Jenice Armstrong: Mantyhose: A new trend?
MEN IN tights!? There are certain things every self-respecting man should just say no to: manbags, mirdles (girdles for guys) and mantyhose.
MEN IN tights!?
There are certain things every self-respecting man should just say no to: manbags, mirdles (girdles for guys) and mantyhose.
In case you haven't heard, mantyhose are the latest female product that companies are selling to guys. For the record, they're not exactly new. Pantyhose for males have been around for years. But the rise of mantyhose started making headlines only this year after MSNBC did a story about it.
Luckily for me, I missed it. I probably would have gone on not knowing about this undercover development in the menswear department, had I not happened across an article written by a former Daily News city editor on BlackAmericaWeb. The headline read, "Will Mantyhose become the next big thing for men?"
Say it ain't so.
It turns out that some European men have been pulling on pantyhose for years. The Web site e-mancipate. net promotes the concept and even explains how to put them on.
Take it from me: Do it very carefully.
But what I want to know is, why would a guy even think about going there? Most women I know do anything to avoid wearing pantyhose, from slathering their legs with bronzer to wearing trousers no matter the temperature.
Deborah Ashley of Atlanta-based Luxelegwear.com says men opt to don "legwear" because they want a smooth barrier between their slacks and their skin, or else they do it to stay warm. Others think it helps their circulation the way support hosiery does.
Ashley, a 1996 graduate of Temple University's business school, said that before male pantyhose were widely available, men would buy the ones designed for women and slip into them backwards so as to fit over their anatomy more comfortably.
"It's definitely become a lot more popular year by year," she told me yesterday. "The first year I started [in 2006], I didn't have a lot of men. But now, between 75 percent and 80 percent of the customers that purchase from our site are men."
Ashley estimates that her firm sells on average 15 to 20 pairs of mantyhose a day.
And for the record, her customers don't like the word mantyhose. "Guys hate that. I think they prefer that it's called 'tights for men.' "
Condom-column update
Earlier this year, I wrote about an effort to force CVS drugstores to discontinue the practice of locking up condoms in certain urban locations. The group, Change to Win, argued that at a time when HIV infection rates are increasing in the inner cities, people need as much access to condoms as possible.
Yesterday, I got an e-mail from one of the organizers, who wrote, "On March 4th we surveyed all eight stores and found that the condoms had either been removed from the locked cases or the doors to the cases had been removed.
"We think it's great that the CVS stores in Philadelphia have taken this step and we want CVS to ensure this change will be permanent. We urge CVS to adopt a written policy that ensures condoms are permanently unlocked in all communities." *
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