I Wanna Be Where The Girls Are

"I Wanna Be Where The Boys Are" is a song by The Runaways (a band I've gushed about in the past), sung by Joan Jett on their Live In Japan album from 1977. I'm not sure why it doesn't turn up on one of the bands' studio albums, because not only is it one of their best songs, but it reflects rather well the image of the band. These were teenage girls up on stage playing ballsy rock music - something that only boys were supposed to do at the time.

And so the song could stand for girl power - the band's statement that "hey, we're girls, but we can rock just as hard as boys can". But it could also reflect an element of gender bending. "You call me a girl, but why can't I act like a boy?" Joan Jett hasn't exactly been afraid to project the masculine side of her image through the years. And in my recent exploration of my own feminine side, I find myself relating to that quite a bit.

I feel that partly, I am a girl, at least in the sense that I appreciate things that are often more associated with femininity than masculinity. I also like girls, and I have the desire to hang around with them, to engage in the sorts of activities they engage in (as opposed to the activities boys engage in, like competitive sports). Every time I see evidence of the gender segregation that is entrenched in society (restrooms, dormitories, and even social cliques), it bothers me, and I feel disappointed that I can't join the girls on their side of the partition, just because I'm officially considered to be male. The range of behaviors people expect of me don't necessarily conform to the range of behaviors I'd like to exhibit, and when those don't match there's conflict (either in my head, if I conform, or in the heads of others, as they are exposed to my cultural transgression).

But there's another element to it, and it's somewhat more conventional. Despite the concerns I have over my gender identity, my sexuality is pretty clear cut - I'm attracted to girls. I have a driving biological need to approach and pursue hot girls - not just any girls, but those who are especially sexually appetizing. But it's not just a physical desire, it's a desire that invades my psychology as well. When I'm not hanging out with hot girls, I feel like I'm in the wrong place. When I am made particularly aware that there are specific hot girls out there in specific places doing specific activities, I feel depressed that I'm not a part of it.

I cope with these feelings mostly by either distracting myself with other activities, or tricking my mind by spending time looking at pictures of girls on the internet. I avoid going out where crowds of people congregate because I know the hot, social, popular girls will be there. And though seeing them makes me feel good, not being able to hang out with them tears at my heartstrings. And in the moments when I do think about the girl action that I'm missing out on (not strictly limited to sex, though that's included in the assortment of activities I'd like to share with hot girls), the void feels particularly relevant. I may never be rich, I may never be famous, but there's something about my need to interact with hot girls (I blame the procreative impulse) that makes it seem like it's more important than life itself, and that I could never forgive myself if I wasted my life without pursuing that need.

I don't know if other people have the same feeling, but in the absence of contradicting evidence, I tend to assume that they do. It's a feeling that's been particularly strong growing up, as an asocial kid who was never really popular and had a lot of friends - but most importantly, never got to hang out with the hot girls, going to parties and making out and things like that. Knowing that I've missed out on that gives me the feeling of a hot knife jammed into my heart. It's a feeling that has plagued me especially throughout my adolescence (though it neither began nor ended there).

I guess most unpopular kids either get over it, or learn to distract themselves from it. I know there's a difference between making out with a hot girl, and finding someone who is a true companion. And they're often not to be found in the same person. Yet part of me can't help thinking that a lot of people who never get the hot girls are settling for their less-than-hot wives. I don't mean to sound shallow, because I do recognize the importance of companionship. Maybe some people don't have as strong a drive for hotness as I do, and they can live with having the better of the two prizes (hotness versus companionship). But I, I am not content with just the one.

It's like the whole Saturday Night Heist thing I've talked about in the past, except focused on that primal desire of sexual attraction, rather than the need to be cool and have a good time. It's related, I'm sure, because there is a whole social aspect when I think about where hot girls congregate and what they do. And it may even ultimately be an illusion as well. Something that exists only on the outside. I worry about that. That even had I the chance to hang out with a hot girl, she'd quickly become uninteresting once I possessed her, and I'd start pining for the other ones I didn't already have.

Is that just the nature of the male sexual drive? To conquer and move on? I don't know, but even if so, it doesn't mean that I can't satisfy that desire in a way that doesn't hurt and treat girls as pieces of meat - except insofar as those girls are dedicated to chaste, monogamous relationships. But I'm getting ahead of myself. I just want to go out, and actually be liked by the hot girls, flirt with them, and make out with a few, maybe score on occasion. It's the kind of thing that sounds bad for the people who want it, yet the guys who get it tend to be admired for it. But it's this really strong drive that I have.

I've always used to think that I didn't deserve to be with the hot girls because I wasn't cool enough or popular enough, or simply not social enough. That I was the kind of guy that the hot girls didn't like as much, and wouldn't waste their time on. So my desire for hot girls had always been this thing that I could never have, no matter how badly I needed it. And the feeling has dogged me for a long time. I'm wondering now, though, that maybe the one thing that was stopping me the most, was myself. My lack of confidence, my fear, my anxiety. I hid, because I was afraid to be judged. I essentially prejudged myself, and didn't even give others a chance to judge me - even if it were the case that they would judge me poorly. But what if they judged me favorably? In that case, how much could I accomplish? Could I actually acquire the things I want most, that I never believed I'd actually have the chance to have? And how can I know if I don't try?

I wish change was as easy as realization, but habits die hard. Do you know hard it is to combat fear? To change - by sheer force of will - the way your mind has worked for your entire life? Especially when you don't even have any certainty a) that it will work, and b) that if it does work, it will get you what you want, after all. Even more so when you know that the process of change is extremely painful.

But I guess, as Einstein once said, it is foolish to expect different results from the same actions. Unless I change what I put into the equation, I'll never see a change in what comes out. And maybe what will come out will be bad, but it could be good - very good. I've even seen some evidence of that. So it comes down to taking a risk. The kind of thing I don't like to do. But I've gotta change the kind of person I am, somehow. There's a lot I like about me, but the most important things - it feels like there's a fundamental disquiet in the core of my being. As much as I have that I love, it's like there's something in there that I don't have, and it's important enough for me to sacrifice everything.

At least I hope it is. Because being willing to sacrifice everything for it is the only way to have the strength to grab for it and find out. God, I just wish I wasn't so afraid of things, things that don't even happen. I don't know where that fear came from. But it has to go away. I let fear keep me from the things I want in life. I know that fear is irrational. So I have to stop letting it get in the way between me and what I want.

And girls are the most scary - and most desirable - thing in all the world. I have to have them, but the only way to get them is to get over my fear.