Recently I had a conversation with a boy, who I will call Granoopulus, for no reason other than the fact that I want to preserve his anonymity and I think it suits him, about the true meaning of “cracking a cold one with the boys”. When, at least I think of “cracking a cold one with the boys”, I think of WILD BRO CULTURE and frat bros in Animal House getting ridiculously drunk together and wreaking havoc on the world and being absurdly offensive to all non-white males.

However, I think that the idea of “cracking a cold one with the boys” is much more stigmatized and complicated than one would think. The more men that I meet here in NYC, the more faith that I have in the male population as a whole. One could also think that the act of cracking a cold one could defy gender roles and anyone could be a part of ‘the boys’ under the condition that they were all harmoniously drinking in unison. I never thought about this too deeply, since I think that the entire idea of calling drinking with friends “cracking a cold one” quite absurd, but that is besides the point. Granoopulus let me know that cracking a cold one with the boys is less of an action and more of a feeling of intense joy and catharticus that comes with cracking a beer with a bunch of your male-identifying friends.

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