#lars can we pls skype i have a lot of questions abt your teenage years

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(dave & lars anon) why must u remind me of the big 4 bts video ... i admittedly think about it A Lot bc lars was like dave wtf there's a camera (uneasy chuckle) and dave was just like whoops! ran my mouth :) and YEAH I've never really thought about the cultural differences before but since u brought it up I'm really fired up(tm) now! head empty only thoughts about babytallica dave and lars 🙈🙉🙊 also could u elaborate on lars and compulsory masculinity?

me (in the most unconvincing tone): wow i can't believe u guys are making me do this

jdjdjdj YEAH honestly that entire DVD is honestly just like ..... a lot all around. anthrax fucking around like idiots, that guy crying into tom araya's shirt, ellefson's triumphant return from his vacation with peavey, lars and dave being awkward & weirdly fucking touchy.... much to consider. many things to think.

the cultural differences thing is also smth i get hung up on all the time bc like... my family is dansk/canadian & i see a lot of the same cultural differences & mannerisms in baby lars & i just ?? i think abt it a lot! i think abt him describing his first few years in america and how different it would have been from copenhagen/københavn.

that part also ties into my speculations about compulsory masculinity bc like.... shit just works differently in danmark. boys are typically taught to pitch in with household chores, to share child rearing duties, and to generally just be mindful of other people. it's really common for a man to wait for a woman to make the first move and to split the bill on dates, etc. like ..... there's typically a lot more direct communication involved (like Very direct lmao) & a lot less importance on machismo/posturing/dominance. which. would definitely pose a very different dynamic when entering into a bunch of new friendships w people who share almost none of those same values.

cuz like...... if u try to imagine that, and then try to imagine moving to the states as a teenager & having to adjust to a whole new set of gender role expectations ...??? Yeah. Hmm. obviously lars was a well-adjusted kid by that point (cuz torben was flying him around the world, he traveled around europe a lot, etc), but it's still no wonder why he and james didn't quite click at first. lars was, by all accounts, more of an openly emotional, touchy-feely guy, & that kind of male/male tenderness would Not have flown the same way it did back home.

no hate on james ofc, but he obviously had many major issues surrounding that kind of stuff (homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, using lars as a punching bag, u name it), as did dave. so. if that's who lars was hanging out with when he was ~20 years old in the 1980s, in california, jumping headfirst into the music industry, that shit probably all played a part in shaping his perceptions of masculinity. it definitely doesn't surprise me that he basically became like.... The Smarmiest Womanizer In Rock or whatever, with all the conflated groupie stories, etc. (....which are all in good fun tbh, i love reading ‘em. hell yeah)

even with all of the "performative gay behaviour" in the press circuit c.AJFA/TBA/Load/Re-Load (yknow.... the endless crotch grabs, touching tongues, remarks about kirk's sexuality, etc.), that’s essentially all it seemed like to me: ~performance~. & even if there was a kernel of truth in there somewhere (i ain’t the sexuality police bro), it's always looked to me as though he was being very careful to stand right on the brink of audacious and annoying.

like.... it all comes back to the "aw yeah, this is fun cuz we're doing it to goof off and dunk on stupid homophobes, look at me touching kirk's dick, look how much of a homo kirk is, let me tell you about how Jason is gay and how i think James secretly likes men" thing. yknow ??? that was a really strange evolution of many conflicting behaviours. TBPC, i'd say lars is for sure an openminded kind of guy who has zero issues with the queer community etc. it’s just vaguely strange to me how he ended up falling into such a bizarre pattern of Earnest Support Mixed With Gross Straight Behaviour Mixed With Gay Jokes Taken A Little Too Far, and i wonder if he ever stopped to think twice about it.