burning up the blogosphere right now is the hotly-contested issue of haute couture in men’s fashion.  the key issue seems to be the “recent” re-introduction of men’s tights as a fashion statement in the 21st century.

my esteemed friend seems to feel that tights for men would be the worst thing since pictures of post-pregnancy britney spears, but i say different.  there are many fashionable men who have been able to pull of the tights-only look, and i for one would be proud to follow in their footsteps - men like nureyev, or baryshnikov, or this handsome fellow.

the biggest concern seems to come from women, who are concerned i think that tights for men would denegrate men or make them less appealing somehow.  that may be true. but what about the rest of us who slave away in the gym five days a week, or who have had years of ballet training, with plies and jettes and all sort of thigh- and calf-enhancing exercises “under our belts” so to speak.  why should i be deprived of the joy that women have of wearing something tight and revealing and then scoffing at the way women are staring at my body?

i think the REAL issue here is one of a sexual balance of power.  women have earned the right to be the objects of desire and attraction through an endless history of having been hounded, abused, terrorized and otherwise subjugated for being that very object of desire.  it’s fairly wrong, in my mind at least, for a man to seek to usurp a woman’s control over the domaination of men’s thoughts by seeking to turn the tables.  men are best understood as creatures of lust and consumate hunger and less well-understood as objects of desire.  i think. 

of course, i don’t really believe any of this.  i think the biggest problem is the “battle of the bulge”.  it seems "gross" in our traditional view of the male aesthetic.  but this betrays an obvious double-standard of the sexes where women are perpetually judged on the state of their “bulges” and men seek continuously to leave their own a mystery.  maybe it’s time in the evolution of sexuality to “level” the playing field in this regard.  if only there were shoes that a man could wear with tights that would not give the impression of being lost in neverland.

- g

ps.  i should cancel this post, rather than allowing it to see the light of day!