h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I have one friend who's been asked whether he's sure he's gay, he wears such "normal" clothes...

I recently went to a birthday party for a gay friend in ahouse entirely populated by gay men and all of them dress like mt very straight brother. But they're sleeping together, these guys, so i doubt their clothing can really dictate much to the contrary.

Have you ever read Adrian Mole? There's one scene where his gay friend drives up to his mother's house to deliver a package, and she says "Why are you working for the parcel service? I thought you were gay!" and he says "Being gay's not a job" at which she is all surprised... They're just plain people who happen to have a different sexual oreintation and get just as annoyed as us at those few 2campy" men who make a big issue of it...

Well there are plenty of gay guys who don't like the fashion industry, but that doesn't necessarily mean there are a significant number of straight guys who do.

Why not? If you look at anture and history, it's usually the males who are and were more flamboyant in dress etc. So that can't mean it's unnatural. Maybe there just aren't a lot who dare admit it these days!

I was talking about the people who design clothes. And the ones who decide who to use as fashion models. Go nag them and leave the rest of us alone, as we already like curviness.

Men dress more flamboyantly? Except for that period with Louis XIV, I wouldn't say so. Though I just saw a program on BBC the other day, something about an organisation called SAPE. It consisted of people with a religious devotion to expensive clothes. Made those Sex & The City women seem like amateurs. It was rather toe-cringing.

And I forgot to mention these people seemed all to be men. €8000 for a jacket is just insane.

Have you ever really looked at medieval clothing? The men were wearing the expensive jewels, bright colours, emphasized waists etc. while the church "strongly encouraged" women to wear shapeless sacks...

They just can't find any other way to demonstrate power. At least that way is comparatively harmless...

The sections of men we know about from the middle ages are hardly analogous to the majority of men today now are they. And hey, the biggest offenders being the Byzantine royals with their purple robes were considered effeminate by western Europeans .

No, but they are what a large section of the men would have LIKED to be like. Anything beats being a peasant, but why not try for being a noble? That's why so many clothing laws were instated limiting amount, type and colour of cloth used for clothing, length of shoe-tips, all kinds of things!

i'm the type of male that like "comphy" clobber! i hav'ent wore a suit in about 25 years now, the last wedding i turned out to I wore T-shirt and flipflops (and before you lot say anything as your inclined to do, there was other clothing involved too)they knew what i was like and i was even in some of the pictures too, but i have come to an arrangement with the rest of the world, Bog off!

thank you for reading RJR

I won't protest your philosophy as logn as you have the right motivation: do you wear it because it's comfortable, or because you want to shock and annoy those around you by sending that message?

Well you say that, but a lot of guys nowadays would like to be David Beckham but have no inclination to do their hair like his or wear a sarong or Victoria Beckham.

Yes, but there's often the belief that the right paraphenelia can make you the person you want to be. In german, we have a saying "Die Kleidung macht den Mann" - the clothing makes the man. There's a lot of evidence to support this, look how severe the reactions to uniforms can be, how well-dessed people are treated differently et. Did you see "catch me if you can"? that's the phneomenon I'm talking about.

Dressing nicely is one thing. Running around dressed like a pimp on clothes that costs more than the gross national product of most countries is another.

I'm not saying I LIKE that kind of dressers. You are how you dress. Dressing like that makes one a pompous ass. I like my guys dressed cleanly (patina is ok, mind), in clothing that fits and is servicable, and preferably not that particular shade of maroon. Fashion victims, whichever trend they follow, are not my thing. Unless of course it's ironic...

I always wear jeans and a t-shirt. Its cause i play rock guitar and it goes with the image. But its a brilliant plan cause for that rare occasion where i wear a nice suit, the ladies go crazy cause they never see me dressed nice. I am an attention wh**e

cus its comphy!


RJR

If I dressed according to what I did, I'd have to wear all black, tending toward turtlenecks and never ever with a necktie