A few days ago I came across an article covering news of a company manufacturing and selling women’s lingerie meant for men. Seemed like a simple enough idea, if there were men who decided to wear such garments they should have the freedom to do so, after all we as women have been appropriating men’s fashion in our own way for ages now. In fact we don’t even have to use this example here to realize that what a person wears is solely her/his own personal matter, and what she/he chooses to wear in private is all the more so. Yet this simple enough idea ended up eliciting more than its share of hostility.
Furthermore, all those who tried supporting the matter got labelled as ‘creepy’, ‘unladylike’ and the ever popularizing ‘feminazi’. This response left me a little nonplussed and for good reason. For you see, today the social media is rife with articles on the injustices and inequalities meted out to women, and each such article apart from eliciting sympathetic reactions always invites a barrage of hostility.
The hostile bunch comes out with all arms bared to prove that all such issues are a sham and the author a fraud. Their main argument seems to be that such viewpoints unduly stacks the pile high against men, and that feminists (irrespective of their genders) are hypocrites as they claim to want equality for women while seeking discrimination. They further claim to be the voice of truth and reason and suggest that only equality between both genders should be demanded and worked for in all aspects.
Keeping all of this in mind you can well understand my confusion with regards to the reaction to the ‘lingerie for men’ issue. Here was a clear opportunity for men to have the same freedom to dress in the opposite gender’s clothes if they willed so, like we women have. Yet the so-called seekers of equality saw this as a repulsive gesture, probably even the expression of a perverse psyche. Some were even quick to remind us that there should always be certain discrimination between men and women as they were a part of nature.
Such hostility to men having the option of wearing lingerie in the privacy of their own quarters makes me ask, whether what these individuals are seeking is truly equality among genders or just another way of preserving and perpetuating the hackneyed ways of status quo? For whether we claim that there is nothing wrong in a women wearing a pair of shorts in summer or a man choosing a lace negligee for himself, their reaction seems to be remarkably the same i.e. a resounding no to both.
Now if what they were really worried and thinking about was all round equality among men and women then the proposition of ‘lingerie for men’ would have been an innocuous affair, may be even a mundane one, much less the contentious topic it seemed to have become. Furthermore, these individuals in their bid to maintain the status quo mete out another brand of inequality themselves, that of denying the perceived ‘detractors’ the same right to choose their own garments as they do. If they were such ardent promoters of equality they would have at least extended others the same equality of choice they have, especially in a matter where such choice does in no way infringe upon similar rights of others.
So next time you read similar assertions being made by the advocates of ‘equality’ and ‘egalitarianism’ question whether it is really a genuine concern for these so-called values or simply a camouflaged attempt to resist change?
