A few days back, I had a conversation with a friend of mine. She had seen a post a batchmate of ours had put on Facebook, talking about how he had worn a sari to one of our college parties, and the grief his family had given him over it.
She was quite creeped out by it, and questioned why he would do it. She raised some points, talking about clothes having certain utilities, and how some were made to compliment a woman’s figure and so on. I said that, well, men don’t have a lot of choice in clothes to begin with, and why shouldn’t men wear skirts and the like?
In fact, a garment like the skirt would actually be quite beneficial to men, considering the freedom and, well, ventilation it offers certain areas, as can be seen in the kilt. Well, we talked a bit, and ultimately she saw my point, even realizing that she had other friend who has done the same, but because she knew them it didn’t seem so odd to her.
Made me think about cross dressing in general, and the stigma attached. I find it rather odd that while it’s become more acceptable for women to wear men’s clothing, (literally just pants and suits, not exactly much else that’s unique to men’s clothing) a man wearing women’s garments is still seen as unusual, unbecoming and even disgusting.
Mind, I’m no fan of cross dressing myself, but what’s so wrong if a man wants to wear something more freeing, more comfortable? The issue isn’t just about cross dressing for me though, it’s about clothing options in general.
Whereas women have more types of clothing than I can name, men are limited to pants, jeans, shorts, t-shirts, shirts, polo shirts, and a quick range of shoes, going by western fashion. While I can’t speak for other cultures, Indian clothing is similar, where you have kurtas, maybe a Nehru jacket, two types of pajamas and a couple of type of footwear.
A byproduct, I feel, is also that it can be odd for men to accessorize. For instance, speaking from personal experience, I bought some of these, well, bracelets of heroes from Overwatch. These look good, and are just a casual thing to wear. Yet even typing out the word bracelet is difficult for me, because it’s been put so solidly into my mind that bracelets are girly, and are meant for women or girls. In fact, I sometimes just call them ‘bands’ to get around that, as though they were the rubber Livestrong ones.
A guy likes earrings, he might be thought a homosexual, because apparently heterosexual men can’t enjoy those things. As if it’s alienating from being a man.
Well, at least that’s the way it seems to me.