What does a man look like - part 3

It's late at night, relatively speaking and I should be in bed so as to get enough sleep before the demolition people come to my street to finish moving the rubble they created across the way. But I can't sleep and I haven't blogged for ages.

I was in a restaurant last week with some friends, one of whom has been on a huge exercise kick recently, which shows in the size of his biceps and triceps. The kind person sitting next to me said, "What about yours?"

Now I wonder why it is that it feels somewhat emasculating - even for just a moment - to have somebody make a comment like that about one's physique.

Let's go back to comprehensive school, where I was always the weedy guy. I was always bad at sports and it always seemed intrinsically linked.

I suppose what I am asking myself is why are muscles and masculinity linked? Why are sports and masculinity linked? And why are muscles, more so than intellect, linked with masculinity?

I believe it's the whole classic civilization fetishism. We seek muscular bodies because they are linked to high-cultural values and we, as conditioned human beings, covet them because of these values. Lust for the past is just another form of Orientalism, in my opinion.

Part 1 Part 2

What I've been doing instead of blogging

I've been fairly busy lately. Not particularly busy with paid work, but more with cultural pursuits.

Food:

Ate Turkish food in a lovely restaurant in Takadanobaba.
Ate Nepalese food in Okubo.

Drink:

Yes. Lots. End of term party. Socialising with a friend over on holiday. I am still giving the idea of complete alcohol cessation serious thought after having to make myself vomit to ease stomach unsettledness.

Culture:

Summer Festival at the controversial Yasukuni Shrine. Took the photos using my Diana+. When I have money I will get them developed.

Learning:

A visit to Ueno Zoo and several kanji postcards stuck to the wall should help improve my Japanese, shouldn't it?

Reading:

Rattawut Lapcharoensap's Sightseeing is great. Spook Country by William Gibson was fantastic and kept me up until 3am the other night. Not the kind of thing I usually read but I will be looking to read more. Have started reading Wei Hui's Shanghai Baby.

Listening:

Serge Gainsbourg's Comic Strip is a fine album.

Writing:

I have one short story in progress, nearly finished. The next instalment of After Bingley needs redrafting. The novel in progress is going well too (Touch wood).

What does a man look like - part 2

S.C.U.M. HQ?
Originally uploaded by un-understand.

Are men still the oppressors? Do we still hold women back? Are we really still utterly despicable?

Part 1

Internet Filtering Doesn't Work

According to the BBC, schools in England aren't picking up 10% of 'harmful content'.

Is this really such a surprise? Kids will always find a way to look at stuff they shouldn't be looking at. It's why the only 'safe' way of doing lessons using the internet is close teacher/teacher assistant monitoring. There are always new websites that can get around the frankly crap filtering software, and the filters block at least 25% of the useful stuff (in my experience: Gmail, delicious.com, at various times Wikipedia would be on and off banned lists).

All Aerial - a very short story

Suspended in the sky by unseen threads you appear to swoop down and soar up above the denizens of the city... (read more)

Just a glimpse of a story. I know I haven't posted anything *serious* for a while, but I hope to do more research in the masculinity series I have decided to take up.

Twitter #autofollowerspamlist

The following user names are all twitter spammers, some more subtle about it than others.

@Snider883
@eNVyELITE
@212Girl
@BALLERMODE
@PixieChaser
@WeLoveMagpie
@JerryZerbach
@hooqy
@ValarieBeck62
@CandyStuart369
@Mercer682

Unfortunately, some twitter spammers have started using this #autofollowerspamlist hashtag (that I started using) to smear some of my friends who have been merciless in outing/flaming them. To clarify: @DebrendaBanhart and @cheapasyouare are NOT spammers but almost spammer hunters.

Imagine this kind of introduction

Hello. My name is Marc. I live on an island. I write stories and anecdotes and take photographs. I read books, listen to music and I enjoy looking at internet sites about various things. I study Japanese mainly for fun. In my spare time I work as an English teacher.

Hello. My name is Marc. I have two parents and a sister. I have been alive since 1978.

Hello. My name is Marc. I keep my apartment just tidy enough to stop vermin infestation. My neighbour plays the saxophone and coughs really loudly.

Hello. My name is Marc. I like the colour green and have a slightly obsessive relationship with repeated symmetry. I sing songs in my head but sometimes I sing them aloud by mistake.

Hello. My name is Marc. I used to be clever in primary school so I only studied just enough to get by at secondary school, which wasn't a problem until I began tertiary college. I failed to keep up with a foolishly chosen course of study which led me into an interesting but vocationally useless degree course. Most of the things I have learned have been interesting but have thus far yielded no money beyond rent and a beer with friends every so often and I am OK with that.

Hello. My name is Marc. Who are you?