All We Are Saying Is Give What a Chance?

I saw a video featuring the band Yellowcard the other day and the theme rang a bell: Boy takes political action in order to get laid.

It showed a young attractive couple who seem to be have decided to spend their first date at an anti-war march. The boyfriend even takes a daisy from a hyped-up National Guard's automatic weapon and gives it to his date. Cute, right?

Well, besides filling me to the brim with uncute feelings, it also reminded me of the years I spent trying to be part of co-ed political action groups in high school and college. Girls who did that sort of thing, especially the pinko girls, may have imagined their male counter-parts as potentially cool guys, but I found that often enough, that wasn't the case. Able to talk about feminist theory or not, these guys assessed you at the door: coffee/banner-maker or potential tiger-in-bed. AND if you showed up already someone else's political-action-girlfriend, then that meant you were pretty much invisible.

The end of the video featured a particularly poorly chosen reference to Tiananmen Square. Instead of that lone courageous man who stood defiantly in front of the tank, it was our couple-in-heat who were recreating the scene for us. The only thing I could think of was how relieved I was that their backs were to the camera -- because I'm sure he was copping a feel.