allow you to rate those assholes). I contacted Uber to see if I could retract that rating, they said no. I feel really bad about that

Rating passengers seems like overkill, would it not be more useful to just straight up flag problem passengers

There was a Portlandia episode where Carrie rides around trying to raise her uber rating after finding out that hers is the lowest among her friends.

xpost, i'm not a dude but my only advice is to not trim pubes so short you end up being a prickly pear to someone you are trying to smash.

I once heard someone female describe totally shaved (flaccid) male genitalia as looking like a newborn puppy.

lol

xp agree, although pubes (and all other body hair) should be trimmed to some extent is my opinion

everyone's pubes are either a wolf or a sheep

^^^ first line in an Isherwood memoir iirc

ha ha!

all otm

https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-14-art-bad-boys-macho-work-impossible-ignore

not sure playing with your own shit is macho

FWIW this was all prompted by me attending a "craft beer and art" festival this weekend in an ex-factory turned art studio center that also has a brewery, yoga studio etc. in it and noticing that the area and crowd were a bit more, IDK, trump country than I expected (although maybe not actual trump supporters, I really have no idea?).

Guessing you were in Garnerville based on that description? Rockland County generally skews Democratic, but Trump won the areas immediately north (and some just to the south) of Garnerville.

correct!

The art center itself was pretty cool, but tasting beer is boring after 3 or 4 tastes, and the whole tasting room was being blasted out by a very loud (although admittedly tight) reggae band.

https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-14-art-bad-boys-macho-work-impossible-ignore

― Trϵϵship, Monday, May 20, 2019 9:55 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This almost reads like a reductress piece