Mainstreaming Men's Hosiery - VII

by Geraden

This comment was left by MMM in response to the previous article in this series.

I have to disagree, in fact your comments are hopelessly unrealistic. There are any number of reasons why women wear hosiery. The main reason being vanity. The recent increase in men's cosmetics, moisturisers and the like, have not caused a dip in sales to women. Why would hosiery?
In short, your comments are based on the assumption that women wear them because they are exclusively female, and that any challenge to that would make them look for some alternative garment that did that job (of allowing them to wear something exclusive to women). This is completely wrong. Men cavorting around in tights, for practical or sexual reasons, won't make the slightest dent in women's' hosiery sales.
The reason the manufacturers aren't really pushing this is because there is no market. Beyond fetishists there are no men who want to wear them. They are also tricky things to take care of, something women are used to, but men are not.
Anyway, why the big push to change things. If you like wearing them go right ahead. Why waste your life trying to get people to think like you do? Aren't you confident enough just to enjoy it?

I am grateful to MMM, whoever he or she may be, for making these points. A bit of disagreement is a healthy thing! Rather than relegating my reply to a further comment, I am bringing the comments and my reply up to the top.

Yes I am sure you are right that there are many reasons why women wear hosiery (those who bother to wear, that is) vanity being one. I have never thought that women wear hosiery because it is an exclusively female product. If that were the case, I would wonder why women over the last 50 years have taken to wearing trousers – once an exclusively male product. On the contrary, it is (some) men who wear hosiery because it is an exclusively female product. These (who for convenience rather than accuracy we may call fetishists) have no interest in hosiery becoming mainstream for men: quite the reverse.

However, I do think you have missed an important point – probably the main point of my article.

Analogies with men starting to use cosmetics (or, for that matter, with women starting to wear trousers) are valid, but only up to a point. All analogies break down somewhere; where these particular ones break down is precisely over the fetish aspect. No woman, so far as I know, has ever regarded trousers as a fetish. And no man, so far as I know, has ever regarded cosmetics as a fetish. But a few minutes surfing the net will convince anyone that hosiery is a big fetish, maybe the biggest there is.

The recent increase in men's cosmetics, moisturisers and the like, have not caused a dip in sales to women.

This is true, but the situation is a lot more complex with hosiery. Men already make up 40% of the market, but it is largely a hidden 40%. I don't know what the percentage of men openly purchasing hosiery for themselves in bricks and mortar establishments is – I would guess around 5%. But online, figures of up to 80% or even 90% have been quoted (and that is not counting sites like legwear4men.com).

It is not sales to men that will ever damage the women's hosiery market – in fact it is sales to men that have prevented the market from going into free fall over the last few years. No, the problem is not sales to men, it is marketing to men.

Because the best known sector of male wearers are 'fetishists', male hosiery wearing is inevitably associated in the public mind with fetish. Any publicity for male hosiery wearing will inevitably raise the spectre of the seedier end of the market. And it is this spectre that has the capacity to damage sales to women. I will say again:

Mainstream hosiery companies fear that if they start marketing to men, much of their sales to women will be wiped out. Those who make their money from hosiery still need the women buyers and wearers. Women have been brainwashed with enough reasons not to wear tights: they are uncomfortable, unhealthy, unnecessary, expensive. The suggestion that they are worn largely by a bunch of pervy men will simply be the last straw.

This is not simply my opinion: it has been endorsed by people in the industry who know about these things. You may take it as a fact.

The reason the manufacturers aren't really pushing [hosiery for men] is because there is no market.

This is rubbish, if you will pardon me saying so. The figures I have quoted above refute that statement.

Beyond fetishists there are no men who want to wear them.

I suggest that you visit the Delphi Forum Legwear as Unisex Fashion (LAUF) and look at the strongly anti-fetish mission statement on the front page, and then browse the very long visitor list. There are literally hundreds of male wearers to be found there alone. Then read what they have to say. If that does not convince you, nothing will. 

[Tights] are tricky things to take care of, something women are used to, but men are not.

Those of us men who wear hosiery are on the whole, where hosiery is concerned, more knowledgeable and more discerning than women – many of whom never wear hosiery.

Anyway, why the big push to change things. If you like wearing them go right ahead. Why waste your life trying to get people to think like you do? Aren't you confident enough just to enjoy it?

Yes of course I am confident enough just to enjoy it, thank you very much. But I was not always so confident. It was the Internet that gave me the confidence that I now have. I visited sites like LAUF and chatted in a certain hosiery chat room with other wearers of both sexes: friends who eventually became the 'rogue chatters' – now to be found chatting on tights-excite.com. As a result of the support and inspiration I have got from these sources, I now wear tights openly, saving only consideration for my family and for work dress codes.

But there are still many men who wear in secret, who would wear openly if they could, i.e. if there were societal acceptance. And there are many more who would like to experience the benefits of wearing, but who fear to try. These are the ones I am trying to reach and to reassure.

I am not trying to change things, if by that you mean forcing the issue of wearing hosiery onto men who have no inclination to do so. I am however trying to change the perceptions that many male wearers still have, that wearing hosiery is somehow something to be ashamed of; and I want to see society in general accepting that what is legwear for the goose can be legwear also for the gander.

Finally, apart from that, with the 'waste of life' that I put into this blog I am providing publicity for the site I mentioned, which is owned by a dear friend of mine and a true lover of hosiery. She is my inspiration.

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tags: mainstream  fetish  

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