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i always want to but i feel like i'll look like an idiot. but, i'm not a man, so i don't really know their reasoning. maybe it's like not wanting to open the jar of pickles that everyone else couldn't open.... ???
I haven't done it myself, but I've seen a man do it. It's a fact that those stupid things are impossible to crack open. (Pinatas, not men. Although ... )
I'd probably try, but I suspect the underlying reason why they wouldn't hit it was that they would be embarrassed if they were unable to break it -- just like the women and children. And even more so if one of the women subsequently succeeded.
I would've taken a whack at it, but I'm only twenty, so I'm still at an age where I can get away with stuff like that. When I do, it's me looking like the cool older cousin. And I'm gay, so nobody really blinks an eye when I do atypical stuff like that. So I'm not really sure I'm the target audience for this question. 
I think the fear of looking like an idiot is pretty much it. They ARE pretty much impossible to break, so a lot of men probably figure it's better to lose a little manliness by refusing to break it than to risk it all by trying, since you might not succeed.
Now that I'm thinking about it, why haven't string pinatas replaced the others? Less violent *and* more practical! It's a win all around, really.
Me, I would have whomped ass on it. How can you not love smashing things to get candy? That's the American Dream, man. It's beautiful.
WTF? No one had a tiny knife on their keyring?
I know, I know: not the point, frog!
I agree--it's the whole fear of not being able to perform.
I have always hated pinatas at kids' parties. What's the point of having any form of entertainment that steadfastly refuses to perform its one function, namely, burst open and spew candy around? Kids get bored by the non-event long before the payoff. But that's not what you asked. I don't think I'd refuse to take a swing, but I would definitely feel silly doing it. I can't really say why, though. I'd just as soon hand the job over to a nearby teenager. My son (14) happily performed this very function this summer for our next door neighbors, who haven't yet learned the folly of the impact-class pinata.
laff. impact class. i think a lot of guys are afraid of acting like a child or being viewed as one anyway and that may also have something to do with it. and what kind of blasphemy is this string pulling pinata? that just sucks the fun right out of the experience! i don't know one kid that would prefer yay, pull the string the end to *WHACK! WHACK!* "Take that paper donkey! Gimmie your candy goodness! *off comes a candy filled leg*" It's almost like little kids get to fulfill their primal urge to hunt but they're still little kids so instead of meat they're looking for candy. and the animal is tied to a tree.
I too have been in this situation. My daughter's pastel rainbow pinata would not budge for even me, my super-strong girl friends or my mom! But I didn't give up and after some time I triumphantly made a couple holes, reached my hand up and yanked out the goodies for the kids.
Hey-
ok first off I am sure that more than 4 people read this blog. I am a loyal reader and I live in Arizona. I just love your perspective and writing style.
Also, being from the southwest pinatas are at nearly every birthday party. Sure sometimes you get a tough one but it just gives you an excuse to go all crazy on it.
In college (especially for Cinco de Mayo) we would get pinatas and fill them with condoms, lube, plastic mini alcohol bottles, cigars, and various adult type stuff. The men were never too shy to take a whack at these pinatas. It was a lot of fun.
I can't imagine passing up an opportunity to take a hearty whack at a pinata. Has the world gone mad?!?!
I would beat the shit out of a pinata, but only if the little kids asked me to. I don't care about looking like a fool. The only reason I wouldn't do it is if I thought were intentionally being set up--like as soon as I went swinging for it they would go and pull it away or something. Otherwise, if the kids asked me or if everyone else was pleading for me to do it I'd probably oblige.
You've got to sabotage the pinata before the party starts. Make some internal cuts and sit on it a few times. That helps the pinata cause.
Heh, guess you got the cool pinata. At a friend's party a few years back, we had one and the first person who took a whack at it busted it to bits - of course, he's also a fencer, but hey....
This probably doesn't have anything to do with not being able to crush paper mache' or looking silly. Surely at least some of the men present were capable of both at the drop of a sombrero. The men are reluctant because it is a violent act on a child's toy in front of children. Men are socialized pretty heavily about inappropriate violence (not unlike the conditioning against crying), and this would seem to be that kind of situation. Moms do a lot of that training with little boys - so it is not surprising the "men" were very reluctant in front of the moms as well. If they had been on a backwoods fishing trip with a pinata - I think they would have opened it with shotguns.
No, really, there are only 4 people. We make up screen names and then compose postings from different points of view.
I would have hit the pinata, even if I looked silly and/or weak doing so, because my basic "entertainment style" is self-deprecating.
