A recent thankfully permanently departed girlfriend called me a hardass. I was staying with her for a few weeks and she looked over and me one night and shrugged and said, “You’re just an old hardass. That’s all you are. You don’t care. You act like you don’t care.”Other than the “don’t care” part, which is disturbing but I guess is part and parcel of FTW, I am wondering about this hardass word.
I didn’t really know what to say to that because my personal self-image is that I am a great big gigantic pussy (at best – you really do not know what my self-image is at my worst). I could not believe my ears. Me? The pussiest of pussies? A hardass? WTH.
What the Hell does this word mean anyway? I have never heard it used that much before, especially in a positive light. I have only heard it used in a negative light, like, “That Drill Sergeant sure is a hardass. That cop was just a hardass. My boss is a hardass!” It seems to be a euphemism for “asshole.”
But there must be more to it than that.
Does it have any relationship to masculinity? The definitions I am reading seem to imply that being a hardass is on the far end of ultramasculinity or hypermasculinity. Which is fine by me. I don’t see why anything masculine is bad, as long as it doesn’t kill me.I’d rather be a hardass than a wuss or a faggot. There are worse things in life you know.
Everything masculine is good, everything pussy and wussy is shit. Masculine gets you everywhere, wussy leads you only to an eternal world of shit.
That’s pretty much what I have learned in 57 years. Actually that is a pretty damn sad statement, isn’t it? Especially considering that I actually like some wussy stuff.
