Gender and Clothing

This writer recently came across an online acticle that asked "If women can wear pants, why can't men wear dresses?" or something like that.  This writer was confused because the idea of wearing dress is a foreign concept to him, but the question is fair.  Yes, you'll occasionally see a man in a dress but for the most part, men (both straight and gay) just don't wear things like that.

That said, this writer has another question; why would a man want to where a dress? This is a little harder to answer, because every person has different motivations for doing or not doing certain things.  Speaking for himself (because that's the only person this writer can definitively speak for), this writer will say its just because he doesn't want to and beyond that, he doesn't have the legs for it.  Also, where's the benefit in it?  This writer can only assume other males (straight and gay) feel the same way, but he doesn't know for sure.  That would require walking around and asking every man that question, a feat that no one individual has time for.

One thing this writer can say is that when he sees an male in his prime wearing such clothing walking down the street, others (mostly women and teens) will snicker.  Adult males may shake their heads in disbelief, but this writer finds that women (the main ones asking why men don't wear dresses) will take the lead in make such men feel bad about their decision to go fem.  In short, based solely on what this writer has seen, more feminine outfits because women don't want them to.  Women simply aren't choosing those kind of men en masse.

As for why women wear what they wear, this writer doesn't think most people complaining about such things actually care.  They aren't worried about women wearing their dresses or shorts too short.  The real issue isn't why women are wearing these things, but why men aren't.  Deep down, everyone knows if men regularly wore the miniskirts and women covered their bodies, nobody would care.  Just watch pro wrestling.  Men trot out in front of thousands of people in essentially just wearing underwear and nobody complains about how much skin they show.  In fact, there are looked at as badass and masculine.  But if a female wrestler shows nothing but her hands, suddenly it's too sexy and you have to shield your children's eyes.  Is this America or the Middle East?

Speaking of sports, another common question is why female athletes wear less than the male counterparts.  This is particularly prevalent in beach volleyball, especially during the Olympics.  After reading numerous articles, the most common answer is it's because they want to.  These female athletes openly state it's not to be sexy and a study of the rules will show that these women aren't being forced to wear such things.  They can wear as much as the men.  They simply choose not to.

As for why to male athletes don't wear as little as the women, as stated before, this writer can assume that they don't want to and don't see the benefit in it.  Considering how competitive male athletes are, if they knew wearing bikinis and tennis skirts would help them win, they'd wear them.  Once again, there is no rule stating how little they can wear.

So to wrap things up, men and wear what they wear because they want to.  Believe it or not, nobody is forcing women to wear dresses, so why are people trying so hard to cram men into them.  No matter what societal expectations are or changes happen, people ultimately have to decide for themselves.  No amount of complaining is going to change that.  People who can't decide for themselves are either babies or nothing more than living dolls.

Until next time...