The Coming Death of Men’s Fashion

I come from a period of style that was manly, masculine, leader driven.  A GQ model was akin to James Bond.  Men’s style was a gentle trend that did not swing radically but took careful steps forward, looking dapper but not gaudy, bold but not ostentatious.  Socially, my peers always wanted to be clean cut because that was what women liked, especially in urban settings.  But things changed radically over the last twenty years, and men’s style seems to have lost its way, particularly for the everyday man. Outside of cities, everyone’s in a car from door to door, so a dress coat is no longer necessary.  In cities, men have been castrated and have been coopted by anti-establishment cultural movements.  But looming larger than those, homosexuality and ambiguity has become more acceptable, it has infiltrated men’s fashion, and what they show us is not what we are.  Seeking the dramatic, and societal revolution, witty conservative dress has morphed into something else.  Men want to be sharp, but not if it gets them viewed as bitch assed.  It doesn’t matter if the models are straight—they LOOK homosexual. The clothing is sexually ambiguous.  If you want men, straight men in particular, to have a greater sense of style, then make your choice right now.  You’re not going to have these men (straight) in the same room as those men (gay and gay looking).  In fashion, Straight men and gay men do not co-exist.

Men were lectured by “Queer Eye For the Straight Guy”, which was insulting.  Homosexuals in fashion and their menswear designs were always tinged with a subtle and growingly not so subtle aim to convey sexual ambiguity. Remember in Eddie Murphy’s film “Boomerang” when he as an advertising agent let his gay underling create an ad?  That’s what we’re seeing in fashion and culture today. In my opinion, the more understated the look, the more masculine—as soon as a bunch of stuff is going on with an outfit, the more unmanly it looks.  Put Michael B. Jordan’s head on the outfit at left and it feels totally different; but they insisted on what you see, the ‘Wonder Woman’ headband, the pout, earrings . . . stop!

Also, women have lost their taste for sharp dressed men.  I don’t care what you ladies say, men have learned to follow your actions. YouTube sensation and clinical Psychologist Jordan Peterson said: If you went on TV tonight and said women are sexually aroused by men doing handstands, tomorrow morning you would see men in handstand contests on every corner.  The same goes for style. If you ladies like a well-dressed gentleman, then act like it.  Remember the days of women who loved a man in a suit or uniform?

But women will form themselves into fashion plates and enter the room with a man dressed for a basketball game or day with his sons.  With the above-mentioned advent and takeover by Hip Hop culture, in concert with the desire to not look ‘soft’, this is the current state of men’s fashion.  What used to be a standard and requirement has been cast away for ‘comfortable’, or ‘non-conformist’, and then ‘rebellious’.  Sadly, some women resort to this because the man in question is somehow rich without honoring standards, so they tolerate it–think Mark Zuckerberg and the infamous FU flip flops.  Or, because they perceive that in this day, any man well dressed and bohemian is suspected of being ‘down low’, a secret male homosexual.  The counter is to seek out men as far away from that as possible.

But there is another part to all this, probably larger than everything previously described: Counterculture, Revulsion, Rebellion, Revolution.

Fashion in general, in its effort to stay on top of trends, point direction, and profit off fads, failed to realize that styles were beginning to reflect a counterculture moving away from institutions, of which fashion was one.  The new trend was to tear down what a well-dressed man or woman looks like in spite of fashion, rebelliously deciding that the fashion we grew up with was part of an oppressive culture. Born from this came revolution fashion, seeking to be out front.  The fashion industry decided to embrace the hatred of institutions of which it was one.

Oppositely, men are further discouraged from fashion because the women are less and less feminine women anymore, as was the strategy of designer and feminist Germaine Greer as quoted by P. Mosmann: “Some feminists argued it was necessary to reject feminine fashion by adopting masculine dress.” As described herself by Ms. Greer, she steered toward styles that lessened the feminine in favor of the feminist, as recorded in ‘A feminist fashion icon: Germaine Greer’s paisley coat”.  She strategized removing the appeal of the feminine—unintentionally (or intentionally) removing style motivation men.  She also promoted lesbianism among women.  So, for men, if she is going out in sensible shoes, then why look like Don Draper?

For instance, feminists and female homosexuals had to get women out of dresses, skirts, and any overtly female clothing (especially heels) and into men’s or unisex garments.  The existence of fashion reflecting gender exposes Lesbians every time, so for their continued existence the standard had to be torn down.  This caught on with male homosexuals and became music to future transgenders.  Currently, looking in store windows, determining which models are male or female is not always clear, and this is targeted at your and my children.  I watched a few groups of teenagers in a mall and from behind some were nearly impossible to say which were boys or girls.  Right in our faces, the paramount standard to distinguish a clothed male from a clothed female has been destroyed.  The trend now arisen from the ashes enables androgynous camouflage to those seeking to infiltrate social norms for the purposes of revolution.

