Current Audio
Be Your Own Pet: www.myspace.com/beyourownpetmusic
I sometimes wonder why boys are so much cooler than girls. Or to rephrase it more accurately: why to girls put so little effort into being cool, compared to boys? Boys are the ones who stake their identities on their great knowledge of music, movies, books, history, business, technology, etc. Most girls study these things much more casually, and waste zillions of hours mastering frivolous subjects like celebrity gossip, fashion, relationships, and - my personal favorite - talking smack. Even those girls who are unusually well-versed in the "cooler" subjects care somewhat about the frivolous ones. The result is that girls as a group are less cool than the boys. Take the coolest of the cool girls and she'll be only a little bit cooler than the average cool boy.
I'm developing a new theory as to why this is so: GIRLS ARE INHERENTLY COOLER THAN BOYS, AND DON'T HAVE TO TRY SO HARD. Witness this chick-fronted band, Be Your Own Pet. With a dude singer, I'd be kinda "eh" about them. Sure I love the garage sound, and they're fun and energetic and don't take themselves too seriously; but it's nothing mindblowing. My basic litmus test o' love for garage rock is, is it good dance music? and these guys would be just ok...
except they have a girl. Je ne sais quoi. There's something about that that is just cool. She doesn't have to be anything special. Maybe it's that girls are more fun than boys. That much I've observed before, and it's surprising when you try to reason why that's so, when they're not as cool.
I sometimes wonder why boys are so much cooler than girls. Or to rephrase it more accurately: why to girls put so little effort into being cool, compared to boys? Boys are the ones who stake their identities on their great knowledge of music, movies, books, history, business, technology, etc. Most girls study these things much more casually, and waste zillions of hours mastering frivolous subjects like celebrity gossip, fashion, relationships, and - my personal favorite - talking smack. Even those girls who are unusually well-versed in the "cooler" subjects care somewhat about the frivolous ones. The result is that girls as a group are less cool than the boys. Take the coolest of the cool girls and she'll be only a little bit cooler than the average cool boy.
I'm developing a new theory as to why this is so: GIRLS ARE INHERENTLY COOLER THAN BOYS, AND DON'T HAVE TO TRY SO HARD. Witness this chick-fronted band, Be Your Own Pet. With a dude singer, I'd be kinda "eh" about them. Sure I love the garage sound, and they're fun and energetic and don't take themselves too seriously; but it's nothing mindblowing. My basic litmus test o' love for garage rock is, is it good dance music? and these guys would be just ok...
except they have a girl. Je ne sais quoi. There's something about that that is just cool. She doesn't have to be anything special. Maybe it's that girls are more fun than boys. That much I've observed before, and it's surprising when you try to reason why that's so, when they're not as cool.
posted by Rex at 2:22 AM
4 Comments:
I saw BYOP open for Sonic Youth a couple of years back.
well, I think boys like to stake their identities on stuff like movies, books, etc. that they can argue about with other boys. Or they can bond with boys over movies and books. Instead of over like aspirations or life goals, or how to treat other people, because for the most part, boys aren't taught to think about and speak about those things to other boys. (that's why wives are overwhelmingly the closest confidants for men, while husbands are not usually the closest confidants of women). They don't know how they relate to actual people because they haven't been socialized very well.
But also, why do we think tech and business and no holds barred rock and roll living are so cool? Because men who are taste makers saw other men invent and buy these things, make the deals, and set out on the road. How is this lifestyle sustained? By the labor of women who, for a long time, didn't have their own money, still don't make as much as men, can't put in the overtime because someone has to cook and raise the kids, and have to keep the house clean for their mates. All of this, men and the male dominated culture take for granted. No one talks about the evolving technology behind dishwashers or vacuum cleaners or even curling irons, because those are appliances women use while men are in the backyard dicking around on their iPhones with their buddies, or when they're sitting in the den watching the plasma TV, waiting for the wife to bring out the nachos. I mean, gossip isn't like, awesome, but man, if you listen to sports radio, it's the same damn thing, but it's sports, so it's not stupid.
And yeah, girls don't have to try so hard to be cool, because we are cooler than dudes naturally. That's totally true. For instance, girls can like all the stuff boys like, AND the stuff girls like. Cuz their brains are more complex!
Good point! Men really are the tastemakers.
Apparently our comments here demonstrate our genders' respective strengths.
Post a Comment
<< Home