CNN reports that geeks are now joining fight clubs to liberate their inner macho child:
CNN.com – Computer techs turn to fisticuffs for fun
MENLO PARK, California (AP) — They may sport love handles and Ivy League degrees, but every two weeks, some Silicon Valley techies turn into vicious street brawlers in a real-life, underground fight club.
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I wonder what would happen to these dudes if some real men showed up to the fight?
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3 Responses
What’s a real man? Have you ever been in a fight?
To me a fight is never about ‘manlyness’. It’s usually about some degree of both people not estimating how effective the other person is in a fight. Anybody will to some degree resort to physical violence if the scenario is right for them. That’s male or female, gay or straight. Jean Genet was a murderer in prison.
I’ve seen a lot of fights in my time. I’ve never had any question come up about manlyness. What I’ve seen of course is people saying a lot to distract the other into inaction. That usually is not realistic talk, just fantasy land.
Doyle
Doyle,
perhaps I should have put “real man” in quotes — I meant the general stereotype of the “real man”: someone who is big and brawny and deals with the “real world”. While that stereotype is a bit silly, I still find this geek fight club thing ludicrous, and think that if they really desire a beating, they should go looking elsewhere (and that will quickly change their mind about their “machismo” etc).
Have I been in a physical fight? Not really anything significant, in my adult life.
Ravi,
The quotes would have got me to understand.
I think your point about if one goes looking for it in the real world they’ll not find it so ‘romantic’ is probably true. I’ve been on the streets at night when something goes down, it lacks the framing that organized sort of basement sports events provide. Secondly, a gun trumps fists and feet, so there is always a question if someone has one sort of advantage.
Or political demos with the cops all around ready for a little sport. Takes the idea of duking it out into another place. That place is where you lose go to jail and deal with jail life. All of which seems to me gives the fantasy of basement fighting a bit of delusionary aspect.
To speak to being in fight, I’ve been but there is always a question in my mind what will I do. I’ve mostly lost the fear of losing. I’ll walk into a bunch of teenagers who are being provocative to give them a little frisson of threat. Or if a guy is beating a woman or trying to really intimidate a women or children then I’ll intervene, step between them. I never know when I do it if I can stay there or not. But it never feels like I’m macho. It feels if I can use the moral framing thingy, ‘the right thing to do at the time’ sort of thing. But scares the bejabbers out of someone with me.
Doyle