Can we just talk about being in love with awkward fictional characters?

I promise, this is a real thing. Not only is it a thing, it's a widespread problem that our society is advocating. Maggie is freaking obsessed with them. It's like  all of the sudden, we as a culture have decided to make awkward cool. You think I'm joking? Ok, I'll prove it.

Example A: In 1999, society met their first awkward boy in one of my favorite movies of ALL TIME, 10 Things I Hate About You. No, I don't mean the love of my life, Heath Ledger. I would assume we can all agree, Heath is not awkward in any way shape or form. His shape and form are excellent. No, I'm talking about his costar's character: Joseph Gordon-Levit's portrayal of cute little Cameron. Y'all, I'm not talking about Hot Joseph Gordon-Levit that made all of us swoon in 500 Days (another movie with an awkward boy) or Inception (but really, the suits, people!), but pre-hot, pre-famous, pre-smooth Joseph. Cameron is the bumbling, unpopular, new kid who gets love-struck by a popular little princess. From the get-go, we ALL want Cameron, not Joey Donner, to get the girl. Why? Honestly, I think it has way more to do with the fact that we all kind of hate Joey Donner..

Example B: In 2003, the first awkward heartthrob came on the TV scene in a trashy (and I mean that in the most loving way possible) teen show known as The O.C. Seth Cohen. Oh Seth Cohen, how we love you. Seth was the eternal outcast, a pale, comic book reading, Death Cab listening, video gaming dork in a Southern California land of tanned water polo stars and rich and famous lifestyles (cue the Good Charlotte theme song). Seth had a bashful, self-depricating disposition that really shouldn't have been ANY kind of attractive, but no. His sarcastic wit and boyish charms made him the boy of Maggie's dreams. Literally. On top of that, no matter what how many shades of annoying Valley-Girl-Summer-Roberts splashes all over the screen, Seth is forever in love with this one superficial girl. He's faithful. Painfully so, continually prostrating himself at her feet, and she finds him irresistible. The kid has a toy horse that he talks to, but the female population overlooks that because of his humor. What? Maggie is sitting next to me while I type saying things like, "...cause he's adorable!" See my point? This make no sense people!!

Example C: In 2012 a singing awkward boy made became the latest obsession of all of my awkward loving friends (they exist. Why, you ask? I don't understand it either). When Skylar Astin played Jesse in Pitch Perfect, it was all kinds of uncomfortable. He's socially uncomfortable, he's a bit of a puppy dog, and he's completely unapologetic about his awkwardness. Y'all, This boy brings juice pouches and Rocky on a date. He's the boy who sat in the back of your 7th grade band practice and composed his own musical masterpiece on his trumpet for the short film he was working on. But it doesn't matter, he's the guy of Maggie's dreams.

Ok, so now that I've shown you a couple of pictures of the type of men I think America likes to glorify, I would like to let you know why I have
a hard time relating to loving these boys. First of all, I like manly men. I like guys who look like they just walked out of the mountains or got off the back of a horse. I like facial hair. Not annoying ironic hipster mustaches, REAL facial scruff. I like guys who can hold their own in a fight. I like men who have no idea what the latest social media trend is. I love men who drink their coffee black, not because they want to look cool in a coffee shop, but because they don't like to fuss with all the sugar and cream in frilly drinks. I like farm boys and mountain men and guys who watch sports. I like a man who's first instinct is to kiss me, not to deconstruct my outfit (trust me, it happens.). Maggie calls the guys I'm typically attracted to, "Men of the Mountain Persuasion".

Now, I'm not saying my tastes in men is better than other girls, and I'm sure other girls think I'm selling sensitive guys short, but MAN y'all! I just wanna yell, "Dude, grow a backbone! Man UP! Dig deep and find some confidence."

Maybe that's the issue. Maybe it's all about confidence. What happened to all the confident boys? Can we bring some of them back into the teen dramas of today? This girl would be appreciative.

Loving Ryan Atwood, Sir Lancelot, Patrick Verona, Chuck Bass, Aragorn, William Wallace, and Jeremiah Johanson,
SJ--

PS:
In case you still have doubts.....Peeta Mellark, Ron Weasley, Cory Matthews, Tom Hansen, Nick Miller, Ben Wyatt, Marshel Erikson, Peter Parker, Anthony Hall (In general), Chandler Bing, Ross Geller, Steve Carell (also in general), Paulie Bleeker, George McFly, Edward Cullen, Jasper Culler, Jeremy Gilbert, Samwise Gamgee, Luke Danes, Harry Potter, Chris Carrabba, Marvin McFadden, Dave Rygalski, Drew Baylor, Hercules, Jim Hawkins.....