What, Exactly, is a Man-Child?
Around 1 a.m. last night, after spending a few hours cruising blogs and watching YouTube cycling videos, I found myself up against it and hastily wrote a post about Redfin’s stunning new release that referred to developer Robert Gay as a “man-child.”
What I meant by this was a compliment: that, at the tender age of 22 21, Robert must still be somewhat like a child physically (he is larger than I am but how much of that is baby-fat, and baby-muscle, and big baby bones?), but that he codes like a MAN.
Some concerned friends of Robert approached me with what Urban Dictionary said I meant:
A man child is a male who is over the age of 25, who still lives as though he is a juvenile. Many man-children are not gainfully employed, and survive off of the financial support of their enabling parents. Heavy video-game addiction to fantasy games such as World of Warcraft are key to the man-child.
This, to me, also seems like a compliment.
A secondary definition is a common moniker for the “Black Jesus,” Amare Stoudemire, starting center for the Phoenix Suns. This is definitely a compliment. What does man-child mean to you? Would it have been more precise to call Robert a child-man? He is, in any event, a total star, precocious yet powerful like Amare, if Amare played D…
[Post-script: Google really is incredible... only 24 minutes after we published this post, a Google search on "young gay man-child" turns up Robert on page one. "Kinky masochist" turns up Redfin statistician Mose Andre.]
