To wear or not to wear?

by Smoov

Today I am happy to welcome Smoov, who has already made several comments on this blog, as a guest contributor! Thank you Smoov.

To wear, or not to wear? That is the question. I don't know whether many of the readers of this blog suffer the same affliction as me, but I do go through long periods where I seem to lose interest in wearing tights.

It's not the way I'd like things to be. I wish I still had the passion that most of you seem to share. I certainly had it when I was younger, but it seems to have fizzled out over the last few years.

Is it a guilt thing? I am certainly familiar with that feeling from my younger days, where the tights collection was consigned to the dustbin (well wrapped against casual snooping) and an oath to change my ways was solemnly taken. Well, it doesn't feel like that at all, but I wonder if it's a watered down version. I must admit that I do care about what my family and friends might think. Most of my family know, I'm sure, although it's never spoken of, and I never wear openly around them. I have worn shorts and natural tone tights in public several times, but only in places where I would not be likely to be recognised.

So why do we do it? If it's such a problem for our partners, our families, and for society in general, why do we put ourselves through the potential embarrassment of being seen/caught wearing tights?

Because it is a fetish. Pure 'n' simple. I used to think, for myself at least, that it was no longer the case, because I would still wear tights regularly for years after the thrill of pulling a pair on had faded away, but now I'm sure it is a fetish - a sexual compulsion - only in my case, like the guilt, it has become much diluted over the years.

My interest in tights will never fully go away and I am encouraged greatly by recent developments in both the hosiery market and the relaxing of outdated social attitudes towards acceptable male behaviour (in particular, towards 'male grooming' etc.). I would still really like to be a part of the pioneering movement to make tights an acceptable male garment. My interest in the movement is strong. It's just my interest in wearing that seems to come and go.

I've tried lately to reignite my interest in beguiling stretchy legwear, and to that end I am sitting at my work desk wearing some Boots firm support tights as I write this. Not exactly the most sensual of legwear, it must be said, but I am having trouble with my knees at the moment. I know the tights are not really of any practical use with my knee problems (proper knee supports are, let's face it, many times thicker than even the heaviest support tights), but it's a reason of sorts to be wearing something, and maybe they help a little.

It's nice to know that I'm only one of very many of us doing this the world over. Feels good to 'belong'. In support of the cause, I am not wearing, and will not wear socks over tights now. If people see the close fitting, wrinkle free, and somewhat shiny covering of my ankles and put 2 and 2 together that's fine. The chances of anyone saying anything are very slim, as the narrative at the top of Geraden's blog so rightly observes.

Maybe my whole problem is a male menopause thing. As I have been single for a while now it's not something that has been much of an issue. I wonder if I should go to my doctor and tell him that I need a hormone check, because I just don't feel the same about tights as I used to. What say ye, men?

No, perhaps you're right....