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Are These Trends Connected? Should I Care?
Chad from IT with his sensitive eyes, wilderness beard, menacing tattoos, and playful footwear. What on earth does all that mean?
First, the beards and tattoos. It’s unusual to see a man under 40 on TV these days that doesn’t have a beard, and very often tattoos as well. And young people in bars – same thing. You’ll have a 25-year-old named Chad from a nice suburb of Columbus, OH, who works in IT and drinks IPAs while trying to look like a cross between Grizzly Adams and a long-time member of a prison gang. It’s a jarring contrast. Many fashion trends strike me as absurd, but this one really is out there. I don’t get it. I also don’t care. But I don’t get it.
Next, the recent popular trend of “non-binary gender identities,” which is a phrase I’d never heard until just a few years ago. Men deciding they are women. Women deciding they are men. Adolescent girls taking drugs to block female puberty. Men cutting off their genitalia – voluntarily – while the rest of us are supposed to pretend that all this insanity is perfectly reasonable. Many fashion trends strike me as absurd, but this one really is out there. I don’t get it. I also don’t care. But I don’t get it.
I really hope that promotion was worth it.
Are these trends connected? If men have been taught that masculinity is toxic, and believe it to the point that many of them are pretending not to be men (either by wearing their hair in a bun or by cutting off their genitalia), then why are other men using beards and tattoos to pretend to be more manly and toxic than they really are? I don’t get it.
Chad is not toxic. He has a beard and tattoos, but he does yoga and drinks organic coffee. He’s harmless, not toxic.
And if masculinity is toxic, why are so many women pretending to be men? Why would an adolescent girl start hormonal therapy at 12 years old to become what she has been taught is toxic? Why does a 12-year-old think about such things to begin with? She should be catching salamanders in the stream behind her house. She can deal with men and women later, right?
And what’s with all the genders in between? The dating site Tinder offers 37 gender options, which suggests either an open-mindedness to new trends or perhaps a complete collapse of Western Civilization. Or is that a distinction without a difference? I feel like I should care about that, although for some reason it’s becoming more difficult to do so. I’m not sure why.
Something really interesting is going on here. I’m not interested. But it’s really interesting.
I’m getting off track. I think. Although in my defense, I think that I’m not the only one getting off track these days. Goodness, gracious. What was I talking about again?
Oh, right.
My primary question for my esteemed Ricochet colleagues is simply about the beards/tattoos and the gender confusion. Are those two trends related? What do you think?
Oh, yeah, and the other thing, too: Do you think these simultaneous trends are irrefutable proof of the impending collapse of Western Civilization?
Eh, whatever. Never mind about that. Let’s try to stay focused on the important stuff here:
What do you make of the beards and the gender confusion?
Published in General
I have a beard, and I’ve had one since before Chad got out of rubber pants. Assuming Chad has in fact moved on from rubber pants. If he hasn’t, that is a detail he is welcome to keep to himself.
Real masculinity bad; superficial masculinity good.
“Style over substance:” The hallmark of Leftist thinking.
Everything is connected to everything.
Maybe Chad is planning a cyberattack on Lindisfarne.
Melting clocks are funny to look at. Melting peoples’ psyches not so much.
We can all blame it on global warming and covid.
For over 50 years, feminist women have been trying to make their boys into girls, and their girls into boys. This is the end result.
I’m a guy mostly in that age range and have a beard (no tats though), but I’ve had it nearly a decade now. For me it mostly came down to a combination of it making my face look better and a dislike for shaving. Granted, while I’m an IT guy I’m also a bit of a redneck. So, boiling all that down I guess I have no idea. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
edit: I agree with the “superficial masculinity” take when applied to city dwelling hipsters that do this. The easy way to spot the guy who’s not doing it ironically will be that he’s sipping whiskey and not an IPA.
It’s a sign of aimless, listless ennui. Don’t worry. The beards/tattoos and the gender confusion will go out of style when hunger sets in.
