Essays and Bad Ideas

Cranky Old Man Shit: The Boys

I’ve been seeing an uptick in male readers of late, which is something that always gives me pause. It probably seems like I talk about “writing for women” just to emphasize my preference for pussy, but it’s more than that.

I can trust grown women to read this stuff… women whose lives have taught them to see through my sleight of hand and appreciate the show all the same. I know what I’m writing is messed up, they know they’re messed up for enjoying it, and that mutual understanding provides (dare I say it? I do!) a safe space to unpack and explore a lot of the psychosexual garbage in our heads.

But guys? Like George Costanza and the squirrels, I have no deal with them. And as I click through some of their blogs, I’m not optimistic of ever reaching one. There’s a whole lotta stupidity out there, and while I block the worst of it, I’d rather see people get their shit together.

So if by some chance you are a genuine young man who doesn’t want to be a complete douchebag that makes everyone cringe, but you’re not 100% sure of how to avoid that fate, please try to bear the following incomplete list in mind.

  1. Your dick is not special.
  2. Your dick therefore does not make you special.
  3. Strangers on the internet do not want to see your dick, nor watch you personify it through the inept kabuki of despair you call flirting.
  4. Like my role model Charles Barkley, I am not your role model. There is nothing about where I am that is worth what it took to get here. What you’re looking at is “best of a bad situation” territory; the fact that a crazy number of chicks live here with me should probably make you sad rather than excited.
  5. Some girls on Tumblr are comfortable with me captioning their photos, or replying salaciously, disdainfully, and paternally to their writing. You are not me. (This is a feature, not a bug.) You want to say nasty things to hot girls and be appreciated for it? Invest some time in establishing yourself as a known, predictable quantity whose appearance in someone’s inbox is a pleasant surprise and not just another cold call from an unknown erection.

There. I’ve done my good deed for the year.