09/17/2007 09:04:50 AM EST
Cenk is Not Gay, He Has Never Been Gay....
posted by homer
First things first, if you haven't seen
More BallWitness News, I don't know what you're doing with your life. Warning: There is a fair chance you could shart laughing, so have a change of drawers handy.
OK, I just got done listening to Friday's TYT, and I gotta say, Cenk's boothmates are sounding a little, if not homophobic, then less than enlightened.
First of all, it's not like Cenk made up the term "Man Crush". It was coined for exactly the reasons Cenk cites, so if it's meaning is explicitly nonsexual, what does that say about someone's discomfort with the term?
Look, there have always been guys who were called "Men's men", men with an elusive, magnetic quality. Think Robert Mitchum, or Jack Nicholson. More recently, George Clooney comes to mind.
It's hard to pin down, because it's not a matter of wanting to be like these guys. In fact, the impossibility of being like them is part of the attraction. Yeah
, I said attraction.
There's a sort of juvenile reaction at work there that says "attracted to" means "gay". But put a guy like Mitchum in any room, and everybody will gravitate towards him. That's attraction.
It's not about celebrity, either. My dad was the same way. He was a carpenter, he drank too much, never had 2 nickels to rub together, but people just loved to be around him.
They call it "Je ne sais quoi" for a reason, and it's not "to sound gay". What accounts for this? Not looks, that's for sure, although a lack of open sores is probably a prerequisite.
Sense of humor? Well, there's an element of that, but none of these guys could be described as a joker. If they get a big laugh while telling a story, it's because you hung on every word.
They certainly don't seem to seek the approval of others, and that seems to be an essential element, but not enough so to put Dick Cheney in the club.
&nb
sp; In my dad's case, he was a hard guy to pin down, and I get the feeling that's the way a lot of these guys are. You want to be friends with them, but you know that you won't be, that the world is their BFF.
So, the Man Crush is a real thing, and it doesn't make you gay. Giving it a name might make you uncomfortable, but then, isn't that the last piece to the puzzle? The guys I've mentioned are all verrry comfortable in their own skin, they know who they are at an elemental level. If ManCrush makes you squirm, maybe you don't really know who you are.
As fir the T-Shirt contest, I'm sure you were looking for answers like "Brokeback Mounta
ineers" to describe gay men who "act straight", but I have a better name for them: people.
(cue "The More You Know" music)