Friday, October 22, 2010

Wearing Shorts And Hosiery On TV

1 bit of great news is that I did get to wear grey opaque hosiery in front of the camera. 2 bits of bad news are that I was so close to the camera, that you probably would not have seen me wearing hosiery, and that I did not get to wear hosiery for the second and final scene that I did. 2 bits of good news are that lots of people saw me wear it, and that I spoke to 3 people about it. Read the remainder of the blog entry for the details on those events, plus information on a couple of things that I learned.

My first obstacle was getting permission to wear them on set. Normally, you cannot wear shorts in fall, winter, and spring, but because we were shooting for scenes in Hong Kong and Bangkok, we were asked to bring shorts. Therefore my agent allowed me to wear hosiery as well. When I presented myself to the costume people, it turned out that I was able to wear the opaque hosiery in front of the camera for the Hong Kong scene. In the next paragraph, I will write about the wardrobe women's experience with men in hosiery, but for now, just realize that although the wardrobe woman that I spoke to never had heard of the concept of straight guys wearing hosiery, she was more than willing to allow me to wear it for the Hong Kong scene right off of the bat. I consider that to be a victory.

When we had a quiet moment, I asked her if she had ever seen any straight guys wearing shorts and hosiery before, and then she said that she had not. I asked her if she would be willing to date or marry a guy wants to wear, and she said that it would totally depend on him. I think that she was trying to say that it would depend on what the guy was trying to push towards. If he was trying to push towards being a masculine guy who happens to wear only this 1 thing, then I bet that she would allow for it.

After that, I went to the Hong Kong scene. I was trying to wander around in the far background where people could not see me so that I could increase the odds of being used at the end of th day. The idea is that they do not want people to be used too often, so they use people who have not been visible during the earlier parts of the day. 1 of the crew pulled me out of there to act as a stall vendor. 1 of the cameras would roll right behind me. I was so close that I was told to move forward so that the camera would not hit me. This shows that nobody had a problem with my hosiery. Unfortunately, the camera probably could not capture my legs at all. I still consider it a victory, though.

Later on, I had to take off my hosiery in the bathroom. Because there were so many people, I had to do it beside the doorway. People on the outside could not see me, but people leaving the washroom probably could see me take them off. I felt a bit uncomfortable about this, but there was nothing that I could do. I was running out of time, as it is. I think of this as just an opportunity for more people to be exposed to it.

Later on, before the Bangkok scene, we were standing around and waiting. I waited with 2 women. 1 of them asked me why I am wearing hosiery. I explained to her the usual reasons, about me trying to start a trend, and trying to change society gently. They seemed to accept the idea. I asked them if they would marry or date a guy, who wore hosiery, and they did not have a problem with it. They both said that it would depend on the guy.

The rest of the day was somewhat uneventful, other than when I put my hosiery back on: I went back to the washroom, and put them back [not much of an event, though]. "Despite" me wearing hosiery and shorts, many people did not seem to mind talking to me. I think that it was a great day.

I eventually realized that skin colour opaque hosiery would come in really handy for a day like today when people really wanted us to wear shorts, but not look like we were wearing hosiery. I think that I might go out and buy a pair of skin coloured opaques, if I can find it, and also maybe a skin coloured opaque body suit. Any extra layers should be a good thing. On the other hand, wearing 2 or 3 pairs of skin coloured sheer hosiery should work well enough instead of 1 single skin coloured opaque pair. Since sheers would be worn so rarely in front of the camera, even wearing pairs with runs in them should be fine.

I also realized that a pair of bike-shorts length hosiery would be great too, because they would not be noticeable under the shorts, unless the camera could see up my shorts, or something. If I know that the weather is going to be cold, then I could wear this short pair under a long pair. This would make it easier for costume changes. I could just pull the long pair off, without taking the short pair off. Also, I plan to bring an extra pair of short hosiery in my bag, so that I could just wear it on top of the long pair, if I needed the extra layer. The short pair would also protect the long pair, if I wore it under constrictive pants because constrictive pants tend to rub the hosiery a lot.

That is all I have for you. Thank you for reading.

2 comments:

  1. Hey Eugene, I just happened to come across a link that led me to your blog. I haven't been keeping up with your happenings much, as I've been too busy with work to be very involved in promoting men's legwear. (Unfortunately, my employment came to an end two weeks ago--so I have a bit more time, now).

    Anyways, what was the thing you were involved with here? You probably tell about it in another post, so if that's the case I'll probably find it after I post this comment.

    Sounds like it was a very good experience. Way to go to be bold!

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  2. Yeah, work does tie us up sometimes, as far as the schedule goes, doesn't it?

    Yeah, you'll probably find the blog post eventually, but to save you a little time, there is the link. Also, I added the "advocacy" tag, just a moment ago, and then removed the "misc" tag. That should make it a little easier to find.

    To save you a little clicking, the TV show was "V". I was a street vendor, in Hong Kong, and a tourist in Bangkok [or somewhere like that]. I was doing background performing, which is really just temp work for actors.

    Steve, thanks for your interest.

    By the way, did you know that I am trying to get a group of us together for a group purchase?

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