My daughter does Ballet one day a week and Jiujitsu (MMA) two. She’s eight. She’s a she. These are all good things.

The ballet helps her flexibility and balance. Besides, she’s a GIRL and even though girls can be feminine and kick ass at the same time, I’m taking great pains to ensure her interests in ass kicking are balanced with her greater interest in growing up to be a well-adjusted female member of society.

While pondering this as I often ponder things (mostly while in traffic), it occurred to me that gender roles and what society expects out of individuals based on where their reproductive organs are, are fairly well entrenched.

If we’re being completely honest with ourselves, most people, yes even guys, like to dance. The amount of alcohol or level one needs to go to impress a female required to facilitate this happening will vary from individual to individual. But failing the sauce or the chance for musical foreplay, dancing is not the most masculine pursuit. Hell, John Wayne didn’t dance. He did, however, kick copious amounts of ass.

And with most urges that get repressed by society, people tend to find an outlet to pursue them in a socially acceptable manner or a manner that balances the urges with the image they want to put forth.

You probably see where I’m going with this already.

So let’s cut to the chase and compare forms-based or non-sparring Martial Arts/Schools with Dance Schools.

• Flashy costumes often bordering on “fabulous” (if you know what I mean)? CHECK!
• Group and partner performances/demonstrations? CHECK!
• Mirrors so you can preen and always look your best? CHECK!
• Excessive amounts of stretching? CHECK!
• Instructor-lead choreography? CHECK!
• Partner-assisted coordinated movements? CHECK CHECKITY CHECK YOURSELF!

All of these are feminine qualities/pursuits. However, when you put on Asian pajamas, they are all magically masked by the oh-so-manly implication that you’re learning to kick someone’s ass.

But without doing any actual ass-kicking (at least via sparring), it’s just Mandancing. This is not to say that violence is a masculine trait, or even a positive one. What’s happening though is much like a male ballet dancer stuffing a sock in his pants and/or walking around glaring at people with a chip on his shoulder; projecting what’s only an image to overcompensate for his love of a feminine pursuit.

So if you spend several hours a week practicing something that resembles fighting, that’s suggestive of fighting, that you want to believe helps you get better at fighting, but you’re not actually fighting, then go ahead and admit it: you like dancing.

Sifu Bob’s House of Krotty is basically LaFleur Academy of Dance. And your silk pajamas? Yeah, not much more than a lacy tutu. Enjoy your costumes and your choreography, mandancer.

The more I encounter the term “Truth”, the more I realize it’s used mostly by people who are allergic to the word “Fact”.

As requested by the INTERNET, here’s the video of me putting the first few rounds through my Kel-Tec PF-9.

Yeah, it’s got some recoil for being so small. I managed to get a group about the size of a silver dollar at 10 yards.

And then the damn thing just up and died. Went from being a 7+1 automatic pistol, to a single shot pump action via manually resetting the slide after every round. Left the thing for the armorer to look at and went about my day.

In short, the damn trigger stopped functioning. I’m not exactly sure what happened, but it’s pretty bad for a brand new firearm to take about 8 rounds before crapping out. However, the day wasn’t a total loss as we put about 300 rounds through a Walther P-22. A pistol even an 8 year old can shoot:

Quick thought.

This video is an example of why it took me 10 years before I actually put up a site dedicated to my random thoughts. The current tagline here is “A Tribute to Internet Narcissism, Skepticism, and Various Other ‘isms”, and that’s because I realize there’s something narcissistic about posting what’s in your head and expecting random strangers to give a damn.

Fortunately, I don’t and this is more of an exercise in writing something on a regular basis. Regardless, this guy is exactly how I picture many “bloggers” who write about themselves and not something specific like Aesopian, for example.

Someone IM’d me with this video the other day. Apparently he had some crackpot theories about Bruce Lee and got dismantled on the Bullshido Forums. I completely missed that discussion thread, which isn’t a surprise given that we’ve got thousands of new posts per day over there.

And it’s not just the whining (and borderline crying) this guy does over people who don’t like his stupid ideas that irks me. Heck, this could be fake, or a tribute to the “Leave Brittney Alone” video. It’s the medium itself. There’s something almost intrusive about a person posting rants like that online. Most people who’ve been raised with decent manners are conditioned to look at someone “speaking to them”. So like it or not, when you stumble on a video of someone ranting or whining like this, deep down in your psyche, there’s that extra bit of aggravation that wells up just the same as if some jerk on the street walked up to you with the intention of talking non-stop in your face for 9:59.

And from a cultural perspective, if there’s not a backlash against this (whether natural or manufactured) kind of narcissism, we’re going to be in a world of hurt. Why? Because the Internet will listen to anybody.

If you’re into cramming watermelons up your ass sideways there’s a constituency of people just like you, waiting to validate your opinions, on the Internet. So out of necessity or out of convenience, you chose to associate only with those people who support your views on watermelon cramming. And when enough of you get together, you start thinking not only that the world actually cares about your viewpoint, but that you should crusade to spread your cause.

This is why we’ve seen the explosion of groups like The National Association for Fat Acceptance, Furries, Juggalos, and Ninjas. Through the Internet, the fringe manages to gravitate towards one another, providing the illusion that they’re members of mainstream society with just a different take on things.

And yes, the irony of writing this isn’t lost on me given the fact that I run a community of Martial Artists who expect people that spend years and thousands of dollars learning how to punch, to actually punch each other. (Of course, unlike the fruitcakes, we’re right.)

And I guess that’s the flip side to this phenomenon. Whereas there are thousands of communities of these social rejects that band together to reinforce their own delusions or trauma-induced fetishes, there are a handful of communities/sites out there, working hard to beat back the tide of stupidity with the paddle of reality.

Communities like those at Something Awful, or a bit more serious, The James Randi Forums, or even my very own Bullshido, are all filled with thousands of people dedicated to fighting/exposing/making fun of stupid.

So while I still think people who post video of themselves ranting and whining are colossal douchebags with delusions of self-importance, at least there are thousands more willing to bring the swift boot of reality crashing down on their balls.

And that brings me comfort.