Selfish Hedonist

Shorter New York Times: Gay panic is hard!

The Man Date

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Anyone who finds a date with a potential romantic partner to be a minefield of unspoken rules should consider the man date, a rendezvous between two straight men that is even more socially perilous.

Simply defined a man date is two heterosexual men socializing without the crutch of business or sports. It is two guys meeting for the kind of outing a straight man might reasonably arrange with a woman. Dining together across a table without the aid of a television is a man date; eating at a bar is not. Taking a walk in the park together is a man date; going for a jog is not. Attending the movie "Friday Night Lights" is a man date, but going to see the Jets play is definitely not.

This is so lame. If guys want to hang out together, fucking hang out together. Naturally, the New York Times has no interest in exploring actual sexual tension that might exist between these friends, which is fine, but by spending the entire article avoiding the issue, it's the elephant in the middle of the room. And really, the activities they're talking about - art museums, fine dining - are also about the sexual insecurity of the upper class.

In other words, yawn.

But hey! Shout out to Williams College in paragraph 3!! WOOOOO!!!! Go Williams! Talk about a hotbed of sexually insecure upper class men!