Media interest

by Geraden

At the moment (for various reasons) I am not keeping up with things very much, tights-wise.

Recently, however, there seems to have been a flurry of journalistic activity over male tights wearing. Several of those who are perceived to be pioneers in the field (myself included) have been contacted for interviews by media types from newspapers, radio or TV. 

I know it is the journalistic 'silly season', and that some of the articles may have been mocking rather than sympathetic, but maybe all publicity is good publicity, and the usually the message 'this is not about fetish: it is about fashion/health/choice' seems to get through. A selection of links to media articles can be found in the articles section at the bottom of the home page.

I hear that male tights suppliers like legwear4men.com have been deluged with hits – it is to be hoped that a good number of these hits actually become sales.

It was an email the other day from an Irish journalist that alerted me to this media interest: unfortunately for personal reasons I had to decline the opportunity.

Shortly after that Harisnya invited me to his new group on his site. I had missed the launch of this new part of e-mancipate, called "Pantyhose for Men BETA". (Membership is by invitation only - which seems to be a pity, because there is nothing of an explicit or fetish nature there.)

Anyway, I had been looking at "Pantyhose for Men BETA" and my wife must have seen the computer screen as she passed. I don't know whether she thought it was part of my site or not, but some time later she said to me, "Been on your tights site again? Why do you do it? You tell me tights are just an article of clothing, so why do you have to have a site all about them?"

She went on, "Why do you have to campaign for men to wear tights? Surely that is their choice – they don't need to be told to do so by someone like you. You don't see sites promoting the wearing of earrings by men, which is something I find equally weird."

I know from long experience that it is better to say nothing than to enter into an impossible argument. I don't mean an argument that is impossible to win – because to win or lose an argument, there has first to be a dialogue – I mean that it is impossible even to have a meaningful dialogue.

Nevertheless, here are the points that could be made:

• This is not a campaign, it is a support resource.
• We are not telling anyone that they should wear tights.
• We are merely saying that they can if they want to.
• Sites like this are necessary because of the entrenched opposition from some people (sadly, often from those nearest and dearest to us)
• This case has a parallel in that of women wearing trousers (pants for US readers): we have lost sight of how shocking a proposition this was before WW2.
• But that was 60-70 years ago, and of course the Internet makes a difference to the way in which information and ideas are disseminated.
• We have had a long period of focus on the rights of women; we are now entering a period where the focus seems to be moving in the direction of rights for men.

If you would like to comment on this entry, please click on the 'Comments' link below.

tags: media  news  emancipate  opposition  support  rights  

links: technorati