LadBant

I’m talkin’ about my generation.

Sometimes, I honestly lose the will to live. </upbeatstart>

I had the, er, misfortune, to watch the above video, and it brought to boiling point my feelings toward something that I find myself increasingly at odds with. A modern phenomenon, somewhat, what drives me nuts.

This thing is, apparently, called lad culture.

I was actually genuinely baffled as to whether the clip was a parody of lad culture or a documentary about it. Basically, as far as I’ve interpreted it, being a “lad” entails generally being quite a coarse, beer-swilling, footie-mad, sex-obsessed bunt who only really sees women in regards to how “f**kable” they are, or generally a pain in the ass. Personal hygiene is routinely violated and abused. Anyone who seems to remotely deviate from this gets, shall we say, funny looks; if they’re of confusion or derision it’s hard to say. If you’ve any interest in education or anything “intellectual” you’re deemed a geek with no life. Lovely.

To be honest, I can deal with this. Some people seem to lead genuinely enjoyable lives with this mind set – which I’m not disabusing, casual 1950s-style misogynistic comments aside – but I’m a little worried it’s becoming the assumed normal for any person of my gender.

I get the impression a lot that, because I am a guy, I must be into football, literally cannot have a good time unless it involves being ‘ammered, mate, and treat all women equally – they’re all objects to be ogled and drooled over – and this assumption is made before even my name is known. And I’d really rather it wasn’t, to be quite honest.

Of course, if  I were a total elitist and wanted to look right down my nose, I could say that I deem “lads” as my social inferiors. Heck, I could write a five-thousand word post (reading? LOL JK; seriously, not gonna go into the seeming rise of anti-intellectualism here) about how I arrive at that conclusion. But I don’t, and won’t write that; I’m as socially-awkward as most introverts are. I write sci-fi, don’t enjoy football, am teetotal and, heavens above, treat women as human beings.

I’m just a little concerned that this overriding “lad culture” might give rise to the thought, the assumption that all English guys are like this. And I wouldn’t like that at all. Because while there are lads out there, there’s also an ignored but significant number of…. anti-lads? And I’d just like their existence to be acknowledged sometime.

Send in your comments if you think I’ve summarised laddish-ness wrong, though be warned: any “banter” will be promptly burned irreparably from the comments.