Yeah, I tend to come down with Jim's analysis on this one -- I think the "fear of performance" and whole fretting-over-emasculation thing gets played up a bit too much as a daily motivation in a guy's life.
But there is also the worry that I would begin to take the whole process too seriously and start to get overanalytical about optimal whacking techniques -- the overhand smash v. sweeping generalization, etc. etc.
Pretty soon you end up creating an online fantasy pinata league and staying up late to check the latest box scores from Tlaxacala and Jalisco.
I'm guessing it's sillyness factor. Dads just don't seem to have the same capacity for silly that moms do. Except for G.
It's just so brutal. I had a dalmation pinata at my kid's 5th birthday party, and NOBODY wanted to hit it. So mean and sad and violent. Finally, one little juvie beat the crap out of the pinata, and although he was successful, we were all a little uncomfortable after that. Never get a cute character pinata. So maybe that's why the men wouldn't do it - too cavemannish.
I read Jim's comment to my SO over the phone, and he agreed heartily that the pinata would have been destroyed, if not by shotgun then by other implements of destruction. I think G's on the right track, though--kind of how the pumpking-chucking contest has different classes (rocket-powered, catapult, etc.), the pinata whacking league could have different classes based on, e.g., implements of destruction, pinata density, etc.
I'm a man in my mid-30s. I would have wacked the hell out of the stubborn piece o crap.
There's always the chance that one of the men actually would have taken a swing, but because the other men refused, he decided against it too. We men aren't all that far from the kid mentality at times.
G slays me: "the overhand smash v. sweeping generalization"
Store-bought pinatas are imposible to break. Most of them are made with cardboard because it is faster/cheaper that way.
As the official pinata maker in a family where it isn't a party without a pinata, it can be tough to make a breakable pinata for kids. You need to only do two thin layers. I was just getting the hang of it when the little boogers got strong.
Also, if the pinata is too cute you may have sqeamish kids. But since they usualy request spiders, robots and sharks the kids have no problem wrapping the crap out of them.
I also usually make one part super vunerable--thin and sticking out, but partioned from the other candy--so the kids can have an easy victory to keep them interested.
And I'm serious about the not a party without a pinata part. My nephew once insisted on a pinata at a wine and cheese gathering to remember a neighbor on the aniversary of her death. The storebought race car pinata was a surreal addition to the evening.
OK, these comments are forcing me to reexamine every idea I ever had about pinatas. A fantasy pinata league? A memorial pinata?!!
But after thinking about it overnight and reading the comments, I think Jim up above nailed this one.
I live in Denver, where it is quite common for the Denver Police Department to use a bat on things Mexican, so I don't find it feminine.
Unless it was something like a bunny or a power puff girl. I mean, you might be running for office one day and a picture like that surfaces...
Peh, Straight Boys and their manliness. It's all about the looking foolish. Must not show humanity in front of other guys. If only they knew most women totally can't resist it when they do.
i love you all. every single one.
pinatas have always made me uncomfortable for the whacking the crap out of a helpless inanimate object factor.
i know 'inanimate object' should be the two key words there, but... i'm weird.
Fear of failure... after all, if a kid with a mouthful of sweet teeth and a hell-bent-for-leather zeal to get the sugary morsels free can't bust the puppy open, what makes any of us (man or woman) think WE stand a chance? Desire is as strong an urge in children as it is in adults.
On a different note, I LOVE Tessa's piñata stuffing! May be something you could start selling for Cinco de Mayo in your shop, huh, Flea? Cock rings, ben wa balls, butt plugs, etc....
Rock on, Ralph and G! You guys crack me up. I remember we had one at my son's b'day party and that SOB wouldn't open. Kids tried, moms tried, dads tried. Finally, I cut the damn thing off the tree and tossed it to the dogs. Fucker was open within a minute. Dogs got the pinata, kids got the candy, and the parents went back to our beers and the Cubs game. A truly happy ending.
My husband seconds the shotgun motion.
The only thing namlet can think of, "from the male point of view," is that the men were afraid that they couldn't open the damn pinata, and didn't want to look like that in front of their kids and wives. And then one guy thinks that and it makes it seem real so most of the other guys just won't do it.
But he says he would've done it (actually, come to think of it, he HAS done this, at lp's friend's birthday party). I think that time he made light saber noises. The kids loved it.
But the kicker is that they don't open with a satisfying shower of candy, it's more like [whump] (two pieces of candy), [thwack] (another piece of candy), etc. So really, ALL the fun is in going crazy hitting a swinging object and not having it hit you on its backswing. Or if it does, you just pretend the pinata cleaned your clock and play dead.
