From another thread...I decided to go off topic with it.
At least he has normal shorts. They are short. Like shorts ought to be. People these days wear strange garments. You seen them. They are pants that are either too long to be shorts or way too short to be trousers. Right above the knee, or even onto or over the knee. That is not a short. What are these kids hiding anyway? Afraid to show too much of the upper leg?
Back in the 80's men wore shorts. Watch football from those days. Hard to get normal shorts anymore. But just you wait. Soon women will start wearing these garments with built-in identity crisis! And then men will no longer have to suffer the indignity of these non-shorts. After all, women are evil. They have no problem attacking manly wear and usurping it for their own fashion styles. They draw all fashion towards themselves. As a result, a man wearing things that a woman starts to wear, will suddenly become the target of jest and not much later, discrimination.
Now women can wear jeans, a tough manly wear meant to be worn by miners. When women started to wear jeans men thought that was sort of cute, I bet. How interesting. How feisty of a woman to wear that, maybe a bit sexy too in her defiance. Had you seen a man wear panties, he would be chemically castrated as being a danger to society. Or gay, ot transgender. Or mad and confused. Interestingly, leggings have been worn by men in society for hundreds of years, even going back thousands, if you take american natives e.g. You wear them in the street as a man today and you will get scrutinized.
Now, shorts that are really short, are worn only by women and are sold as such. More and more, less and less in terms of garments are available for men. Women can now sometimes be seen wearing ties and again we men find that sort of cute or 'characteristic' and defiant. In a matter of years, the good old tie will create giggles in your wake because you are a man wearing a tie, that is so obviously a woman's wear.
How annoying it is to see young women walk around in leggings wearing shorts over them, while only a hot looking man like above can be excused to wear a short short, if only to look hot and yummy for those interested.
Fashion annoys me for its total irrationality. In the land of the Scots a kilt is associated as manly wear. Your voice automatically lowers when you say 'manly wear', as if you are John Inman in 'Are You Being Served, answering the phone: "men's wear...''. Walk around in Indonesia, I think, and you might see males wearing a sort of skirt, some kind of traditional wear, Bali, methinks.
In Greece, traditional male clothes (dancers) include leggings and a short skirt. It all depends on the circumstances apparently.
Men can now only wear 'longjohns' so a legging in practice, no matter how your semantically dance around it. We must hide them under pants because they are considered underwear. Yet I see some girls leaving the short off and looking like a rockstar on stage. As music goes, we see male singers wear leggings on stage, and suddenly there Bono looks cool... in the 80's! But not now?
I think us men must fight back and reclaim age old garments for ourselves and start abolishing the whole idea of male and female clothing. There is no reason for men not to wear 'kilts' all day in summer. And you may call them skirts or dresses. But on a hot summer day, jeans, even shorts, can feel rather...hot. Surely wearing a skirt would free us from that problem. We should wear leggings to show off our shapely legs. I've seen women in black cocktail dress on bicycles with the elasthan fabric of their nylons so under stress because of the thickness of their thy that you run for cover out of fear of it bursting off towards you. No shame! If somehow this is tolerable, us men should all become cross-dressers in fact, because I have seen men with nicer legs than many a woman.
And it goes further. It goes into colors. Women can wear any color, but a man wearing pink will be called ...something! Bright colors, certain patterns... But also odors. A woman can smell like roses, but a man must wear this somewhat undefinable 'manly after shave'. So all this goes down back to your basic male and female role distribution.
Well if women are to be equal to men, than they should be accepting of us men wearing anything we like, as emancipation cuts both ways. Interestingly, in an English scientific study they found out that 5% of all men wear female garments under their manly outfits. There is a need for men to feel sexy.
So how do I get to all this? As I drive a motorbike, sometimes I do not wish to wear my very hot protective gear. I take chances with jeans sometimes, not so safe, but in summer quite nice. As it gets colder in autumn, I found myself not riding much because at some point it gets chilly. I would try a pajama's under the jeans. But you know how things creep up when you put jeans over it. It is annoying.
So I bought leggings, because they are, literally, 'tight' around the legs and so that would sit comfortably. I felt uncomfortable telling anyone, especially since 'longjohns' are not a well known thing here. I found myself coming home from a nice bike ride, taking off my jeans but keeping on the leggings. They turn out to be an awesome piece of practical clothing. They can be used as housewear or jammies, because they never creep up under blankets or the modern 'couch blanket' that we pull over us watching tv.
And when this winter becomes really cold, I will wear them underneath my jeans, whereas before I would not dream of doing so! My god, the indoctrination! If there is anything I don't like it is that.
Why endure the ' cold? It is a strange experience, for suddenly you start to think about clothes, about fashion and how stupid it really is. I have an old jeans I cut the legs off that I use as a short in summer, working in the garden. I can now wear that over leggings, like girls do. Call me what you will, it is practical, the short dresses it off nicely and when I go empty my mailbox, it won't look like I am in some sort of underwear outside my home. My neighbors will think me weird. But I am making my own fashion statement and I am reclaiming my right to wear what feels good, even though I am not a cross-dresser. As far as I am concerned, that whole idea is ridiculous to an extreme. I don't think I'll be wearing actual skirts in summer. I am not that brave! But the whole concept of 'cross-dressing' is folly in a society where both genders are supposed to be equal.
Think of this too, that in RPG's our characters can wear leggings. We think nothing of it. Every male in medieval society had leggings. Even males would wear very long boots. Now only associated with some type of womenfolk... A tunic is now female only. Any male from a few hundred years ago back into the Roman empire would laugh! A rough Viking would wear a tunic... I recently with Halloween saw a man wear a tunic, but but it was a viking outfit he brought for the occasion.
But now only men jogging down the street can get away with leggings, but they then call them 'running pants/leggings'. Usually they wear a 'marathon short' over it, which is pretty much the only true short left to men, because it is so short, it doesn't continually rub against the legs. I wonder what happens when he starts walking...laughter? No. Acceptance. He is in a 'role' of runner. So why is it exactly that when fashion changes, suddenly the old wear becomes unavailable? Conformism? What is 'not done' is a matter of culture, fashion, perhaps season, tradition, old-fashioned gender roles, age and locality.
But clothes are extensions of our skin and used primarily to regulate body heat. And they are too a language. To me it is perfectly understandable why a kid these days would wear an 'identity crisis' shorts. If the short is too short it becomes feminine. If it is too long they defeat their own purpose (cool and airy) and it becomes a pants.
Men are increasingly feminized. The male role has been under pressure for decades now. The funny part of it is that there is no reason for men to feel pressure. Why, after all, should not a man like a flowery, colorful design? Is it shameful to like flowers, think England, think! With all your pretty gardens... enough males are into gardening and loving shape and size of natural things. So what is this feminization really about? You are not a real man for wearing typical male clothes. If that whole idea is nonsense, then what things are typically male?
You can just wear a real short short. Not so long ago, shorts were even meant only as kids wear. I wonder if they take off these shorts after walking around in the sun, how ridiculous it looks when the upper legs are pretty much white and the rest of the leg is tanned. It would look like they wear hold-up stockings! LOL! I suggest us men wear real shorts or pants. Not that half-bottomed conformity. It makes men look like dopes.
You wear a real short short, show off your legs, get a full tan. It is manly wear. Fight for your rights!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leggings
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