Are we "Herd Animals?"

I have noticed that the modern man choice in clothing has shifted towards total conformity, with an accompanying drop in personal fashion sense. Women now dress more like men, simply out of laziness, and the fact that women are tending towards male characteristics in general. I can remember when my mother would never even THINK about appearing in public without being 'presentable', but now a trip to your local Wal-Mart will show how much THAT'S changed. People actually wear their pajamas and house shoes shopping.


What's revealing is that the American male will spend millions on things that he is assured will make him sexually irresistible, but will not move one inch beyond what is accepted as normal male clothing. A fashion conscious male is automatically suspected of being gay. Men dress to fit in, not stand out . . . not what they want but what others want of them.


I think that men in general are herd animals when it comes to outward appearances, and seek conformity. Women tend to seek individual expression in their dress, and that may be one of the first manifestations of evolving gender unification. I've read where many women have stated one of the greatest pleasures they get from their femininity is in clothing, and freeing themselves from their male counterparts.


Women have FAR more latitude in what they can wear. Men wear pants, shirts, shoes, and jackets (which serve as a social status indicator) and that's pretty much it. Hats are rare, are generally just caps anymore, but up until the '50s, a well dressed man
ALWAYS wore a hat. Suits haven't changed fundamentally over the last 200 years, while women's fashions have gone through some extreme changes.


But I think my point is that people are so bound up in gender identification modes that they have been conditioned to react negatively to ANYTHING outside the strictures social norm. Women can wear male clothing, as that projects an image of masculine strength, which modern society has accepted. But for a male to wear anything even subtlety outside the norm gets him looked at with suspicion. A kilt is not a skirt, it is a male article, I can not understand why some people want to try and make something out of it other than what it is; Masculine male attire.