A few days ago I coined the term "man-ecdote" . . . it's a short tale told by a guy, from a masculine perspective, and if a lady is present, she might chastise him for expressing his outdated chauvinistic views in a post-gender/post-feminist world; here is a real example, recounted by yours truly-- a man-- in the office yesterday . . . at some point when I'm reading a hardcover book written by a woman, I turn to the inside of the dust jacket and appraise the photo of the author, and if she's bookish and frumpy then I'm pleased (as I was with Nancy Isenberg, the writer of White Trash: the 400 Year Untold History of Class in America, who looked exactly as I imagined a chick who would write a dense, polemical history tome would look) but if she's inappropriately good looking for the subject matter (God knows why, but I allow mystery and chick-lit authors a higher attractiveness to credibility ratio) then I'm slightly annoyed and wonder if what I'm reading is worthy of my time, and I think this stems from two (possibly intertwined) reasons:
1) I don't think it's fair that someone who is fit and sexy and put-together has also managed to write a quality piece of literature and/or non-fiction . . . that's monopolizing all the good stuff;
2) I think homely women with weird hair and glasses (e.g. Joyce Carol Oates) are smarter and more pensive than super-hot bombshells and thus they are more likely to have deep and profound thoughts, and so I trust their intellectual discourse more;
while Susan Sontag has alerted me to all the paradoxes and contradictions and stupidity of this kind of thinking, it's still hard to avoid doing it, because I'm a stupid man, full of stupid "man-ecdotes," and-- as a tangential bonus-- I'd also like to point out that if you tell a little story about some caramel glazed egg custard in a flaky and delicious pastry shell, then you've just recounted a "flan-ecdote."
9 comments:
You probably shouldn't write about women. I predict many "hand"ecdotes in your future.
Yeah, I can't believe you (1) think this and (2) committed it to eternal posterity on the internet.
you don't think these thoughts?
Do I think that the way a woman looks is indicative of her intelligence? I do not. And I don't think this is the case for men. You're a really smart guy most of the time, but most of the time you're also goofy looking.
https://www.urbandictionary.com/tags.php?tag=manecdote
managram: douchebag = a hog cubed
Dave, the point you should have made is that this instinctive habit is surely unisex; when a female reading a great book looks at the back cover and sees a buff blond guy as author, of course she thinks he must've had help writing it.
If Dave had his picture at the top of his blog, he would definitely make a lot of first-time readers nod in approval.
so "manecdote" isn't on urban dictionary yet. can i submit it? good point whit, and i should have also pointed out that i do it for guys too -- if i'm reading some travel writing, that guy better look grizzled, not coiffed.
and i should point out to my readers that zman joking around about my looks. the reason i don't put my picture on the blog is that i'm a little too good looking for my intelligence and wit, so my good looks might detract from the humor. plus, my wife doesn't tolerate groupies.
manesthesia = whiskey shot
mantediluvian = something that's been in my apartment since before the flood
manathema = Dave in the English office
mannotate = when Dave takes credit for coining things that have already been coined
mandouille = a Cajun style sausage with a head on it
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