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Let's Study the Man-Child
Posts
or is that better
The description for that banned Verizon commercial I posted earlier says a group called His Side and Glenn Sacks complained hard and got it pulled off the air.
I guess there are a lot worse things one can be, but going to what I said in the gamer thread, a lot of the attributes held by the Man-Child aren't just cute idiosyncrasies, but rather signs of underlying mental illness. Springing immediately to mind are things like OCD, narcissism, and social anxiety disorder. But certainly it shows a particular type of guilelessness that I honestly think most humans are hard-wired genetically to be adverse to. If a person is far outside the culturally-acknowledged norm for behavior yet can't understand why or change that behavior even when it would greatly benefit him or her to do so, there's a certain amount of leeriness that society is going to treat them with.
And I feel that's quite natural.
That's why you can't think of its opposite. An anti-manchild would be the platonic ideal of adulthood -- rich, stylish, assured. It's just a way of saying 'fuck you' to someone.
Fuck you, society. Fuck you.
Do whatever the fuck you want. Hell, you can even shirk some of those things from time to time, long as you make it up after. I'd say keep in mind what is and isn't socially acceptable, but that's just because being able to put on your 'normal face' is a good ability for those who fall outside the norm.
Now, you're not responsible, your house is significantly below your own cleanliness standards, you're short on cash, you're not spending enough time with the family, etc.? Time to buckle down, dude. Halo and Superman're gonna have to wait until those things are dealt with, at least in amounts that will drain significant money and/or time.
Take a video game, for instance. I think you can very easily take down your copy of Super Mario Brothers on the NES, play for a couple of hours and still be no more worthy of the man-child title than someone who's playing a pickup game of basketball or whatever. It's just a leisure activity, and hey, maybe it brings back memories for you.
The man-child, on the other hand, will react toward this activity like a child does. As in, getting overly upset, neglecting his real responsibilities/relationships in favor of entertainment, getting fanatical or obssessed with the game, getting angry at someone who beats them at the game, or whatever.
Likewise, I occasionally read children's lit (I'm especially fond of The Giver and A Wrinkle in Time). I don't do this because I'm incapable of reading more complex stuff, but just because some of it is good no matter how old you get.
I think the most mature way to behave is to act like an 'adult' most of the time, but be willing to let your hair down every once in a while. If you get too stodgy I think people have a tendency to stagnate.
I guess it's a start. It's not that the media doesn't care about what people think, it's that people don't care
which is messed up. it's a stereotype that infiltrated pop culture and is now firmly rooted there, and nobody cares. I'm sure this is the case with tons of other stereotypes.
Cartoons are the best thing. Legos are awesome-sauce. The phrase "awesome-sauce" is awesome-sauce. Gaming is keen, comic books rock, and action figures kick ass.
There may be a tendency to conflate liking these things with man-childhood, but I think that the general implication is a level of irresponsibility and/or social awkwardness that is pretty much debillitating; the person can't function in society because of his obsession with his toys (or sports, or what have you).
If you're just using it to describe someone who is perfectly successful in life but likes Star Wars more than you think is acceptable, then you're just the douchey jock in high-school who shouts NERRRD every time you see some kid playing D&D.
Maddie: "I am not!"
Riley: "You're a marsupial!"
Maddie: "I am a placental mammal!"
though also obsessive hobbies are pretty common
i dunno. i get the impression that most people posting on this board are in their late teens or early 20s
if you'r 18-24 and haven't really given much thought or care to being "grown up" i don't think it's an especially big deal in this day and age
but if you're in your mid-30s and resist the notion that you're an adult and should generally act in an adult manner, it's significantly less attractive.
The manchild continues to hold these sorts of beliefs even though they've long since had time to be properly acculturated, and they just expect the world to conform to the way they want to do things, because they're self-absorbed. We don't judge the kid for it, because he doesn't know better; adulthood is that point when people can reasonably expect you to know better.
18-24 isn't so much "man-child" as it is just "child."
I don't really have problems with man-children, except for when they start going on about how hard the dating scene is, which they do routinely.
exactly
shorts to the wedding
twinkies for dinner
my favorite funny tee-shirt to work
haters gonna hate
they don't tend to be very good company
unless, i guess, you need a healer for your wow raid or something
That's why you hide your action figure collection before your girlfriend comes over for a visit. It was a pretty good joke in the movie The 40 Year Old Virgin. The guy had nothing but sealed toys in his apartment. Hoping to impress his lady friend, he secretly moved all of his collectibles out into storage and it turned out his apartment was bare. He owned nothing women would find acceptable.
Well, that's true.
There are two man-children that I am forced two interact with on a regular basis, but at least one of them (the older one) is tolerable in small doses. If you need to go somewhere, he'll lend his car. If you need to borrow cash, he's got it and isn't a prick about getting back. And he's actually quite passionate about football and hockey; just not as much as he is about Star Trek or G.I. Joe or Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
The younger one, well, is a waste of precious oxygen. Rude, anti-social, horribly elitist despite being extremely stupid and uneducated, and incapable of engaging in any kind of conversation whatsoever. I've even tried to engage this on the few topics we tangentially share, like games or guitars, but even then he shuts down because his scope is so limited and he actually knows very little about the things he is obsessive about. Here are some conversations we've had:
Me: "Oh, you play guitar? Cool. I have a bunch of them, but my favorite is my Ibanez hollow-body. It has a nice tone that only hollows can get that's perfect for playing blues. Of course, my Honer spanish nylon is great, too. What do you play?"
