Thugs are for amusement

Nothing makes me smile harder than 24 inch rims underneath an early seventies model car with about four 12 inch speakers in the trunk. You’ll see all my teeth if this work of automotive art is driven by a man with lots of gold in his mouth and unruly dreadlocks.

Does he sound like someone you know? Do I? Why do women like thugs?

An obvious answer is that we date men our parents are almost certain to disapprove. Thugs are usually the loudest and the most disruptive men around. Their lack of concern about school, legal employment and all things responsible make me laugh, but almost always make my mother cry.

Cosmopolitan magazine says that the allure of a bad boy is hard to resist, especially for women who are nurturers by nature. Happiness for these women is a man who is a bad boy in the street, but a baby in the house. In my experience, the allure comes in getting to know a thug based on what’s in his mind, not how many pairs of Girbaud jeans he owns.

One of my favorite people is considered a thug. He has all the usual thug trappings, i.e. gold teeth, a loud stereo and multiple children. More importantly though, he has a sharp mind. Once I was able to move past the thug exterior, more than a few things surprised me about him, such as the fact that he eats broccoli and religiously waters a plant his mother gave him. What makes him attractive to me is the person he is on the inside, not the person he portrays on the outside.

Realistically speaking, I’m fairly sure he’s not marriage material. But he is a constant source of amusement and one of the best friends I have. I am not ashamed of the fact that he’s not college educated and I will never hesitate to talk to him if I need a fresh perspective.

I was raised to never judge a book by its cover, and because of that I know a wide variety of people. Ladies, if you love thugs, don’t be embarrassed. Celebrate the fact that you are open minded. For the one or two thugs that would be caught reading a school newspaper, my email address is somewhere near the bottom of this page. Holla back.

Theresa Davis, 24, is a junior public relations student from Jacksonville. She can be reached at Theresa_e_davis@hotmail.com.