British 'lad' culture

[sleepless]

I'm boring.

Is 'lad' British for 'prep'?

no, preppies are [a cliche, i know] rich or well off high school slimballs obsessed with career. lads are typically infatuated by the 'being male and acting like a gorilla' bullshit and are obsessed with bullshit. lads are more in line with jocks [not the scots].

[cambam]

I tell you man, one thing that pisses me off about this country is this whole lad culture bullshit. It's a totally alien thing to me and I can only think of 'laddism' from an 'us and them' point of view.

To clarify for those not in the UK, laddism is the term coined for the FHM generation of 20 something males. The idea put forth by most tabloid newspapers and mens magazines such as Loaded, FHM, Zoo and Maxim is that if your a young male in Britain, you almost definitely:

1. Go out on the pull every night (having a meaningful, wholesome relationship is a serious nono)
2. Go to the pub and get fucked until you can't stand at least 3 times a week
3. Have an obssession with football, because football is actually the greatest thing in the history of the world, ever.
4. Want, no, NEED to buy every pointlessly overhyped, expensive iGadget that is coming out every two weeks.
5. Think Dirty Sanchez is 'genius'

It's this kinda collective generalisation that every 20 something male in Britain is thick as shit and has values as deep as a paddling pool in the Sahara. Let's just make one thing clear. I'm 20 and...

1. I have a girlfriend of two and a half years and have never "pulled".
2. I've only ever gotten truly, immensely drunk once when I was 15
3. I can't stand football
4. I bought an Ipod. It broke before it's birthday. That is reason enough for me to ignore 'gadgets' for the rest of my life.
5. No

So if i'm not a 'lad', then what exactly the fuck am I? Only in Britain can we celebrate mindless drunk culture to the point of extreme generalisations.

Any other Brits in the hisoos know what i'm talking about?

According to some of my mates, if you don't go by that description, you're gay.


Podge knows who I am talking about.

[buddymyfriend]

I hate the way folks assume you've gotta like football just because you're a guy. And when you say you don't really follow football you get the funniest looks and guys are like wtf!? As for the ladies, they love it. Hey shoot me i'd rather spend a sunday afternoon toking a few fatties with the missus, maybe a few pre lunch pints at the local and a huge sunday roast followed by a walk to burn of those yorkshire puddings! Fucking right, my kinda sunday afternoon!

Peace

Buddy

[Wesley Pipes]

I want a meaningful relationship, going out on the pull every nigh isn't for me. I hate the pub, i hate alcohol, i hate the violent chavs that flock there. I LOVE football!!! I love my ipod, had it over 2 years. I've never seen dirty sanchez so...

If you're not a lad, what are you? You are who you are, regardless of media labels and majorities of people conforming to a certain fashion or taste, etc. You don't seem boring to me, infact rather intelligent, it would be cool to have a toke with you.

dirty sanchez is like a more painful version of Jackass.....

and i agree that its funny... oops sorry does that make me a "lad" just cuz i like a tv show... bullshit, your the one generalizing people here.... i mean jesus... i got lots of different types of friends, yeah some would be considered lads... but you (the thread maker) are way off with YOUR generalizations...

for instance, i like to go out for the weekend with my friends occasionaly, and yes i like to get shitfaced while i do it,suppose this makes me a lad? oh wait, my mobile phone is like 5 years old and i like baggy loose clothing so i cant be a lad??

one of my mates is really into football, he must be a lad.... wait a sec, he doesnt drink, AT ALL! so he cant be a lad...

another of my mates likes football, has the latest mobile phones all the time, likes to go out every weekend (when he is at home, he works on a fishing boat) so yeah he must be a lad.... oh shit wait, he's been in a relationship for about 2-3 years now so he cant be a lad.....

and we all like dirty sanchez cus it's a funny show, and all prefer a smoke to a drink despite liking goin out and having fun...... so dude, seriously you need to pull your head out your ass and stop generalizing people, try gettin to know someone before labelling them, twat.

[Reefer Rogue]

Safe my friends.

I hate to come across as someone who bitches about shit for no reason. Ain't no harm in being a thick lad, only as one user pointed out, we're the future. We're gonna be running shit in 10-20 years time. I don't see any sense in celebrating being a twat, not on such a scale as British ladism.

You know there's a double page column in Zoo magazine called 'Bed the zoo virgin'? A virgin sends in a naked photo of herself and 'studs' have to describe why they should be the one to bust her cherry. I don't want to seem old fashioned or anything, but that is the ultimate, dictionary definition of fucked in the head. :rasta:

That absolutely disgusts me.

[Wesley Pipes]

That absolutely disgusts me.

it disgusts me too man, but wait a minute!... doesn't that make B. Basher a "lad" for reading that magazine in the first place???

after all, he'd have to read that to know about the article :S2:

[B.Basher]

My girl bought it for me. It's partly the reason I made the thread.

And Wesley Pipes. The point of the thread is that the generalisation you speak of is made by the magazines I mentioned. It's a mass generalisation of what a cool lad should be, therefore it is accepted socially which I think is complete bullshit. Sorry for calling the not-so-stereotype of a lad a thickhead, but to be honest with ya, the majority of them I meet are. I went travelling around the world last year and the only twats I met happened to be British 'lads' in New Zealand. It was around the time the world cup was on (or perhaps the euro, I dunno) which hilariously took center stage in their lives. Meanwhile, the rest of us were climbing glaciers and taking tours down Milford Sound .

Anyway, the point is, relax, i'm not making a negative mass generalisation. I'm merely pointing out the one made by our countries so called men's mags, which celebrate something I deem to be rather immature and irresponsible. Doesn't spread a good image does it? Personally i'm happy to get along with anyone that won't generalise me first, but funnily enough a lot do, such is the curse of lad culture.

Cheers.

[Wesley Pipes]

by that post it sounds like you think you are in some way superiour to those types of guys who like football and drinking?...... now i personally can't stand football myself, the only time i would ever watch it would be when Scotland make the world cup final (so thats never) but just because someone is passionate about something you automatically stereotype them. Does that mean you think i'm a childish geek cuz i'm passionate about comics? (I have often been called that.)

[Nation_1ne]

B.Basher I certainly understand what you're saying mate, and see it for myself on a firsts hand basis. I know people who own night clubs, and bars and see plenty of these types of "lads". I even have mates who are into that sort of culture. It isn't a piece of me to be honest, and I don't think it's right either. There was something on the news not so long ago about drinking alcohol constantly being on the rise because of these sorts of people. Plus B.Basher don't just believe it's "just the guys" because trust me it isn't. Girls are just as bad, and actually I think statistics show that women are the biggest cause of this rise of binge drinking in the UK.

I personally hate club culture with a passion myself.

[Dr Chronic]

Knives crime is up Gun crime is Up gang culture is on the rise .. its tuff on the streets and you gotta get wise quick.. :rastasmoke: