The Jessica Journals:

As should be evident to those who read my blog even infrequently, I consider myself first and foremost an entertainer and secondly an educator. However, there is a third role I occasionally take for myself--that of cultural anthropologist. In that third and less frequent capacity, I come before you today, for I have but recently noticed the beginnings of a new and interesting cultural phenomenon--that of young, heterosexual, American men desiring to date and/or become Barry Pepper.

Yes, I was no more surprised than you when I noticed the first rumblings which hailed the formation of this trend, and yet, in the days which followed, I received enough evidence to make me believe that this is indeed genuinely occurring.

In response to my January 9th 2005 entry a young man wrote:

I love the Barry Pepper picture. I want to be him when I grow up.

Also, the Michael Moore/O'reilly (sic) debate was like two kids fighting over a toy. It was the most repetitive piece of CRAP that I have ever read, and it just went nowhere!

Also, I find it funny that altho (sic) Moore agreed to debate O'reilly (sic), he wouldn’t face Hannity at a college.

If that were the only comment it would, I admit, be uncompelling evidence, but if we go back to the end of last year and the comment that was made on my Queen of the Damned/Fahrenheit 9-11 review we see a more complete picture emerging.

Barry Pepper is hott (sic) - I wish I was a girl so I could date him.

Nice review, I think that Travolta should have played a prominate (sic) role in F:9-11.

There is no doubt in my mind that this is the beginning of a trend, and I am now left to wonder how it first began. Is this a result merely of Barry Pepper’s considerable charisma and gravitas? Or did other people or other cultural trends serve as some sort of catalyst for the formation of the now emerging Barry-Pepper-filia? I have given the matter much thought and now believe that there are four (4) relevant questions that need to be asked--anyone of which, if answered affirmatively, could result in a solution to the main question of causality.

1. Are the young men of today gay?

It is certainly a possibility that the claimed desire to become a girl so that a relationship with Barry Pepper could commence is only a mask to make the genuine male-on-male lust more acceptable both socially and personally.

2. Are the beautiful girls of today physically unappealing to men?

In a culture that routinely proclaims the beauty of Cameron Diaz and Sarah Jessica Parker, are the young men becoming so starved for genuine feminine pulchritude that they are turning to Barry Pepper?

3. Are young men reacting to the forced feminization they have endured at the hands of modern society?

In past ages, men were hunters and warriors. They were strong, sweaty, hairy, and smelly. The more things they broke the more honor they received. In this day and age, however, they are forced to shave, bathe, and dress in more than leather loin-cloths. Could it be that young men are rebelling against this forced passivity and are looking to Barry Pepper as the archetype of all they wish to become? Do they view him as a man beneath whose feminine exterior lurks the feral nature of a howling, taut-muscled, long-haired, freedom-fighting man-animal?

4. Is Michael Moore’s intense lack of appeal (both physically and intellectually) causing the young men of America to run and seek solace in the arms and/or being of Barry Pepper?

I think it no coincidence that the adoration of Barry Pepper shows up in comments that also derisively mention either Michael Moore or Moore’s mind-numbing creation. It seems in the realm of possibility that young men who are repulsed by Moore’s fleshly obesity and mental flatulence would flee to a man who has a chiseled face and sculpted body and also possesses the mental ability to solve advanced level Euclidean geometry equations and hot wire 1000 year old nuclear warheads.

I myself have yet to reach a conclusion for any of the above stated questions, but I continue to ponder their solutions and enjoin you to also bend your minds around the problem. Perhaps together we can solve the mystery of the sudden desire our young men have to either love or become Barry Pepper. Or, perhaps, the answer is far less intellectual; maybe Barry Pepper is just plain sexy.