Monday, July 7, 2008
I'm really not a man-basher. I love men. Under the right circumstances and in the right light, I sometimes prefer men over women. But the annual running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain, makes me wonder why scampering like scared little rabbits from a half-ton beast is considered a show of manhood.
The annual running of the bulls is a daily "highlight" of the nine-day Fiesta de San Fermin. Thousands of revelers drink wine all night long, then take their morning jog through the narrow cobblestone streets of Pamplona, followed intently by several castrated male bovine animals. Unlike the "running of the brides" in Filene's Basement every year, the goal here is merely to survive. You don't even get to walk away with a wedding gown at 75% off. Gotta be a testosterone thing, right?
Since the festival started today, I browsed the Associated Press wire for photographs of the "brave" (read: drunk-out-of-their-minds) runners. Nowhere, did I see a woman! Until this....
AP photo
(Click on photo to enlarge)
There, on the far left side, in the beret, is what appears to be a young woman in traditional red and white garb. And she's smiling! While the rest of the men are cowering in fear, this girl is enjoying herself!
I don't know what that says about my 'who's smarter' theory but I know one thing, this particular once-in-a-lifetime experience is NOT on my bucket list, thank you very much.
Comments
xkcdFan (anonymous) says...
Hey! I think you're wrong. I must post a comment.
Willingness to put oneself in harms way is part of being manly. The opposite would be cowardize, would it not.
The girl is in real danger to his life. She might not realize this(e.g she's quite stupid). I would say that if you don't take this seriously, you are probably mad.
Actually I don't think you can draw any serious conclusions about a persons intelligence from his trip wish-list.
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I might be able to explain why they're probably doing this, being male myself. I was taught by my father that courage is important. Thus you have to test yourself if you can put yourself in harms way. Over time I've found that the danger has to be real. They are challenging themselves, if they are courageous.
Of course some of them are suicidal and some are mad.
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If you delete this comment, I will make sure new ones will appear periodically and in ever increasing number. In fact I'm gonna make sure you don't spread this ill-minded demagogy without check, by making this my home page in firefox.
October 3, 2008 at 2:51 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
xkcdFan (anonymous) says...
Hoping that the reason this controversial info is uncommented because people don't come here often I'm going to add an interesting fact I just stumbled upon.
There are 2 men out a lot who arent paying attention to the bull on the photo. The only woman is the third person. Men are clearly paniced. The woman is careless and smiling. Few meters ahead of the bull. Mad for sure.
October 3, 2008 at 3:29 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
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