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For a few years I have notice a particular style: tough-posing young men, stripped to the waist with well-defined muscles (due to weight training and steroid use) striding around the big city wearing shorts and flip-flops...
(Flip-flops are those rubber sandals held on by a pillar between the big toe and the index toe - Australians call them 'thongs'.)
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This fashion was initially affected by upper-middle class young men, primarily sporty or Jock types who play rugby football, do vigorous athletics, or ski/ snowboard or something of that ilk.
But the posing torsos and thongs now seem to have spread to more working class would-be hard-men.
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Tough guys in flip-flops!?
Hard men with drug-sculpted muscles!?
Ahem.
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This is epicene-hardness. This is non-macho masculinity.
This is Hollywood/ Comic Book tough-guy.
This is a girl's idea of the a man of action - a mobile, jointed, pussy-footing mannequin.
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What can be hoped-for from such stuffed-shirtless?
Can a nation be defended against the forces of evil by young men in flip-flops?
To ask is to answer.
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On the plus side, those guys put their shirts on when they attend my church. Adding a tee shirt to the shorts and flip-flips ensemble indicates their respect for the institution and how seriously and solemnly they view the ceremony.
ReplyDeleteThree years ago I was in shorts and sandals when I got off my bike. A nasty-looking dog started barking and, I thought, menacing me. I glared at it and its owner said that he had it under control. "Just as well" I said "or I'd have killed it." My God, he leapt. Had I de-epicened my machoness?
ReplyDelete@d - I've seen a photo of you - 'epicene' was not a word that sprang to mind.
ReplyDeleteWhat, "epicene" doesn't mean fat old man?
ReplyDelete@d - I would have said 'burly'.
ReplyDelete"I would have said 'burly'": that might confuse your American readers, who may remember when 'burly' was rather a code word.
ReplyDeleteAnd once I was slim.
@d - The word, for me, is always associated with Enid Blyton's descriptions.
ReplyDelete