Weird Dude Energy

Weird dude energy is fascinating. I think I’m partly enamored by this idea of “dudes” being weird, because that’s the story of my life. I had scrolled through the tumblr before we had in class, and honestly had already seen most of those images on my own social media feed. I thought everything that is “weird dude energy” was extremely funny, but also normal to my life. I guess I must just be weird.

The podcast on “Testosterone Abyss” was incredibly informative, and opened my eyes to several points of view that I was oblivious to. I guess when I see this weird stuff every day, I become so used to it I can’t recognize that sometimes it’s not good for us to be so focused on the weird. The podcast is entirely correct on the points that are raised concerning masculinity, community, political jokes, and especially violence. I think men of today are almost complacent to what is happening around them, and if something extremely violent were to occur right next to them, most dudes wouldn’t be phased.

Now I can’t say this encompasses everybody, because it doesn’t. There is a very large and significant difference between the male gender and “dudes” themselves. The Big Lebowski consistently has an accurate depiction of this dude character and we see young men today either purposefully or subconsciously imitating this archetype. I for one, have not studied The Big Lebowski as close as The Organist has, and I also haven’t seen the film in quite some time, but I don’t think that takes away from my own dude-culture. This idea to be a “weird dude” has been ingrained in our culture for some time and has gotten more extreme as the years have gone on. There is the argument that dude culture itself is almost dying out, and I would agree with that to a point. I think that we are seeing a wider range of “dudes” today, some that are subtle and have weird dude energy but seem like a “clean-cut guy” as The Organist would put it. I would fit into this category. Then we have the extremes. Dudes that are even more of The Dude than Jeff Bridges character was, these guys are seen stealing planes and peeing off cliffs on tumblr. Our dude culture thrives with the mixture of these specimens. While it almost becomes less acceptable for extreme dudes to exist in society, they come from nowhere and remind us that they still exist.

I listened to the podcast twice and still came up with a burning question that I don’t believe is fully answered, what is this testosterone abyss? If anything, weird dude energy is an example of excess testosterone. These are men attempting to be as masculine as possible and are acting out in a testosterone-filled rage. So why is it called an abyss? I understand that these characters seem removed from us and they wouldn’t fit within our societal norms, but wouldn’t we say it’s because they need to calm down and act normal? I would flip this back on The Organist and make the argument saying that we currently live in this testosterone abyss and that we need these weird dudes to fill that part of our cultural landscape. Life just wouldn’t be fun without people acting crazy in a way that we could witness and comment on.

Overall, I think we are too particular in analyzing why these dudes act in the ways that they do. It’s entertaining enough to sit back and witness our presidents making fools of themselves or an idiot failing at yet another display of manliness. We need weird dude energy around us, and more than that, we each need to embrace weird dude energy and have a little fun with our lives.