It would be naïve to assume that these are the natural changes of style. In my estimation, it is part of a revolutionary cultural movement.  In the past, revolutions were marked by a change in thought and policy—but now the revolution is a wholesale culture, from what one wears to tone of speech to music and even food.  Those who accuse the world of dog whistles are the dog whistlers themselves.  The idea of a pink top with baggy camouflage pants and outlandish hair recreates the hippie movements of the sixties, rebelling against everything.  Part of that rebellion is to tear down any standards.  Those giant faded jeans your daughter is wearing with tears, frays, and holes are to say ‘fuck you’ to institutions.  The young men who cannot see themselves into shoes or a button up shirt are sympathetic to the destruction of standards. Rather than do the work to rise up to the standard, it’s easier to tear it down.

Some rebel as teenagers, but a person over the age of twenty still doing this is stuck in that teenage rebellion, it is no longer an immature trend but a quiet admission of laziness and irresponsibility. Institutions are built on relentless effort and responsibility, but we have a society that no longer gives extra effort or wants to be responsible. Those among you who think it is ‘just a phase’, or ‘harmless’, consider this as you complain about society crumbling around you. Standards are being lowered because you allow it, some of you seek it.  Everyone wants the world to be a better place, but everyone wants someone else to be better; not themselves.

Here and there, some young men will bring the style, but in greater numbers, men want women to present a way that they will not do themselves.  The same for women who are ‘body positive’ but the men they desire are never their equivalent.  The man who seeks the put-together woman is not put-together himself; the woman who wants the male model but isn’t up par herself.

Disclaimer: This does not apply in the Black Community.  Young black women of today culturally do NOT want a put-together man, even if they themselves are well-heeled, for one or more of several reasons:

• A black man in a suit is seen as capitulating to the white man’s system
• A well-groomed/dressed man may be secretly gay or may take attention away from me
• A well-groomed/dressed man cannot and will not be able to handle ‘them streets’ (not tough; black women need their men to be personal pitbulls to attack people in the street)
• If he answers to a standard, then I too will have to

  

My former community is hung up on ‘respect’ and will react with force to ‘disrespect’–but will show up to a funeral in a fitted cap and sagging jeans.  To be fair, if he shows up in a black suit, the commentary directed at him will range from patronizing to chastisement to challenge: “You ain’t gotta do all that, be yo’self n***a!”.

On the other side of the tracks, today’s white men want to have a ‘hottie’ but cannot envision themselves in anything other than faded blue jeans and sweatshirt.  Doing otherwise, other white men will ridicule him.  But at least he’ll be presentable for a funeral.

On a different note, one of my neighbors invited Mrs. Queen and I to their home on Christmas day, which was adorned with lights outside and a lovely Christmas tree within–but surrounded by hard rock paraphernalia such as chrome skulls with red eyes, t-shirts with skeletons showing middle finders topped with a Santa hat, and KISS music. None of the peaceful music of the season. The only dress I ever saw the wife in was in their wedding day photo.  Great people, but standards meant nothing.

Radio talk show host Michael Savage said that to have a nation you must have borders, language, culture.  We have watched our borders compromised, the language requirement all but erased, and now the dismantling of our culture through the institutions. The military uniform once worn proudly in public is foreign and even targeted.  Fashion, and men’s dress is an institution.  If presenting in proper men’s attire and grooming is a problem, then culture is gone, replaced by whims. 

Women who complain of the lack of style in today’s man, you were complicit.  You cheered for the dismantling of culture and now complain that your men are uncultured.  The husband or male suitor who in past generations would have excitedly purchased play tickets to take you to Broadway and made himself handsome that night now wants nothing to do with it—you tore that down, when you made queer men and style acceptable, lectured us about body positivity, and thought your feminist style was more important than our eye.  You did that, not us.  Who does your hair?  Who shares gossip on your radio and TV shows?  Not straight men.  Straight men and gay men do not co-exist. This is how dance died. Once gay men moved in, we moved out.  Not at a party or club, I’m talking performance and professional. And since you brand us homophobic for that condition, we leave the room and let you and your gay allies have the institution. 

Mosmann, P. (2016). A feminist fashion icon: Germaine Greer’s paisley coat. Australian Feminist Studies, 31(87), 78–94. https://doi-org.ezproxy1.apus.edu/10.1080/08164649.2016.1174928