As I'm sitting at my desk plugging away on time wasting newsfeeds about the iPhone 4S, I couldn't help but overhear the banter coming from the cubicle over. Without going into specifics about who these people are or what they do, know this: the cubicle contains four 30s-40s women, some married, some not. Needless to say, I have some interesting conversations. Today's topic though, ticked me off just enough to blog about it.
I'm paraphrasing but the conversation went something like this:
Woman #1: Any man that's over 40 and single must have something wrong with him.
Woman #2: It's this town; it encourages the Peter Pan Syndrome. They just refuse to grow up.
Woman #1: Yeah, there are no real men in this town.
This is the problem I have with dating and why we guys (and by we I'm mainly referring to the nerd crowd) find it so difficult to put ourselves out there. This wasn't a dumb, ignorable article in Cosmo, this was straight from the horse's mouth, pure eavesdropped truth. Yes, maybe not all women feel this way, and yes the idea is that I would never be able to be with someone that felt this way. I understand that but this is a belief that is fully out there, that loving the things that you loved as a kid somehow makes you less of a man.
I'll agree that Los Angeles does encourage us to keep living the dreams we had as kids but why is that a bad thing? Why should I not still love my comic books, video games and even kids movies?
So this just started another question turning. What exactly is it that makes a real man in their minds? According to them, there are no real men in LA. So okay, is a real man someone who swings an ax in the woods? Because I'll bet you can't find those in NY, Chicago or Miami either. Does that mean that anyone working in film & TV can't be a man because we chose a career that is essentially playing pretend on a large scale?
I decided a long time ago that I was no longer going to hide my nerdiness from the people I date but when I have to worry about people seeing me as a boy because I have some Captain America posters in my kitchen. Am I supposed to hide something that is not just something I do in my spare time but also in my professional life?
Well forget that ladies. I'm gonna keep playing pretend till the day I die and I'm going to keep my nerdy art. The fact that LA promotes the 'Peter Pan Syndrome' is a good thing. I want to stay young as long as I can, even if it's just at heart. A kid sees the world with wide eyes. With excitement. With a desire to explore. A belief that the world is ours for the taking, no matter what any grown up says.
I'll grow but I'll never grow up. It's just in the little ways that I show that I'm maturing... for example, now my Captain America posters are framed.
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