Thursday Stylin': an extra-cynical critique

The Times ran a lengthy article on Thursday about cagefighting between troubled men in the rural Midwest. When I read it online, I assumed that it was part of Thursday Styles. It had all the hallmarks: It was about a bizarre trend (entertaining crowds with brutal fistfights) with a commercial hook (these fights occur at bars and have business sponsors). It had descriptions about health and fashion. ("His ponytail is graying, his tattooed torso beginning to sag.") The article predicts that cage fighting may be the next big thing. (To quote: As he sees it, cage fighting is poised to take off in Sioux Falls. "You know what we got? We got a bunch of bars and a state park," he said. "This is good.") I wondered whether this activity had caught on yet in my hometown.

The article wasn't in the Styles section. The Styles Section is exclusively for extremely rich people with frivolous tastes. Today's Styles section included articles about the popularity of boots and expensive custom-fit jeans. It's typically disgusting.

This post isn't arguing that there's any merit when a story is placed in the Styles section, or that cage fighting should be considered trendy. But it's one of those small editorial moments that shows the Times's skewed view of the world. In the news section, there's an article about the popularity of drunken violence in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; these people would brutalize the denizens of the meditation-promoting skin therapists in the latest inane Styles section article. I'm sure they're wearing boots and jeans in South Dakota, too, but not the kind that Alex Kuzynski endorses. If there's anything proved by comparing the Styles section to the article about cage fighting, it's that one man's crazed, redneck brutality is another man's idea of a hip, trendy night on the town.

The cage fighting article did not make me sentimental for the Midwest. But compared to that article, this week's Thursday Styles brought to mind the party at the start of The Masque of the Red Death.