Mainstreaming Men's Hosiery - III

by Geraden

In my last two bites at the cherry, I mentioned two alternative approaches some men might adopt in an attempt to bring their wearing of hosiery (tights/pantyhose/stockings) into the fashion mainstream. I also suggested that other men have no wish for this to happen: they are quite happy to wear such items of clothing just because they are feminine items, and not in spite of that fact. So now that I have probably managed to offend most people one way or another, I will go on.

For this article let us assume that the wearing of something forbidden is not the main reason for wearing tights.  So why would we want men's hosiery to become mainstream? Probably everyone who wants this to happen does so for a different mix of reasons but they may include:

1. freedom to wear what we like in public without fear of ridicule or worse
2. acceptance for our clothing preferences by family and friends
3. more economical and more readily available hosiery that is sized and shaped to fit the male anatomy
4. support for pioneering companies who have stuck their neck out over this issue by investing in the manufacture and warehousing of male leg wear
5. moral and religious reasons for not wishing to wear women's clothing.

Assuming that we wish to promote the mainstreaming of men's hosiery, let us recap on the positions we started with. There is what I have called the (a) position (only to buy hosiery that is marketed for men, supporting suppliers like Activskin, in the belief that the visibility of male-orientated products will best promote the cause), and the (b) position (to buy hosiery on the basis of fit, comfort and cost, regardless of the marketing orientation, in the belief that it is the visibility of hosiery on male legs that will best promote the cause).

Now we can see that the above reasons numbered (2) to (5) support the (a) position, while only reason (1) is somewhere near neutral on this issue.

However: reason (5) will appeal to only a few people, although it was hinted at in the (now deleted) discussion on Legwear as Unisex Fashion. Reason (4) begs the question, why should we support these companies if we get what we want more easily and cheaply by buying in women's products from the local shop? Reason 3 fares not much better. It is very true that Activskins fit better than Wolford Fatals, or any other tights that I know of, but that does not automatically mean that they feel better.

Reason 2 remains valid, if we have family or friends who see us wearing and who are bothered about such matters. Some of us don't have families and friends around us or do not want to wear openly anyway; some of us are not particularly bothered what family and friends think, and for a few lucky ones it is a non-issue, because they have found for themselves a lady who is also a fellow nylon enthusiast.

Having looked at the reasons for wanting male legwear to become mainstream, is this going to happen, and if it is, will it be because people have followed the (a) approach or the (b) approach?

I must confess that I have not yet read the book The Tipping Point, which is often recommended in this context. I would guess it makes use of the catastrophe principle (part of chaos theory), which has been around for a long time under the name of The Straw that Broke the Camel's Back. (The point is to refute a crude understanding of the Aristotelian notion that effects have to be proportionate to their causes. They don't. Some things have very little effect. Some great effects have very small causes.) And yes, this is right, so far as it goes. The problem is that no one can be sure of where the tipping point is.

This has been hinted at in the LAUF discussion. If we knew that the tipping point was near, it would make sense to adopt whatever strategy we thought would bring it about. Since we know no such thing, we may prefer to concentrate our efforts on other more achievable goals, in this case, like wearing what we are comfortable with.

The point has been well made that we should not be squabbling among ourselves. I owe the following vivid image to someone on the LAUF Forum: when you have drawn your wagons into a circle because you are under attack, make sure you shoot your arrows outwards!

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