Before my class began two weeks ago, my prof played this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9G4jnaznUoQ
Okay yes, this may be one of the lamest videos of all time. The shortcuts that linger on their asses at the end are truly inspirational. Cinematic. A masterpiece. But what’s interesting is how completely foreign it was to our class. Our definition of sexy is always changing but there has been an immense shift in that definition over the past 30 years, and it doesn’t feel like a good shift to me. More and more I notice the issues the overbearing “masculinity complex” is creating in our society, and this event that happened in my philosophy class sparked an ocean of thoughts in my brain ball.
Jagger. Bowie. Not only legendary music icons, but most importantly: sex symbols. I can picture it, boys dancing in their living rooms, trying to mimic their iconic style. This is what boys once aspired to be. Running down the stairs and begging their mom to go shopping with them so they could buy a cool patterned button down to wear to the high school dance. Bowie and Jagger were immense symbols in the rise of the bisexual era. Yet, what I find interesting is that straight boys were idealizing them. Men could once have “feminine” qualities and still be sex gods. Now, especially in the media, a man cannot portray a single “feminine” quality without immediately being deemed as less than a man.
The issue is that we are feminizing valuable human qualities. We have feminized empathy. We have feminized compassion. We have feminized manners. Feminizing is an issue, because anything that is “feminine” is deemed as weak. Yet, boys would dress up just like Bowie to impress the one girl that was immensely out of their league. It was as if, at that current period of time, it wasn’t lame to honour one’s “feminine” qualities. It was in fact, sexy.
The sexual nature of it all is quite fascinating. The age of sexuality that Bowie and Jagger were publicizing was rebellion, freedom, spontaneity, promiscuity, fluidity, attraction. Sex was portrayed as a trip, an experience. Men in the media, their current role in sex is to be overtly dominant. Since when was it unattractive to dance? To have flare, style and charisma. A rise of masculinity should not entail a lack of personality, a lack of humanity. Yet so much of masculinity, so much of humanity lies not in how concrete and stable a man can be. Despite any gender, no human is capable of a complete lack of emotion, and complete and utter stability. It is dishonest, it is false. Men, you are handsome without your dominance. You are admirable with your kindness. And you are sexy with your rebellious authenticity.
Bring back Bowie, baby.