So just one day after I was so pleasantly surprised to see the Chicago Redeye feature this http://redeye.chicagotribune.com/red-032309-abuse-main,0,6750968.story article about domestic violence on their cover, they have to make me want to puke with this lovely article on how Chicago was picked as one of the least manly cities in all of the United States. Barf.
Apparently Combo's (I guess because it's a "manly" snack) launched some search to find the manliest city in the U.S. and Chicago came in toward the bottom. Nashville ranked first based on their love of NASCAR, BBQ, monster trucks and sports bars. NYC was the city that finished dead last with Chicago coming in at 46 out of 50.
So I don't exactly know what the main point of the Redeye article was aside from to infuriate me and highlight every possible stereotype you could think of. Chicago guys like lattes. Lattes are for ladies. Chicago guys get botox...excuse me, BROTOX (because if a guy is getting something feminine done/using a female product the name must be changed - think mantyhose)...so they're obviously pussies.
I mean, the whole Combo's search for manliness in itself is based off of stupid stereotypes on what makes a "real man" and it's just so ridiculous and makes me sick (as do most Combo's snacks so I guess that's appropriate). Then the Redeye chimes in with fond memories of finer days of manliness:
"Remember the days when "Saturday Night Live" parodied Chicagoans as beer-chugging, sausage-eating, sports-obsessed schlubs?"
Those were the days of real Chicago men. And now they are replaced with:
"Chicago males of pretending to be manly. They point to Chicago guys who wear faux leather vests, play fantasy sports instead of actual sports and drink lattes."
I could go into much more detail dissecting more of the Combo's search and the Redeye article but it all just made me too annoyed. How are we still putting people, let alone cities, into these strict categories? And how can a frigging city be manly? I mean really?
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And yet people still deny masculinity is overvalued and ask for proof. Not to mention femininity isn't undervalued, men just shouldn't be doing feminine things because it's wrong. Or something. I don't even follow the logic of people who buy into this stuff.
I went to Chicago and drank a latte while wearing faux leather, and I totally caught the gay!
Don't worry, a little Monster Truck Ralley will wash that right out.
Someone posted about this list a while back, and my response remains the same: I am APPALLED that my hometown (San Francisco) was outranked for least manly city by LA AND New York. I mean, come on, what else does a city have to DO to be considered girly? ;)
I think they decided to rank Chicago so low on the "masculinity scale" because Chicago is now associated with Obama, and the stereotypical Obama supporter is portrayed as a "latte-drinking, tree-hugging quiche-eater with two college degrees", or something equally "threatening" to the so called "real men" of America(i. e. the working-class Bush supporters).
Now that the "president you'd like to have a beer with" has been replaced with "a guy who uses big words and eats arugula", the former Bush supporters don't know what to do now that their vision of a "Real American Manly-Man President" has fallen out of style.
To prove my point, I looked at a map of the red state/blue state divide for the 2004 election, and compared it with the list of where the "manly" and "non-manly" cities are located. only four blue state cities were located between 1 and 25, and the first blue state city, Milwaukee, is in the number 17 slot. However, there were 18 blue state cities listed between 26 and 50, and all but one (Miami), in the bottom 10 were blue state cities.
I think this marketing ploy is an obvious last-ditch effort to boost their egos, to reassure those guys that they are "still men" despite the fact that the book readin' tea drinkers have won...THIS time...
I love New York City =D