The Standard Bloke #1
Reducing the noise of toxic conversations by being "standard".
Never in the history of humanity have we ever seen a bigger waste of energy and time as that which is spent on maintaining the status of toxic masculinity.
Every day, around the world, millions of blokes go through the exhausting charade of trying to appear epic, legendary, alpha- whatever stupid name they go by these days. They are the ones who try to escape appearing “standard”, as if that was something negative.
They are unaware that being realistic, with a sane dose of self-deprecation and humor, can be quite healthy. For some people it comes more natural to understand that everyone undoubtedly falls into singularity for one or more facets of life, and that our different skills or virtues need not be the source of oppression or violence towards one another.
This is the plight of the Standard Bloke, that a simple attempt to share or connect is understood by toxic people as an opportunity to offer a brag of lesser or equal value. To compete, to devalue interactions and descend into a lack of substance.
As a result, personal achievements need to be kept guarded from the insecure minds that will flinch, compare, adjust and proceed to aggrandize some ridiculous statement about themselves.
The Standard Bloke understands that there is no need to overstate things. That if there is anything exceptional about them- well, the world will let them know. But self advertisement is unbecoming of people who seek to connect, and not add potential sales into a conversion funnel.
The opposite of this is the Instagram Snob, who speaks in Reels: “I’m going to this restaurant!”, or “just finished binge watching this show, but from my unique TV that almost nobody has except for me”, when the question they are answering is “how are you doing?”.
A good Standard Bloke will know just how many more defects can overpopulate and obfuscate that one thing that they are proud about. They don’t keep score with others, they keep score with themselves, through humility and self acceptance.
It isn’t about refusing to talk nicely about oneself, but to recognize that above all, being standard is being respectful, benign, non-poisonous.
You must be wondering, “surely, nobody aspires to be standard, right?” Well just how damaging is it to go through life calculating actions that elevate oneself in the face of others?
Is it not impossible to be standard when we have every piece of technology to augment our capacities? If we accept the notion that all of us have something to contribute, and that quantifying and comparing is an unnecessary act, then being standard becomes aspirational in a poetic way.
Standard becomes a mask we wear to unburden ourselves from our efforts to improve, to be better at what we do. It is liberating to offer kindness to others and unmark ourselves from the constant pitching society that toxic masculinity has built.
What is standard among us is our recognition that human fallibility dominates who we are.
So we laugh, under our masks, when mansplained about topics we are experts at. Just because we didn’t equate the mention of a word with an absolute necessity to pontificate. We don’t confuse engagement hacks with real human discourse, so we won’t engage- we refuse to play by their dirty rules.
Let the toxic bro walk away thinking we were pejoratively “standard”. Not knowing they were waving giant red flags and have just de-listed themselves from The Standard Bloke. This is the tales of generosity and human connection. You are welcome to stay.
Never in the history of humanity have we ever seen a bigger waste of energy and time as that which is spent on maintaining the status of toxic masculinity.
Every day, around the world, millions of blokes go through the exhausting charade of trying to appear epic, legendary, alpha- whatever stupid name they go by these days. They are the ones who try to escape appearing “standard”, as if that was something negative.
They are unaware that being realistic, with a sane dose of self-deprecation and humor, can be quite healthy. For some people it comes more natural to understand that everyone undoubtedly falls into singularity for one or more facets of life, and that our different skills or virtues need not be the source of oppression or violence towards one another.
This is the plight of the Standard Bloke, that a simple attempt to share or connect is understood by toxic people as an opportunity to offer a brag of lesser or equal value. To compete, to devalue interactions and descend into a lack of substance.
As a result, personal achievements need to be kept guarded from the insecure minds that will flinch, compare, adjust and proceed to aggrandize some ridiculous statement about themselves.
The Standard Bloke understands that there is no need to overstate things. That if there is anything exceptional about them- well, the world will let them know. But self advertisement is unbecoming of people who seek to connect, and not add potential sales into a conversion funnel.
The opposite of this is the Instagram Snob, who speaks in Reels: “I’m going to this restaurant!”, or “just finished binge watching this show, but from my unique TV that almost nobody has except for me”, when the question they are answering is “how are you doing?”.
