Soccer Dad

Man-bro-whatever

Other than sending me his less desirable readers, Maryland Blogger Alliance founder, Pillage Idiot is a connossieur of the lifestyle observations of the NY Times. Three years ago he posted his thoughts about a "new" trend called "man dates."

The New York Times's numerical reporter, Jennifer 8. Lee, writes about the rules by which straight men operate when going out with a male friend. You know, so that people don't think they're, like, uh, GAY!!!! (Not that there's anything wrong with that!) Lee calls this a "man date," as in "Last election, Bush won a man date with Dick Cheney."

I'm not certain why the NY Times decided that two men going out together must be considered a "man date." I used to call such outings going out with friends. But the Times made a big deal about it, so it must be a trend that has escaped my notice.

(In the interest of full disclosure, Pillage Idiot and I have gone out on a couple of "man dates." We discuss things that we could never discuss with our wives. Well actually we discuss blogging which would our respective wives to tears, which is why we would never discuss it with them.)

The Seattle Time is apparently behind the - uh - Times, as it recently discussed "Bro-mance" (h/t Dr. Helen)

As Dr. Helen describes the article, it appears that "Bro-mance" can fill the void in a man's life before he marries and since men are marrying later more of them indulge in this. Frankly, I don't understand why the two are mutually exclusive. Can't a man have a male friend and still be married?

I'm kind of conservative, so perhaps that's my shortcoming in comprehending these newfangled trends. Maybe I'll go bowling with the boys later and discuss it with them.

Ah gee, I see that George and Brad have a bromance. I really am behind the times - both Seattle and New York.

man dates, bromance.

Posted by SoccerDad at April 9, 2008 4:05 PM