The Code
We’re gonna be a little short on the visuals Chez Mad Dog today because certain things must be kept secret, this being the holiday season and all. But my secret project has taught me a lesson. I think. Perhaps a little more on that later in the week…
Bracketing that for a moment, here’s what you can see:
This is the start of a new hat for Alex in Malabrigo’s “Vaa” colorway, shown here with his holiday socks because he had originally requested that the hat harmonize with these socks. An attempt was made and the illusion of its success, as you may have already surmised, rides heavily on the fact that one’s head is very far from one’s feet.
Because indeed, the “Vaa” hat is just a tad more—how shall we say?—reminiscent of military drills and jungle combat than are the Trekking XXL socks. Sir, yes, sir. But most importantly, there is nothing “unmanly” about this colorway, and that is a critical consideration, as it turns out. Particularly for a hat, which everyone can plainly see, sitting right there on your head! Fascinatingly, Alex, like many men, has a finely honed sensibility about what is and is not a “manly” color, despite the fact that one of the many delightful things about Alex is that he has almost no hang-ups whatsoever about his masculinity.
There is clearly an “American Male System of Manly Color Recognition” (AMSMCR) involved, but I must admit that as a woman, I find the criteria completely opaque. Come to think of it, if you squint at that acronym just the right way for long enough, it suggests “Am screwed.” Which is about right. I often mistake an unacceptable color for an acceptable one, and vice versa.
I’ll pick a ball of yarn in a color that I think fairly screams “testosterone” and say, “How would this yarn in the ‘Mack Truck’ colorway do for a hat?”
He’ll give me a stricken look, as though I had just quite soberly suggested that he should go about town in a bonnet trimmed in white bunny fur with a matching muff, and say, “Oh. Oh no. I would never wear that.”
Then again, the Trekking XXL socks under discussion are in a set of colors that I thought would never fly because they would be deemed “too bright.” To my immense surprise, the ruling was favorable, but Alex later explained that because the yarn was for socks, which are not often fully visible, and because he foresaw wearing said socks mostly at home for warmth in the evenings, certain otherwise inviolable color rules could be relaxed. Due to various specific contingencies, you see, that if you fully understood AMSMCR, you could have easily predicted.
One thing about AMSMCR, it keeps you on your toes!
It seems worth observing that since no woman I know really understands AMSMCR, these color rules are actually a “code of the road” men have for dealing with and signalling certain things to other men. I understand from Alex that men have a vast, unwritten code for dealing with one another in public toilets as well, the intricacies of which are astoundingly complex. Though I cannot be sure, I have a feeling that this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the byzantine implicit rules men live by in order to keep the homosocial sector of their worlds running smoothly.
This positively dizzying prospect makes me realize once again that the social construction of gender is no laughing matter. I mean, I think we all know that in many ways it is not that easy to be a woman in this society, but when you really think about it, masculinity ain’t exactly a cake walk either. These guys have a lot on their minds! They are preoccupied with the need for strict adherence to the complexities of The Code.
Perhaps this explains why so many of them can’t see dirt.
December 12th, 2006 at 7:45 pm
Well, that depends. How thick is the dirt? 😉
That Malabrigo is wonderful!!
December 12th, 2006 at 8:21 pm
I think it’s a North American male color code. The further north you go, the worse it gets! The Yarn Harlot had a posting on that same subject (or maybe it was in one of her books). My DH is the same way, although I’m pretty sure that those socks would be way too bright for him. The only bright color permitted is the red in a flannel shirt and the red of his truck!
December 12th, 2006 at 8:58 pm
Yes, OH, yes there is a code and it seems that the gay gene automatically cancels out the ability to understand that code. Don’t even get me started on the Urinal Code. It is exactly this reason the I prefer the use of a stall for all activities bathroom. No need to worry about code violations and their subsequent consequences.
But it is amazing how far away in color those two yarns are. They looked pretty close when you chose them. Hmmm…the mysteries of Malabrigo.
December 12th, 2006 at 9:09 pm
thank you, ellen, for shedding a little light on the AMSMCR. i have never attempted to test it, having only knit in the most boring colors possible for adult males. (oatmeal? brown? charcoal? yes. anything variegated? too risky!) this is the cool thing about males of the child variety. they dig bright colors. when my younger son first requested socks, i asked him what color he wanted. his first answer was “red” followed swiftly by an enthusiastic “lavender!” look, i’m all for busting gender stereotyping, but i did put the ix-nay on lavender socks for the boy. there was no way i was going to spend good yarn money on lavender plymouth encore.
December 12th, 2006 at 10:57 pm
I think my brother is an anomaly. When he was in high school, he had the nickname ‘Lighthouse’, due to two flurorescent shirts he’d wear on non-uniform days. (Catholic school, ’nuff said.) One was lime green, the other road-cone orange. He’d swap those out on the infrequent days they were allowed out of uniform, and – this is the important thing – didn’t get beat up. In the early 60’s. Mom knit him a bright sky blue and white intarsia sweater with other bright colors scattered in with some stranded work, and he happily wore that – in public – until it fell apart. When I asked him what colors would be acceptable for the socks and chemo hats I’d be knitting him, and showed him some sample pix of wildly variegated hand-painted sock yarns…with bright colors, yet…he said any color was fine, and they all looked great. When he and his wife visited, he loved both the first sock in progress, in manly-but-variegated blues, but also the one in much brighter autumny reds, browns, and greens. And he’s not gay.
Do I have an alien for a brother???
Anyway… 😉 The hat’s looking great, and hey! Look! We’ve discovered what the mysterious gift is supposed to be! It’s an elegant artistic prop for knit photography!
December 13th, 2006 at 3:33 am
I was thinking about something today in a meeting, then your post brought it up for me again. Why, when we mean that something is completely visible, do we say it’s transparent, and when we mean it’s impossible to see, we say it’s opaque? Aren’t transparent things hard to see, since they’re, well, clear? And aren’t opaque things completely visible, so visible that they obscure the things behind them? Does anyone understand how these two words came to mean their opposites?
Oh, and the color, very manly, I think, but then again, I don’t know the amscrewed code either.
Other random thoughts – if you look up the Wikipedia entry on “Byzantine” one discovers much unanticipated conflict of opinion. Who knew that the topic inspired such passion, even to this very day? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derogatory_use_of_%22Byzantine%22
Though I have never met Alex, I am amused at the idea of him in a bunny fur trimmed bonnet.
December 13th, 2006 at 11:34 am
I love the Vaa colorway! It’s great to know that men also appreciate it.
I’ve been lucky with my boyfriend. He prefers the brighter colors… abergine or avacado instead of brown or black. But he still doesn’t see dirt 😉
August 27th, 2007 at 8:03 pm
[…] After I finish these, I plan on starting a pair for my friend H., whom I have promised a pair of socks for winter. (Practically as soon as I told him that, he started asking me, “How are my socks coming?”) Of course, they will be in subdued and masculine colors, appropriate to his manly pride. (See here and here.) Fortunately, I did not have to go through the entire and dreaded “interview” for the proposed socks, just gave him two balls of yarn from which to choose. […]