Differences Between Women And Men's Fashion

With women pushing the boundaries of clothing, by wearing hosiery as pants, I think that it would be good to explore why they can get away with more easily than men.

Women like exposing skin and showing off their body shapes. I am sure that you can think of a few examples. Short skirts, perhaps? Tight shirts? Even dress shirts can be extremely form fitting. It was clearly understood in many European time periods that having an hour glass figure is a good thing. This has been shown to be true for other cultures too. When women wear athletic clothes, they often wear form fitting clothes, which are considered sexy to some degree, if not completely. The Rockettes are a perfect example of this. Their beauty is all over, but a significant amount is in the legs. The list goes on.

Women wear revealing clothing for various reasons. However, a significant factor is that when they ovulate, they tend to want to reveal more. This makes sense. When women want to attract men, then prefer to show off their bodies. Hosiery really is a celebration or advertisement of femininity and fertility. This is a hard rule that we must accept. All of a sudden, advertising does not seem so bad anymore, right?

What about men? Is there something that women like about guys who bare their flesh? Do women like it when men wear tight clothing? They definitely do. Playgirl magazine is not just for gays. I am confident that women like the pictures. Also, they like looking at guys with broad shoulders, and noticeable big muscles. So, guys wearing tight clothing is okay.

The big difference is that women can expose a lot of skin and wear form fitting clothing out in public as casual wear, whereas the tightest clothing that heterosexual masculine guys can wear casually in public is only a t-shirt, and maybe a pair of ordinary shorts.

Also, it might be helpful to compare ourselves to gay men. When it comes to guys to exposing a lot of skin, there is a difference between a gay guy who dresses like a scantily clad sailor or male dancer in a gay bar, and a guy who wears spandex in a strong man competition.

Ah, you are probably saying, but in Shakespeare's time most men wore tights! So, obviously it is not gay, and women find it attractive. Well, I do not know for sure what women thought in those days. You would need to show me a quote or some research. As for it not being gay, I would have to agree to some extent, but is it truly masculine for men to wear it?

In the 1600s, and the time periods before and after, we can see the flamboyant styles tended to be worn by those who could afford it: rich people. Could you imagine a peasant dressing like that? According to Wikipedia, the lower class wore different clothing [scroll down for info on the lower class] in the years before. Scroll to the bottom of Wikipedia's fashion pages to skim through the ages.

Do not be deceived: just because you can afford to buy shorts and hosiery, it does not mean that you are part of the upper class; just because you live much better than many of the nobles of the past, it does not mean that you are part of the upper class. Chances are that my readers are all middle to lower class. Our fashions and our masculinity is much more determined by functionality than wealth. We are more like the Munsters than the Addams.

In the past and present, men in our class have wanted something that lasts a long time. In other words, we want functional clothing. Hosiery worn as pants is not that. It has many benefits, and we should encourage people to wear it, but wearing it as pants will never be more functional than a comfortable pair of jeans, because denim lasts longer per dollar, it is easy to machine wash, and it has pockets. Even when it is worn and faded, people will understand that you do not need to replace it. Hosiery is often so delicate that it typically needs be replaced if you just look at it too hard. ;^P

So, how do we find a way of wearing hosiery more visibly, without raising suspicions? The secret seems to be in sports. Whether it be weight lifting competitions or triathlons, wearing skin tight clothing in women's events or men's events seems to work. In fact, cyclists wear spandex all the time--and they do not even try to hide it. I still insist that we turn our attention back to sports. It matches with what I have said, also. Skin tight clothing in sports is functional. That is why cycling clothing is probably the best bet that we have right now. It can be worn in the streets, and it can be worn casually, when worn with shorts. If our cycling outfits make us look sporty, then people will accept that. Therefore, men can wear spandex and nylon clothing.

To take it a step further, and wear skin tight clothing as pants, without shorts or a kilt, we would need to look extremely sporty, and actually be in sporty situation. After all, if you show up to every event, wearing only a thin piece of fabric over yourself, then people might not appreciate it. So, let us not get carried away. Let us stick to just wearing hosiery under a pair of shorts in a sporty way.

Then again, I showed you photos of me wearing hosiery in a non-sporty way. Yes, we can do that, and we should. However, I think that our casual outfits should be sporty looking, if we can afford it.

To summarize, hosiery does have some natural limits, which lends itself to feminine wardrobes more easily than masculine wardrobes. We will be more successful in our attempts at mainstreaming the outfit, if we keep the casual outfits sporty. If you are still not convinced that hosiery is a celebration of femininity, then I leave you with the last photo below [I was surprised to discover that I could see her gusset in the original size of the photo].

Thank you for reading!