What are you talking about: "Four of you who actually read this blog."? I'm number 33. "Four of you" my ass.
I side with Steve. There is the embarassment quotent (if you do not crack it on the first attempt) as well as looking like some redneck who makes a living out of cracking pinata's for a living.
I would bet that the men would have fought for first shot if they had been alone.
See, here's something else: I like on occastion to whack the hell out of stuff and I'm about as mild-mannered as they get, for goodness sake.
But whenever I starting whacking the hell out of stuff somebody starts with the rolling of eyes and the, "Oh, those men and their whacking the hell out of stuff."
And then they add something about my "unique parenting style" and I have to start reconsidering my religious tenets re: pacifism and so instead it's just better to take a pass on pinata and go get another beer instead.
Perhaps tackling the pinata is a solution. Though Portia makes it clear that you cannot trust a pinata.
Weird. Its just tradition in my circle of friends that the Dad has to finally come out and beat the shit out of the pinata after all the kids have had their 3 turns. My husband prefers to use the stick with metal hook on the end that we normally use to pull down the attic steps with. I've never seen any of the mom's try it though. That would just be very undignified. *Our* job is the herd the children into a tight circle and keep them far away from whoever is swinging the stick around, muttering nervously about who might loose an eye.
My husband is always ready and willing to whack the pinata but good. I have to agree, in our circle of friends, its the dads that do the whacking of the pinata.
We bought one with a pull string for this weekendm, so, with any luck, it will work.
And remember the Arthur episode, "Arthur's Birthday", which ends with Dad taking a chainsaw to the pinata.
This isn't in answer to your question, but one of the saddest (but also kind of funny) things I've ever seen was a video of a child's birthday party with a pinata where the birthday girl was crying and exclaiming "But I love it!" while the other kids tried to break apart the pinata.
Oh, and PS, the best break was when we brought a pinata to my son's preschool for his birthday. The preschool teacher (after all the kids had their turn at ineffectually breaking the pinata) took a swing and took the donkey's head right off.
The part that weirds me out is the groupthink of "we as men, decided we would not..."
Like they huddled about it and took a vote or something.
Hee.
I saw a pinata movie the other night. Not kidding at all. It was a movie about an evil pinata stalking nubile teens on some kind of island.
The guy who played Xander in Buffy The Vampire Slayer? Was in the evil pinata movie. Boy, I hope that was before BTVS and not after.
shannon, men don't have to discuss things endlessly to know they have a consensus.
I totally agree with Jim. But that's not why I'm commenting. I just can't resist getting in on the fascinating sociology of the pinata.
I had a pinata party as a kid, with a horse pinata. Or maybe it was a donkey. And I totally had the, "we can't destroy it!" thing, so my mom ended up turning it over, pouring the candy out, and then the damn thing lived in my closet, collecting dust, until I went away to college.
Even so, I'm determined to do a pinata for pseudonymous kid one of these days. But it'll have to be non-representational, that's for sure.
I spoke with Steve about it, and he thought that Jim had the closest answer. He also felt that to get up and whack the pinata was a loser thing to do because it seemed to be a group feeling that to volunteer to attack the pinata indicated that the volunteer had something to prove in the area of masculinity. A real man, it was felt, would be secure enough to take a pass.
Plus, he added, he was the last man asked and he wasn't about to agree to do it after all the other men had refused, so there was also some peer pressure going on there.
portia - whacking a pinata with lightsabre noises - I love it!
and I could seriously like an online fantasy league.
Does anyone else recall the scene in the movie Parenthood where Steve Martin beats the crap out of the Pinata That Would Not Die? It's unbelievably funny, and I think it's exactly Steve's point. Whacking on a pinata is fine. Being unable to destroy it isn't. And they all know damned well that the things are indestructible.
You would think they would be dying to show up the women and children by demonstrating their Manly Strength. Unless they were all secretly scared that they wouldn't be able to break it either, and they would be left humiliated and UN-manly.
I have no useful insights into male reluctance to bash a piñata. I do remember feeling reluctant to hit and break the last piñata I encountered, even though it was designed for that purpose, but that was as a kid, not as a man.
Isn't the point of these things supposed to be that nobody breaks them on the first try, and so everybody has a turn until the piñata gradually weakens and breaks? I think the best thing for a grown-up of any gender to do in this situation would be to give the piñata a hearty but non-lethal whack, and then pass the bat back to the kids to finish it off. Of course, that's assuming the piñata coöperates, which may be an overly optimistic assumption.
Interestingly enough, I just published an article titled: Whacking the Pinata
http://totallyfixed.blogspot.com...esponse-
to.html
Enjoy
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