A good Standard Bloke will know just how many more defects can overpopulate and obfuscate that one thing that they are proud about. They don’t keep score with others, they keep score with themselves, through humility and self acceptance.
It isn’t about refusing to talk nicely about oneself, but to recognize that above all, being standard is being respectful, benign, non-poisonous.
You must be wondering, “surely, nobody aspires to be standard, right?” Well just how damaging is it to go through life calculating actions that elevate oneself in the face of others?
Is it not impossible to be standard when we have every piece of technology to augment our capacities? If we accept the notion that all of us have something to contribute, and that quantifying and comparing is an unnecessary act, then being standard becomes aspirational in a poetic way.
Standard becomes a mask we wear to unburden ourselves from our efforts to improve, to be better at what we do. It is liberating to offer kindness to others and unmark ourselves from the constant pitching society that toxic masculinity has built.
What is standard among us is our recognition that human fallibility dominates who we are.
So we laugh, under our masks, when mansplained about topics we are experts at. Just because we didn’t equate the mention of a word with an absolute necessity to pontificate. We don’t confuse engagement hacks with real human discourse, so we won’t engage- we refuse to play by their dirty rules.
Let the toxic bro walk away thinking we were pejoratively “standard”. Not knowing they were waving giant red flags and have just de-listed themselves from The Standard Bloke. This is the tales of generosity and human connection. You are welcome to stay.
Never in the history of humanity have we ever seen a bigger waste of energy and time as that which is spent on maintaining the status of toxic masculinity.
Every day, around the world, millions of blokes go through the exhausting charade of trying to appear epic, legendary, alpha- whatever stupid name they go by these days. They are the ones who try to escape appearing “standard”, as if that was something negative.
They are unaware that being realistic, with a sane dose of self-deprecation and humor, can be quite healthy. For some people it comes more natural to understand that everyone undoubtedly falls into singularity for one or more facets of life, and that our different skills or virtues need not be the source of oppression or violence towards one another.
This is the plight of the Standard Bloke, that a simple attempt to share or connect is understood by toxic people as an opportunity to offer a brag of lesser or equal value. To compete, to devalue interactions and descend into a lack of substance.
As a result, personal achievements need to be kept guarded from the insecure minds that will flinch, compare, adjust and proceed to aggrandize some ridiculous statement about themselves.
The Standard Bloke understands that there is no need to overstate things. That if there is anything exceptional about them- well, the world will let them know. But self advertisement is unbecoming of people who seek to connect, and not add potential sales into a conversion funnel.
The opposite of this is the Instagram Snob, who speaks in Reels: “I’m going to this restaurant!”, or “just finished binge watching this show, but from my unique TV that almost nobody has except for me”, when the question they are answering is “how are you doing?”.
A good Standard Bloke will know just how many more defects can overpopulate and obfuscate that one thing that they are proud about. They don’t keep score with others, they keep score with themselves, through humility and self acceptance.
It isn’t about refusing to talk nicely about oneself, but to recognize that above all, being standard is being respectful, benign, non-poisonous.
You must be wondering, “surely, nobody aspires to be standard, right?” Well just how damaging is it to go through life calculating actions that elevate oneself in the face of others?
Is it not impossible to be standard when we have every piece of technology to augment our capacities? If we accept the notion that all of us have something to contribute, and that quantifying and comparing is an unnecessary act, then being standard becomes aspirational in a poetic way.
Standard becomes a mask we wear to unburden ourselves from our efforts to improve, to be better at what we do. It is liberating to offer kindness to others and unmark ourselves from the constant pitching society that toxic masculinity has built.
What is standard among us is our recognition that human fallibility dominates who we are.
So we laugh, under our masks, when mansplained about topics we are experts at. Just because we didn’t equate the mention of a word with an absolute necessity to pontificate. We don’t confuse engagement hacks with real human discourse, so we won’t engage- we refuse to play by their dirty rules.
Let the toxic bro walk away thinking we were pejoratively “standard”. Not knowing they were waving giant red flags and have just de-listed themselves from The Standard Bloke. This is the tales of generosity and human connection. You are welcome to stay.
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