I just read this article today in our local paper and thought that the chef David McMillan articulated very nicely a certain type of male bonding over shared existental vulnerabilities. McMillan is also an artist and family man in addition to successful entrepreneur. As our patriarchial society puts inordinate pressure on males to be soldiers who follow a preset guideline of identity in order to maintain the power of the status quo, with no room for expressing the physic pain and depression that are the symptoms of its falibility, it is logical to assume some male casualties will be involved in public acts of violence and many more in domestic violence or violence to the self. The role of addiction and suicide in all this can be found again and again with celebrities as is the case with Bourdain. McMillan is still living with what Bourdain was living with and his telling of the story of their friendship sheds light on this hidden aspect of contemporary masculinity.
2018-06-12