Flexing Dorks As Last Act

[Jack Doherty on his 21st birthday, 10/8/24]

In Henry VI, Queen Margaret observes, “Women are soft, milde, pittifull, and flexible.” In Henry V, the king asks, “Will it give place to flexure and low bending?” It here is prideful pomposity. In Troilus and Cressida, Nestor speaks of “the splitting wind / Makes flexible the knees of knotted oaks.” Even the mightiest will be humbled.

A word meaning pliant, yielding, adaptable or humble has somehow birthed, in our perverse time, the slangy verb flex, meaning to show off your body, wealth or access to mucho sexo!

Forgive me for flexing Shakespeare, but this morning I saw, sure did, an ad for the Flex Credit Card. I’ve heard “chill” inserted into Vietnamese speech. Now, I know flex has muscled its way in. “Sống Net Không Ngại Flex.” This cool usage is derived from rappers like Ice Cube, Cardi B, Drake and Travis Scott. Hip young Viets know them, unfortunately.