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Recently in Salon People

Nothing Personal
Annette Bening: Once you start having on-screen sex, it isn't embarrassing anymore
The "American Beauty" star should share her on-screen sex tips with "The Sopranos'" Alicia Witt.
By Amy Reiter
[02/22/00]

Brilliant Careers
Cher
Locked forever in Teflon celebrity, the woman with the world's most beautiful armpits always gets the last laugh ... or so she says.
By Cintra Wilson
[02/22/00]

Nothing Personal
Buffy, butts, Binoche and brides
Has Sarah Michelle Gellar become a vamp naysayer? Billy bails! Can Ally McDeal? Gwyneth wants Juliette Binoche in the worst way; Extra! Extra! Put the seat down! Senate reporters forced to use coed loo. Plus: A chat with the shrink to TV's recently married moneybags.
By Amy Reiter
[02/19/00]

People Feature
A bod for sin
Jacqueline Tellalian has spent her life in a wheelchair. And she still doesn't understand why men see it as a mechanical monster that threatens their manliness.
By Jennifer Kornreich
[02/19/00]

People Feature
Liberté, Egalité, 36C
Why was a pneumatic Victoria's Secret model chosen as the embodiment of the French Republic?
By Debra Ollivier
[02/19/00]

Complete archives for People

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Consider the evidence: CBS's new "Late Late Show" with Craig Kilborn mines the tension between the host's vaguely lascivious guy-jokes and his self-consciousness about his hair. Jude Law's tan, beautiful Dickie in "The Talented Mr. Ripley" frolics abroad with his girlfriend and newfound male admirer on daddy's dime. Coke's newest campaign features a spot about well-toned college boys diving off a colossal waterfall. Ben Affleck appears on this month's People, identified as "part frat boy," an image that helped him and friend Matt Damon become the certified It Pair when "Good Will Hunting" was released. In Iowa, on caucus day, George W. Bush ripped off his jacket, stuffed his tie into his shirt and -- confident of his impending victory -- joined a pick-up basketball game, high-fiving the kids when he made a basket. What do men like Bush and Kilborn have in common? The same thing that these images -- from pop culture and politics, Middle America and magazines -- have to do with one other. They're indicators of our latest national obsession: the frat boy.

You can't put people as disparate as Bush and Kilborn in the same category without defining the criteria; yet -- although an exact definition remains elusive (actual fraternity affiliation is not a strict requirement) -- most people know a frat boy when they see one.

They're the men who can use gobs of hair-care products and fret about their clothes but still retain their masculinity and "guyness" in the eyes of their peers. They can jump into a pick-up basketball game with a group of strangers. They can gawk at and objectify women and still be considered endearing and cute. Frat boys take various forms, but what they all convey is the impression that comes from the right combination of physical traits and personality characteristics: striking good looks, inexplicable popularity, overt self-confidence, pervasive charm and just a hint of self-deprecation. An air of entitlement or wealth also helps define a frat boy, as does a certain proclivity toward aggressiveness. (That's not to say that frat boys are all rich, but they probably act like they're swimming in money. Nor are they all violent -- that's unquestionably not the case -- but unchecked machismo, which they exude in great quantities, can sometimes have its downside, from frat house hazing to incidents of date rape.) Does G.W. qualify as a frat boy? Yep. Steve Forbes? No way. Matthew McConaughey? Definitely. Jerry Seinfeld? Nope. And even when it's obvious, there are degrees of difference. For example, both of the men who have hosted Comedy Central's "Daily Show" (Jon Stewart, the current host, and Kilborn, who left to take over "The Late Late Show" from Tom Synder) give off that frat-boy vibe. Kilborn, however, is decidedly more obnoxious; his demeanor is much more drunk-and-hanging-out-at-the-house. Stewart's is a more reserved eating-dinner-with-the-boss-10-years-later air. Same holds true with President Clinton and George W.; both frat boys, but different approaches. The difference is academic.

So why has this image -- modeled on guys who exalt in drunken vomiting and nameless Saturday night conquests -- so captivated us? It's anyone's guess, really. Maybe it's an effort to dust off the "clean-cut" white boy and reinstate him as the linchpin of our society. Maybe it's part of a backlash against feminism and the civil and gay rights movements. Or maybe we're just becoming more comfortable with men's sexuality -- we've long fawned over images of youthful women, now it's the guy's turn. Whatever the reason, the look is everywhere.

During the latest season of "The Real World," MTV's long-running docu-experiment that features seven captive cast members "interacting" in a palatial house, Colin, 19, was, at first, rejected from the applicant pool. Later, he was invited to host the show's casting special, and his warm personality and easy banter led the producers to cast him after all. He showed up on the first episode of "The Real World: Hawaii" with a sharper haircut, better muscle definition and the attitude that the show belonged to him. Almost instantly, he became the season's heartthrob, capturing the hearts of male and female fans -- which was odd, because he was the most obnoxious of the seven cast members: arrogant, unctuous, even malicious.

Next page | He's come out of the show blazing ...