(Prove me wrong people, prove me wrong but first read this article and tell me what you disagree with.)
That much said this GQ article but Buzz Bissinger, author of Friday Night Lights, is one of the more fascinating things I've read in awhile. Ostensibly the article is about his shopping addiction but I found by far the most interesting stuff was about his interest in leather and his musings about masculinity and self-expression.
"Some of the clothing is men's. Some is women's. I make no distinction. Men's fashion is catching up, with high-end retailers such as Gucci and Burberry and Versace finally honoring us. But women's fashion is still infinitely more interesting and has an unfair monopoly on feeling sexy, and if the clothing you wear makes you feel the way you want to feel, liberated and alive, then fucking wear it. The opposite, to repress yourself as I did for the first fifty-five years of my life, is the worst price of all to pay. The United States is a country that has raged against enlightenment since 1776; puritanism, the guiding lantern, has cast its withering judgment on anything outside the narrow societal mainstream. Think it's easy to be different in America? Try something as benign as wearing stretch leather leggings or knee-high boots if you are a man."It's a brave, at times rambling and distinctly odd piece but worth a read. It's also, in a very perverse way, made me want to go shopping. Because I am the worst.