Him: "Oh, I don't know. It's, like, an acoustic I guess. It's black."
Me: "Oh. What do you like to play?"
Him: "Just, whatever, you know. Metallica. Daughtry. Hardcore stuff."
Me: "Oh."
Me: "Hey, I see that Game Informer on your desk. What games do play?"
Him: "Card games. Yu-Gi-Oh, Pokemon, Magic:TG. I used to play WOW but it's gay."
Me: "Oh."
Me: "What's that thing on your desk? Like, a Voltron or Power Ranger or something?"
Him: "It's a Gundam. I'm writing a trilogy about it that I'm going to animate on my computer."*
Me: "Oh."
*this person, at this point, had already failed out of animation school in the first semester, and now currently lives with his parents. His computer is a Compaq from 2001 running WindowsME.
See, no. you turn 18, you're a grownup. doesn't mean you have to run off and get a job at the bank, but I really hate this whole "extended childhood" thing, and I hate how people use college debt and high house prices to excuse people refusing to mentally leave their teen years. The stuff Will mentioned, that whole 'wearing the same clothes you did at 15 even though you're 26 while living with mum, refusing to commit to the partner you've been with for 4 years and spending all your spare cash on recreation', it drives me up the wall. Girls do it, too -they're the ones with half a college degree, $10k in credit card debt, and a 4 nights a week clubbing habit.
And its not the new normal, either, despite what some people seem to think. Its a sign of fail. Arrested development. You're not a free fucking spirit, you're a sponge and a pain in the ass.
I don't think the "homer simpson lol"commercials in the op have anything to do with the manchild phenom, though. That's a whole other thing, related to a different stage in people's lives (and, I suspect, an older generation than ours).
In other parts of the world, you turn 12, you're now an adult!
The excuses are the things that kill me the most.
you're 4
fuck you, get out of my fucking house you fucking mooch
Pfft, my wardrobe is worth more then my car.
I agree, but in terms of interests and behavior, it's not too uncommon to see a college kid have interests similar (but more mature expressions of) those of themselves at 14-18.
But as for the rest, you're right. I think the commonality of this phenomenon is partly due to the way that generation of parents were raised, in where conformity and professional duty was beaten into you from a very young age. There's a lot of positive things to be said for that, as it instills maturity and work ethic into people at a young age, but it also has a lot of negative trappings, such as making people very consumerist and viewing success in material terms, as well as insinuating a person's social and sexual value at a very young age.
Like, my grandfather was an "adult" at the age of 20, having served in war, fathered a child, and entered the career that he would have for the rest of his life. That was the normal standard back then, but it's not what I would consider a healthy goal for people today.
You are now three years old. This, here, is you puppy! You will raise your puppy! When you turn 4, you'll kill your puppy and use its fur to make shoes and gloves! Then you'll go out into the world and you'll either live or DIE!
I seriously thought this thread was about that guy who gave birth a couple months ago, guess not. This is still riveting, please continue.
There are often times when I wish I was out of school and just was working toward some concrete goal at a job, but I'm glad I didn't make those decisions when I was 19-20. God only knows what I would have done, but I'd probably hate it by now.
An uninsured Mexican-American actually did crash into my brand new vehicle (the eponymous Jeep of the Jeepguy). Destroyed the passenger side door completely. Would have totaled anything short of a brand new vehicle.
I'll just sit back now and let the collective forum consciousness rage about how horribly racist I am for being in the way of that guy and/or noticing he happened to be Mexican and/or daring to speak of it later.
What exactly makes the first guy a man-child?
For this reason, I'm always a fan of the idea of people to not go to college right out of High School. I always tell them, 'Work full time for a few years. Get an idea on how it's really like', and of course they all go straight to college. Do you know what's the likely outcome? They drop out of college only to work full time being a receptionist or something along those lines. Only then, they also have a few tens of thousands of dollars in loans to pay off.
If you hadn't felt the urge to spend half your post saying "....not that I'm racist!" no one would have thought anything of it, I imagine.
If you have to say 'I'm not racist', then it means that you're racist.
Oh I never said I wasn't racist. Everyone is racist to some degree. Everyone who pretends they are totally and utterly race-blind is deluding themselves/others.
I liked the five milestones for being an adult: completing school, leaving home, becoming financially independent, marrying and having a child.
You hit that and every thing else is gravy. Or not.
http://www.superhappyfuntimeawesome.com/
I guess when I say fanaticism I mean liking so much that you are willing to sacrifice all other aspects of your life for a hobby. I don't think that's ever socially acceptable.
PS2
FF X replay
PS3
God of War 1&2 HD
Rachet and Clank Future
MGS 4
Prince of Persia
360
Bayonetta
Fable 3
DS
FF: 4 heroes of light
It's a good thing I did not do that then.
Wait a minute. What would you spend your spare cash on other than recreation?
I mean, after food, home costs, taxes, tuition if applicable, things that need replacing, and any miscellaneous savings you put away, what else is there, really?
gawd, you're not a soulless capitalist?
git out of Amurrica
Savings is the only thing that I could think of. "Spare cash" implies that the necessities are taken care of.