Week 7: From Flannel Shirts and Denims to...Mantyhose?

Masculinity is dead; yet it is undergoing a revolution from beyond the grave. To use Brenda O’Sullivan’s phrase from “Dead Man Walking”; “sometimes death doesn’t matter, sometimes a carcass suffices” (101). After all, if traditional masculinity were truly dead and forgotten why would some new products for men still hold a degree of taboo for being feminine?

The article I chose for this week explores the growing ‘mantyhose’ movement in the United States. The man who previously wore ladies’ pantyhose “to keep him[self] warm” (Rao) or simply for “support, comfort and aesthetic purposes” (Rao) need no longer feel weird for donning lady ware. Nylons now come in his and hers varieties. Perhaps the increased, albeit still small, proportion of American men wearing hose is in part due to the increased varieties of masculinity portrayed in the media. There is more than the traditional ‘macho’ male on TV, in fact “there is now an explosion…of possibilities” (O’Sullivan, 101). There’s now the lovable beta-male, the slob, and shows such as Queer Eye and Will & Grace featuring homosexual males. Perhaps its helped to slightly lessen the stigma of being anything less than 100% macho. However the stigma is still there, for men and women. All of the men in the article denied giving their last names, one citing the embarrassment of his wife as the reason. The controversy involved show that we still believe the traditional idea of a man is necessary, if not only to show house the 21st century mantyhose man is so radically different from the past. The ‘mantyhose’ debate makes it clear that masculinity isn’t dead. It just wears nylons now.

The rising ‘new masculinity’ is not limited to only making pantyhose for a fella okay. The new masculinity allows other aspects of men’s appearances to vary. The traditional man had to be tall, muscular, gruff and physically intimidating. Men and boys who were slight of build, short and who appeared “weak” were mocked and slighted. This wider norm of appearance for the new man can extend to the new woman as well. The cultural construction has told men that they need a woman to be tall, blond and anorexic with silicone implants in her breasts to consider her sexy or “hot”. Perhaps new masculinity will help change women’s beauty standards as well as men’s. Men will be able to see women as beautiful outside of the narrow range that is expected to be thought of as beautiful by the traditional man.

~Kristen M.

Link to the MSNBC Article:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28527841/




In the video above it is still clear that "mantyhose" while gaining in favor is still seen by some as a joke. Note the laughter of the crew and male anchor.




In this video John Green (a young adult author and vlogger) notes ways for a 15 year-old girl, who emailed him, to get boys to like her and in the process discusses the culturally contructed expectations for "hotness" as defined by traditional masculinity.