Recognizing patterns in relationships can be a valuable aid to self-awareness, but any observation too rigidly imposed will fail to account for what lies outside it. The amateur storytelling communities of the internet, for example, being far less bound to heterosexual romance than traditional media channels, chafe at the inadequacy of identifying who is 'the man' or 'the woman' in the fictional couples they find compelling. They are left to invent their own tropes for the relationship dynamics that speak to them. Indeed, the tension between shared category and individual variation--between recognition and isolation--forms the basis of what has been called 'The' Dynamic in such circles: a meeting of minds between 'the assimilated' and 'the eccentric.' And yet even overzealous attempts to fit every relationship into those prescribed roles are, inevitably, met with resistance. Such a Dynamic, no matter how deep and resonant the chords it strikes, can only gain so much currency before it creates its own opposition from those who find themselves defiant misfits to its norms. So tell me, Will, when you're faced with a choice between rejecting categorization or identifying our dynamic, will you be a Sweaterboy? Or an Absolute Nightmare?
(enjoy in moderation; overapplication of the Dynamic may result in rash reactions, irritation, swelling, and discourse)
