Quote:
Originally posted by Jack Manfred
I may be totally off-base on this comparison, but if so, I'm still probably in the right place.
Smoking used to seem like a masculine activity. James Dean smoked, so did Marlon Brando. All the tough guys smoked on film. There's a famous wordless scene in Le Cercle Rouge where the two gangsters decide not to come to blows because one offers the other a smoke. Then sometime in the 80s, every bad guy smoked. Think Hans Gruber in Die Hard. Every dirty cop would blow smoke in the face of the guy they were questioning; that's how you knew he was a dirty cop. If the interrogating cop wasn't smoking, and the skel blew smoke in his face, well, that's how you knew the skel had it coming.
Nowadays though, it seems like smoking is more feminine than masculine. I see more women smoke than men. It's rebellious, but not too rebellious. Brings to mind high school girls smoking in the restrooms.
I think the same thing is going on with tattoos. Sailors and soldiers used to get tattoos. Proper ladies wouldn't even be seen with a man who had tattoos, let alone get one themselves. Sure, there's plenty of guys with tattoos. Hell, I live near Haight Street; it's almost a requirement. But now, they sort of seem feminine. When I see guys with those Celtic knots on their upper arm, it seems a bit frilly, even if they're a 300-lb. offensive lineman. A man with a tattoo on the small of his back? NTTAWWT.
Once again, rebellious, but not too rebellious (especially if it can be covered up).
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Eh, I'm not really feeling the tats. I think it has blown its load. And being used as a way for middle aged people to try feel edgy and cool...think about it, if 20 year old fatties and middle aged attys are getting them, hasn't it gone the way of the poncho being sold at Sears?
I hate ponchos.
I love Jack's sig line.
