JOURNAL OF FEENIX

Entry #2
”SIMP”

I feel like the discourse around "being a simp" is in alot of ways a discourse around the reshaping of masculine hierarchy.

I think Russel Wilson and Michael B Jordan garner resentment for a few reasons.

For one, I think there is this idea of "stop acting like you better than the rest of us." Or the idea that their approach to courtship is duplicitous in nature, yet it nets them approval and praise from women. So there is this notion amongst some men that these guys in particular are no better than the majority, they have just created an image and sold it for great profit.

I can understand where that feeling comes from, but I do think some of that is a little delusional. Are these niggas the perfect men they seem to be portrayed as? No, of course not. They probably done lied, cheated, broke hearts etc. But, what's being assessed and praised imo isn't a catalog of their actions, good or bad. It's their general character and way of navigating romantic interactions.

And from that standpoint, them niggas come off as pretty appealing. Just from an objective standpoint, they seem like good dudes to be with. And I don't think they acting this way for clout, or to embarrass other guys, or anything. I think that's just them. Which brings me to my second point.

I think the deepest level of resentment comes from this upending and reversal of traditional male archetypes. I don't think that's a deliberate or malicious agenda, I just think one side of the see-saw was perched so high for so long, that eventually there was gonna be a shift.

Growing up in the 90s and 2000s, things were VERY different. You had to be EXCEPTIONALLY cool or special as a black man to be considered popping if you wasn't a street nigga. And being a street nigga really meant adhering to certain ways of expression, being and navigation through intimacy. And by adhering to those unwritten rules and succeeding at the propagation of those ideals, you were considered untouchable. The pinnacle of masculine expression, at least in every form of media we were exposed to.

It really did feel like you had to be Will Smith, or Q Tip level of cool to exist as an admired male entity. And even those guys were kinda the exception. They were cool because they managed to obtain all the masculine identifiers of validation (money, women, respect) without going the standard route. People always will admire the exception.

The PROBLEM is lol, when that exception starts creeping closer to being the norm. After decades of dealing with being cheated on, beat up, exposed to STI's, left financially worst off, embarrassed by the more status quo type of nigga, women are kinda en masse being like "you know what, I'm good lol."

And in that, they both looking inward for love and looking around and being like actually I don't have to be with or put up with a nigga that's causing me harm. I can literally just be with a Michael B Jordan bruh.

I would make the argument, women probably always been on that wave, it's just the cultural zeitgeist wasn't behind it till now. So it's moving exponentially faster. And as the see saw moves to another side the luster of the old guard is starting to chip and fade a bit.

Physical beauty is physical beauty. A nigga like Michael B Jordan don't need to be any type of image to get a girl. He can just be himself. No shade, but I don't think Boosie doing that. I don't think he just cold walking into a room and attracting the physical desire of women based solely on his looks in the way some of these other guys are. And for a long time, the more street nigga/toxic side as kind of relied on that aura to carry them.

That being said, it's important to remember both sides of that see saw are like the two wings on the bird of patriarchy. Whatever side you find yourself on you benefit from the other sides existence. It's fucked up really, the "simps" get to write think pieces like these and do basic moisturizer routines and get girls solely cause the other side is so toxic. Contrarily the other side has been consuming so much attention and resources over the years but devouring the simps.

It would be great if as a gender we could find a way off of this mechanism. No matter what side you are on you find yourself defined solely in opposition to the other. Which will always obscure your flaws and diminish the real value of your strengths. In this way a true middle ground is needed.

-Feenix
2/16/21