Apparently a lot of T-Nation readers (like about 95%) didn't get it. Here is the beginning of a discussion about the issue in this week's Atomic Dog article.
You can read the rest of the article at the site.So let's start by stating the obvious: It's hard as shit to be funny on purpose. I've never heard of this guy, but I agree wholeheartedly with a point he makes: If a reader doesn't understand a poem, he blames himself. If the same reader doesn't get a joke, he blames the writer.
Everything I just said about comedy goes double for satire. And it goes triple for satire on the Internet, a medium that encourages readers to express strong opinions on material they may not have read from beginning to end.
Which brings me to last week's Atomic Dog column, "12 Manliness Guidelines."
You have to go to the eighth page of comments on the discussion thread before a reader drops the S bomb. And that was after TC asked, on the seventh page of the thread, if there was an English major in the house.
TC and I emailed back and forth about the column, and the readers' reaction to it, for several days before we decided it was a good time to give readers some insight into TC's creative process — how much of his material is true (as opposed to "true"), how his perspective and sense of humor have helped define the editorial mission of Testosterone Muscle, and what we hope to accomplish going forward.
TC has talked a lot about his background, his book, and the poorly understood link between poker prowess and the proximity of the cards to the dealer's breasts.
Now it's time to get into some meatier subjects.
Testosterone Muscle: When I read your Atomic Dog last Friday, it never occurred to me that you were seriously saying real men don't drink wine or beer, or send text messages, or anything like that. I assumed you were satirizing the idea of one guy, or one group of guys, defining manliness for all other guys. But when I read the discussion thread, it looked like at least 95 percent of the posters took it seriously. Did that catch you by surprise?TC: Ha! Let's put it this way: it kinda surprised me.
I knew a lot of guys would get pissed and defensive, but I thought they'd "get it" when they got to the very last line, which was, "I think my deed in reaffirming manliness is done here. Now scuze me while I go tweeze my eyebrows."
I guess they got so pissed, they never made it to the last line.
But I didn't consciously attempt to write a satirical piece. More accurately, I was just deliberately going, in poker terms, "over the top" to elicit a rise out of the readership. As anyone who's read more than one or two of my columns knows, it's what I like to do.
I think of myself as the impish Zen master who tries to elicit "awakenings" in his students by punking the reader. They're all Beyoncé and I just convinced them they knocked down the 50-foot Christmas tree.
TM: Sorry to break it to you, but when you look like a Viking, "impish" isn't exactly an option. Okay, truth time: How many of those items in the column actually apply to you, personally? I mean, you're a successful guy, and you never drink wine? Really? To me, it's one of the best reasons to become successful — you can afford more wine, and better wine.
TC: Actually, I don't drink wine. I really don't like it much. And I really do want to put my boot in the ass of the kind of the guy played by Paul Giamatti in Sideways: "Oh, oh, you've got to try the new Pinot!"
TM: But he's an unattractive, unsuccessful, self-centered jerk who sleeps with Virginia Madsen! If that's not an argument for increased wine consumption, I don't know what is!
TC: Well, that might be a reason to coerce women into drinking more wine; you know, so they'll make poor judgments about who to have sex with.
Anyway, I don't give a rat's ass if anyone drinks wine. And I don't think whether or not you do is indicative of manhood.
As far as the other stuff on the list that I do, I have to admit that I'm a texting fiend. I'm a writer after all, or at least I play one on Testosterone Muscle.
I'm definitely not a hugger, but shit, I'm Scandinavian. It's a cultural thing. If my parents wanted to show affection they gently stroked me with a 10-foot pole. I'm all for hugging women should they initiate it, though. I mean, hell, when you hug a woman, there's only a millimeter of cotton separating you from a totally naked woman.
And I've got some clothes you could probably find in Details. Shit, I don't own a pair of shoes that wasn't handmade by fancy-schmancy shoe designer Donald J Pliner in the mountains of Italy. Granted, they're all different colors of the same shoe, and they're about the only ones that don't cause the fascia on the bottoms of my feet to tighten up, but still they're a bit foppish.
I do other "metrosexual" things, too. I use moisturizer on my elbows. I've trimmed my nasal hairs so that female birds have one less place to go for nesting material.
As far as the rest of the stuff, I don't really do any of it. But it's not a manhood thing. If I wanted an ice cream cone or a fancy coffee drink, it's not like I'd be afraid to order it, lest someone judge my masculinity. However, I really do think it's strange to wear a jersey with some sports star's name on it. Likewise, along the same lines, I'd probably never ask anyone for their autograph. But it's not a question of manliness; it's just that the idea has no appeal to me.
Above all, being "manly" is not giving a shit about what others think. I would have thought the readers knew my real thoughts on the matter.
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