It means that clothing and grooming fashions change, as they always have.
Man, I hope so…
What bothers me is that Chad has greater success with women than real men. A lot of women run when they find out my handsome young man is a Marine. Maybe he’s too clean cut.
There was a poll last week showing 75% of respondents believe there are two genders [sic]. A number of people in the comments were happy it was so high. Someone pointed out that ten years ago it would have been 100% and we should be worried about that number, not happy. What causes 25% of people to be science deniers?
This no tat, no beard IPA drinker is most definitely NOT practicing superficial masculinity, thank you very much.
I refuse to give up my suit and tie.
Of course not, you’re missing two out of the three ingredients!
I believe you are mistaking superficial success for REAL success. Give it some time, your son will likely be the one who has success that endures.
Maybe they run because he would expect them to be decent human beings too?
I’ve always been a sucker for a guy with a beard. I like the beards on Ted Cruz and Mike Huckabee.
When I was a kid, car buyers not only had brand loyalty, they had corporate loyalty: Chevy owners kept buying Chevys until they could afford to move up the scale–Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick, and then someday, sigh, Cadillac. Chevrolet was always the family car, the working man’s car.
Now, every Chevy ad I see, and the magazine mailed out to Chevy owners, features a bearded guy, about 30 years old, his ethnically mixed 25 year old girlfriend, and low key but glamorous locations like Taos, NM, Flagstaff’s micro-breweries, cafes in Brooklyn heights. No families, no “normies”, no everyday stuff like driving to work, picking up kids, or shopping (except for antiques).
Is this really their market? You’d think a big advertising company would know. Maybe they’re right and I’m wrong, but I have my doubts.
I shaved it off once in college. My then-girlfriend wanted to see me without it. She took one look and said “grow it back.”
The hunger won’t set in. We’ve gotten too smart with agriculture.
I have a normal life, normal family, normal job etc. Low key but glamorous locations like Taos, NM, Flagstaff’s micro-breweries, cafes in Brooklyn heights etc. sound really really good when family is irritating or off the deep end — doesn’t happen often, but it happens. When I was working all winter long in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, Kenny Chesney’s “Beer in Mexico” was a great song.
What to do with all that time saved from shaving? Let’s spend hours in the tattoo chair. Yeah, that makes sense. I don’t get it either.
Plus, you can always take the beard off. The tats, not so much.
I don’t worry about the civilian sector. Fads come and go.
I do worry about our military where testoserone-fueled young fire-p*ssers are discouraged in favor of effete computer nerds.
I don’t believe that either tats or beards are related to gender confusion. Beards have come and gone through the years and I don’t mind ’em (well, depending on ones gender.)
Tattoos have also been around for generations as well, although when I was a young whippersnapper they were not generally approved – at least to my knowledge. Tattoos are disturbing, be they on male, female or whatever. Like hoowitts said, they don’t come off so easily. They don’t go on so easily either, except for the wash-off kind.
Okay for regular beards, but neck-beards have always been, and always will be, just Wrong.
I like what Hank Hill from “King Of The Hill” said, something like “The good thing about tattoos and piercings and such is you can tell someone ain’t right just by looking at them.”
Its just another Lifestyle Choice.
Somehow it doesn’t look normal/real. Why do I get the feeling that he takes it off at night, and keeps it on a shelf in the bathroom or something?
It’s fine by me. Whatever floats Chad’s boat. I just don’t want to hear about it.
I think the lumberjack beard look started about a decade ago with a couple players on a MLB baseball team (Maybe Boston?).
I’m too old and blonde to grow one like that, but I quit shaving in March 2020 when they sent us home from work for COVID. My intent was to start shaving again as soon as we got back to the office in a couple weeks(!).
The funny thing was, by giving it several months to grow in, it actually filled in enough to be (sort of) reasonable looking, and helped with my weak chin. So even though we’ve now been back to the office for several months, I still have it.