Tucker Max: Men's Response to SATC?

Perhaps you've heard of Tucker Max. Tucker started off as a blogger, posting (even I have to admit) hilarious stories of his adventures involving partying and hooking up with girls. Long story short, he has grown into a minor celebrity who published a book, I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell, containing his stories. Now, a movie with the same name is in the works. His main appeal, it seems, is that he makes no apologies for his dickish behavior and fully admits to every label I, and countless other ladies, have thrown his way. Note the introduction to his website:

My name is Tucker Max, and I am an asshole.

I get excessively drunk at inappropriate times, disregard social norms, indulge every whim, ignore the consequences of my actions, mock idiots and posers, sleep with more women than is safe or reasonable, and just generally act like a raging dickhead.

As a college-aged female, I see him as the prototype of male douchebaggery; extremely degrading to women, a complete player and a drunken asshole with an inflated head the size of the planet, all without even the good looks to excuse him for it. For my male counterparts, he is a god, the epitome of how guys strive to spend their days: partying and sleeping with tons of different women without having to waste a breath on common decency.

I was appalled to find how popular and praised he had become. Sure it was fine for him to garner a dedicated online following, but when he started getting book deals and movies out of it I kept waiting for someone to say something, to stop him, to point out that this isn't the type of guy who should be a role model.

Recently he responded to a similar subject on his forum, where he discussed that he wasn't responsible for creating a subculture of men who like to drink and have sex but has just become the embodiment of it because it always existed. Much like Sex and the City did not change the lives of women, but became a symbol for those who already had that lifestyle or were trying to attain it.

That's when I got to thinking (because nothing gets me thinking like a reference to Sex and the City), perhaps Tucker Max and the ladies of the show aren't so different after all.

Sex and the City was such a beloved show because it embraced female sexuality, brought it to the mainstream, and made it publicly acceptable for women to act like men: as in have casual sex, go out to parties, have flings instead of relationships etc. It celebrated the equality of the sexes that women had worked so hard for. But, instead, the Sex and the City generation came to expect that, now that women had sex like men, men weren't allowed to have sex like men anymore, because it was still demeaning and cruel to women. The show broke the double standard that only men could sleep around, yet created a new one in its wake.

I still think that Tucker Max is an asshole, I'm pretty sure nothing will change my mind about that, but the hard truth is that if we idolize Samantha Jones because we're fighting for equal rights, we must therefore also accept that Tucker Max is idolized by men, for the same reasons. We have to end the double standards separating the sexes. I'm not advocating for slutty behavior from either side, but if one group's "allowed" to act that way and be praised for it, then in all fairness the other side must be "allowed" to behave the same way.