Is displaying your stomach a new type of thug posturing?
I run every day in this subdivision behind my house. It’s a rather nice neighborhood, but it is populated by 4 or 5 teenage hoodrat wannabees who I occasionally see out and about, but they’ve never paid much mind to me until today.
I had just finished a sprint and I was reducing my pace to a jog when a car whooshed by me with the distinct smell of mary j wafting from the windows. The car stopped in a driveway a dozen yards ahead of me, and two of the aforementioned hoodrats stepped out and aggressively and immediately flipped up their shirts and held them up to display their stomachs. They both grinned widely, their faux grills glinting in the afternoon sun. One of them said “what it do, playa.”
I kept jogging, and when I got home, I began to ponder the peculiarity of this display. I realized that I had seen a similar display with a thuggish student I go to school with. Google returns no results, and I’m wondering what this means. Is it a greeting? A challenge? Enlighten me, Fluther.
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I saw a friend’s boyfriend do that the other day in my house.I thought he was a doofus and my husband said if he saw him posturing like that again,he would kick his @ss out.
I didn’t think anything of it other than a 17 year old boy with no manners.Now,you have me wondering.
I’m not surprised. It’s probably a new thing, but what’s so intimidating about a couple of mall rat stomachs? Lol. I’d rather flex my arms and shoulder muscles to intimidate instead.
I don’t know why a lot of guys do that. I can’t stand it when I pass by a gym where I go swimming all the time, and I always see these “jocks” primping themselves in front of a big mirror on the wall and pumping their bodies vainly. And they look around to see if anyone is noticing them. Yeech..!
There’s no need to flaunt it when you got it. Their muscles are as big as their heads.
You can tell I can’t stand big-headed, gung-ho jocks. lol
Step aside everyone, I’m a black man, so I have extensive knowledge of this thug posturing these hoodlums engage in.
I actually dont know, either. It’s obviously posturing of some kind, but I don’t know what it’s supposed to display. All I know is that in gangster movies, one would lift up their shirt to reveal the gun in their pants when an argument was getting out of hand.
They’re probably just running low on body parts that haven’t gone out of style.
@Blackberry This kid lifted up his shirt to display his baby fat.I guess that’s just how he rolls.
@lucillelucillelucille lol, it’s funny you should have the same experience. I guess that proves it wasn’t just a one-off thing, then.
@MRSHINYSHOES these guys were pretty ripped, but they failed hard if they were trying to be intimidating, seeing as both of them were a full head shorter than me.
@Blackberry first of all, I lol’d hard. Secondly, one of the guys was white and the other was Latino. A gun was my first thought as well, but I didn’t see anything other than their sparkly abs and nearly fully exposed underwear.
@incendiary_dan lolololololololol
Maybe it evolved from people slyly showing they had a pistol in their pants, a la Charlie from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and then was misinterpreted by some retarded teenagers.
I’m sorry, @Blackberry , but you’ll have to work a lot harder to convince me of your gangsta leanings, I’m just an old white clueless chick who doesn’t get it.
And @Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard, are you sure they weren’t just old white clueless chicks who didn’t get it? I have issues sometimes with my cheap Target T-shirts.
It sounds like what male gorillas do when they are feeling challenged…pound on their chest. From your description, it sounds less intimidating and more like the example in this video.
@Blackberry Thank goodness I wasn’t sipping a soda when I read your post. Thanks for the laugh!
I always assumed that it was to give a glimpse of a weapon tucked in the waistband.
Honestly, that’s the most confusing thing I’ve ever heard of in my life.
::head desk:: Seriously? This is a Thing now? What was wrong with men who lift up their shirts in front of women in the hopes that it will make us want to bang them more? Because it does… But this new stuff, not so much.
I have never encountered that. They probably copied it from a movie where some “gangbangers” lift up their shirt to reveal a concealed weapon tucked in their pants as @ANef_is_Enuf said.
It’s the mating gesture of today’s hoodrats. Good thing you ran ;)
If I ever saw that it wiuld be an invitation to have my hand tatooed across that belly! Let em know the true meaning of pink belly!
I am sorry @Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard, I am sure it wasn’t funny to you being there, but reading it made me laugh. How damn bizarre! I will now read the other responses but I can’t really explain this weird, male posturing thing. Odd.
Maybe they were showing that they were unarmed.
I’m trying to parse the baffling utterance “what it do, playa” and having no success. Any idea what the words mean, either literally or as a message?
you wouldn’t have thought it was weird if a girl did it, would ya?
It took awhile to get to @filmfann‘s answer, but I think that’s it. It’s the new method to show lack of intent to rob or kill you, showing you that they’re unarmed, because, of course, everyone who would carry a concealed weapon would do that in the beltline of their baggy pants hanging to around mid-thigh.
They were trying to be friendly. Word.
@Jeruba I think it just means, “How’s it goin’” But it could also mean, “Do you want to start a fight?” or “What is your problem?”
