Why Men Like The Exes Of Rock Icons



Nearer my rock God to Thee (image via judiciaryreport)

Page Six noted an interesting social phenomenon today, to wit:

"HEATHER Mills, who lives in the West Village, says Manhattan men are always chasing her. 'I've got so many stunning girlfriends who can't get a boyfriend,' the one-legged ex-wife of Paul McCartney tells Page Six Magazine in this Sunday's Post. 'But when I go out here, I get asked out all the time, and my girlfriends - who are better looking than me - say, How the hell does that happen?! Maybe it's because I'm comfortable with myself.'"

How does one explain this? It all just came to The Corsair in a cognitive leap. The key here is the raw competitive nature of man. Men love their rock icons, so much so -- and this may gross some of our sensitive readers out a bit -- that they are deeply attracted to their exes. It is actually a prestige thing. Holy fuck: I-am-with-Bob-Dylan's-ex. The inner Norman Mailer of heterosexual guys.

Look at Jerry Hall. As soon as she split from Mick Jagger, she became a billionaire alpha males dream. Powerful Boomer TV Execs like Michael Hirschorn -- a happily married man -- fawned all over her. To the Boomer, especially to the powerful Boomer, proximity to these iconic women means, to a degree, proximity to The Rock Gods. One can only imagine the annoying pillow talk as the Boomers ask the Rock Goddesses what really happened on the Hyatt House during the 60s and the 70s. We won't even entertain the possibility Steve Jobs ever asked Joan Baez if he was "better than Bob Dylan."

And this social phenomenon is not merely a function of Boomer psychology. Although, curiously, Bill Clinton, en route to being leader of the Free World felt the need to blow his sax on Arsenio. Boomers regard rock stars as the social, sexual and vitality indices. But it goes beyond Boomers; it goes beyond rock music. Men, back in the day, lusted seriously after Mia Farrow after Sinatra left her during the filming of Rosemary's Baby. For a man to date Farrow was almost, in a homo-erotic manner, to be as close as another man can humanly get to the life-force of that red-blooded alpha American crooner. And heterosexual men of a certain age probably feel the same way about Pricilla Presley. Moguls -- and mogul wannabees -- are particularly susceptible to this behavior (Mogul Kirk Kirkorian dated Presley's ex). It is not inconceivable that in previous generations, alpha males felt the same way about the exes of Picasso and Hemingway. Is it the alpha male testosterone at work?

One wonders if there is analogous behavior among our closest cousins, the chimpanzees.