Slampo: The Friday metrosexuality died
Earlier in the week, the Chronicle's "Star" section (which vexes us, since there's not an ASCII character for a star) sent reporter Eyder Peralta to the West Alabama Ice House (an establishment dear to the blogHOUSTON crew) to gauge opinions on metrosexuality. Or at least to pester one 62-year-old patron who probably really didn't care all that much, and probably doesn't patronize the joint in anticipation of dealing with condescending Chronicle reporters. Here's a snippet:
Soccer star David Beckham's every move provokes comment in the British tabloids. He's one of Britain's most-watched celebrities, so when he showed off his freshly shaved armpits, smooth and looking prepubescent, after a game last week in Chicago, there was furor in the queen's land.
And when we asked a bunch of graying, grumpy patrons at the West Alabama Ice House if they'd do the same, there was furor there as well.
"Hell, no," 62-year-old Jack Howard said. Not even if asked by his woman. Not even for money. Then Howard stood up, tugged at his green hat, clenched his fist enough to dent his beer can and then chugged to confirm, perhaps, that he was still man.
That's just brutal, painful reading.
New local blogger Slampo saw the story -- and a subsequent story proclaiming that metrosexuality is dead -- and had this reaction:
This was somebody’s idea of edgy: Set ‘em up with a stupid question, then make fun of ‘em when they answer (cause they’re gray and grumpy etc.) And make sure the person is totally powerless, like a 62-year old drinking at an icehouse. (And they wonder why newspapers are losing readers?)
In the spirit of constructive criticism, we’d like to suggest that next time the reporter put the question before, say, the board of the Greater Houston Partnership. Yeah, that’d be edgy. Sort of.
But that was Thursday, back in those heady revolutionary days when metrosexuality and the armpit-shaving it spawned were good excuses to mock Jack Howard’s archaic notions of manhood. Today is Saturday, and the early Sunday edition of the Houston Chronicle proclaims “The metrosexual is dead.”
Please go read all of Slampo's post. That brief excerpt is only a taste of the really fine writing over there.
We'll just second those bolded parts from the excerpt.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/24/05 04:20 PM | Houston Chronicle | Print | Comments (2)
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