Now I know what to do the next time someone calls me Jennifer Aniston. ;)
@Jeruba According to UrbanDictionary (whom I feel is rather surprisingly reliable for this type of what-the-fuckery), “The phrase “What it do” is colloquial speech for the English expressions “How are you doing today” or “Hello, what is going on?” It is also used as a rhetorical question, often clarifying, or re-emphasizing what was just acknowledged”. Given the “playa” and the shirt-lift, I feel this may have been an unusually sarcastic greeting. There are many moments that make me feel pride in my generation. This is not one of those moments.
@jaytkay nope, my stomach was covered.
@Bellatrix I thought it was funny too. I definitely wasn’t intimidated by them in any way. I’m more curious than anything, as someone who greets people by shaking hands and speaking intelligible English.
…maybe they were really, really high?
:-| Thank you @Aethelflaed for the translation. Shaking head…
It’s right up there with saggy pants! Right @Blackberry (you bein the expert and all!)
Perhaps they were hoping you would teach them how to Dougie?
@Blackberry, you have saggy pants? Who would have thought it :D
@redfeather that was probably it. The dougie takes skill. ;)
@redfeather I don’t know about the Dougie, but I would have gladly educated them in the ways of the Stanky Leg, if they so inquired. I would even show them new techniques in Supa soaking hos if they wanted.
@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard ah yes. The “supa soaking of hos” would have been an excellent icebreaker with the young gentlemen! Maybe, if you see them again, you can mix in a little 2 step?
I totally have the 2 step remix on my iPod. When Im at the gym I always have to fight yelling “shinin like a chandelier, diamonds up in my ear!”
I’m intrigues as well because as I was walking in the mall the other week, there was this skinny tall black guy walking around with his shirt rolled up exposing his stomach. And he just left it like that. I wondered why as well considering he looked like a fool, and while skinny and had a flat stomach, it was no good show as it more like looking at an emaciated person than a toned, ripped 6 pack
Also, it’s good practice for when they are begging on freeway exits.
The ones with no belly fat usually get more hand outs.
@Blackberry “Step aside everyone, I’m a black man, so I have extensive knowledge of this thug posturing these hoodlums engage in.”
I snorted so loud when I read that I startled my cat! I may have peed just a little too!
The gesture may be new, but the intent is not. It was a challenge, a provocation. Although they’re probably harmless, you did good to mind your own business and go on with what you were doing. A lot of would be hazardous situations are often presented with what may seem like friendly banter.
But maybe that wasn’t it at all. Maybe they were just saying hi, in some fucked up way. However, the way you describe these dudes indicates to me that, probably, they were looking to start some kinda shit. I’ve never heard of showing one’s stomach before. Were they built? Even if they were not, that there was more than one guy doing this seems to overrule that.
If you see one guy on his own do that to you, run like mad…XD
That does remind me though…a few years back I was at this bar, and this tall skinny guy got into an argument with a really fat guy. The fat dude started…making barking sounds at the skinny guy. I mean he wouldn’t stop. It was fuckin creepy, but not in the way that big guy hoped.
Anyways, random. XD
@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard
“Either way, trying to frighten me with a gun is a huge mistake, considering I’m probably more well-armed than any tough guy thug these guys could dream of being.”
Do you pack heat on your runs?
@Blackberry
“Step aside everyone, I’m a black man, so I have extensive knowledge of this thug posturing these hoodlums engage in.”
That’s worthy of Seinfeld, The Naked Gun, and/or Maher.
So…what would have happened if they’d done this to me, and I had just stopped where I was, looked at them, and asked: “What does that mean?”
They were hitting on you & because of their debilitating shyness, found a clumsy method by which to illustrate their affections. “What it do, playa” loosely translated as “I’m aroused by the sweat dripping from your body, please kiss me!”
Bless their little cotton socks ;¬}
Having recently witnessed a dominance exchange between two dogs, it occurs to me that showing the belly is a gesture of submission for most animals. Therefore, @Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard , I can only assume that you were supremely intimidating and those guys are now your minions.
@Brian1946 nope, I can’t afford the carry permit fee right now, and that shit is really heavy.
@Jeruba they would have probably sauntered up to you and said something along the lines of “ain’t no thang but a chicken wang, shea homes, I is who I is and I be who I be, nyowaisayin’, is you is or is you ain’t, playa?” An incorrect response would have certainly led to you being murdered.
@ucme I can’t say I blame them. I am the perfect piece of ass after all.
@JilltheTooth, perhaps if I see them again, I’ll pee all over them and see what happens.
@incendiary_dan what kind is it? I was planning on getting either a Makarov and/or a Keltec P3AT at some point…
I forget the make, but I believe it had the S&W logo on it. It holds no more than 8 rounds I think. It’s so small it fits in his back pocket and prints only like a moderately thick wallet. Feels like it weighs about a pound or less when loaded. Of course when he qualifies for his carry permit, he does the test with his 1911. That thing is a beast.
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