Tucker Max

So recently I finished reading I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell  a book written by Tucker Max, (a friend had got me this book as a Christmas present) it is a collection of short stories regarding Tucker's wild drunken and whorish behaivor and the few to no consequences he has to pay for them. Tucker is living the all American college boy dream, he gets black out drunk, sleeps with plenty of women, and all his friends (mostly men) admire him.  He admits in his book, "I get excessively drunk at inappropriate times, disregard social norms, indulge every whim, ignore the consequences of my actions, mock idiots and posers, sleep with more women than is safe or reasonable, and just generally act like a raging dickhead" but women still sleep with him and men still admire him. Tucker Max has perfected the all American college dream of masculinity, or better yet the dream of college masculinity set by society. Many behaviors demonstrated by Tucker are also very popular with college frat brothers, and jocks.  Society encourages this behavior by calling it entertaining or amusing instead of clarifying that while this type of behavior may be entertaining it is not how young men should actually act.

This book tells young men it is okay to treat women like whores because that is what they are and they love it, but in reality the women in Tucker Max's stories do not appear to enjoy being whores or treated like such .  He, himself is getting a kick out of treating them like whores. Tucker has a very 50's sexist view of womens roles in society by his standards, they should be hot, willing to be exploited, easy to sleep with but have not slept with too many people, a freak in the sheets, and a servant to which their main duty is to worship his penis. I feel like this view of women is shared with many college teen boys these days or atleast fantasized. I must clarify that most of the time Tucker admits to being a douchebag before sleeping with these women, or they already know how much of a douchebag he is however they still decide to sleep with him.  It almost leads the reader to believe that women actually do enjoy being sexually exploited by pigheaded men. The best example to help prove this point would be the chapter "Girl Beats Tucker At His Own Game", now i warn you this chapter is one of the most disturbing chapters in the entire book.  Tucker meets a girl named Rachel who is shy and reserved until they are on a date one night and the subject of sex is bought up then she really opens up. From date to date the sex gets kinkier and kinkier, always involving pain and humiliation on her part but she appears to get off on it. But then Tucker being the douchebag he is attempts to push her limits and see just about how much humiliation she is willing to go through for "love".  He ends up convincing her to give him oral sex while he is deficating on the toilet. (Yes, this is the type of ludicrous activities found in this book).  Not only does the girl go through with it, but after he never calls her again. This girl was clearly desperately seeking love and was willing to do anything to please Tucker but being the pigheaded macho man he is, he took advantage of this to use for his own sick pleasure.  While most guys wont take it to this extreme it is very popular for guys in college to promise a girl the world just to sleep with her and once they get what they are after never call her again and I feel like this type of behavior has been learned from how college masculinity is represented in the media.

 Tucker does admit to finding love in his book,  after a night out bar hopping with his friends (getting Tucker Max Drunk) he has found the love of his life, "this was the most gorgeous person I had ever seen.. piercing blue eyes and sandy blonde hair. Great body. A deep, penetrating stare that revealed wisdom and understanding beyond the average person" but dont forget this is Tucker Max we are talking about people. This love of his life that he considers perfect ends up being only himself in the mirror and he spends a hour dancing in front of a mirror by himself at a bar. Tucker only cares about himself and will do anything it takes to make sure his selfish needs are tended to which I must admit sounds a lot like the average typical American college male student. The fact that he is famous due to his ridiculous behavior and stories only makes him and others believe that what he is doing is acceptable which in reality is only so famous due to how ludicrous his actions are. Sex and being a douchebag sells.  I could not put this book down due to how ridiculously hilarious it was which i am ashamed to admit due to the fact that I feel like even reading this book is contributing to this idea of masculinity.

This style of masculinity is also found in the infamous college movies, American Pie in the character played by Stifler.  Stifler is rich, sleeps with lots of women, speaks his mind, treats his friends as a mean to a end, and puts sex before anything else.  Stifler and Tucker are almost exactly alike, except for the fact that Stifler seems to learn some compassion through the years while Tucker never really seems to learn anything. The fact that there are little to no consequences to these characters leave young men believing that this is the lifestyle they should lead to achieve masculinity.  The media makes it seem that to be achieve masculinity in college one must sleep with as many women as possible and treat them with as little respect as possible because only then will you gain respect from your fellow man.