<p>This question occurred to me as I was looking at the episode list for a recent season of “What Not to Wear” and noticed that all of the participants were women. D and I have watched the show together, and I cannot recall a single man who has been on the show. D has said that she should nominate me because my wardrobe is very boring – which for the most part it is. But so is my H’s, and so are the clothes that my male colleagues wear to work (except for the one who wears Hawaiian shirts, but that’s another story). </p>
<p>I think it is probably true that women do in general care more than men about dressing fashionably, but does that mean that it is worse for a woman to not care about fashion than it is for a man to not care about fashion?</p>
<p>If they brought a man on that show and said the mean, catty things they pass off as constructive criticism, the man would not have the reaction women have and the show would end.</p>
<p>It’s easy to see why WNTW dropped episodes with men–men’s clothing options are so limited compared to women’s, a better haircut is rarely a significant change, and of course there’s no role for Carmindy. It was very hard to make an interesting hour, and the dramatic “reveal” at the end just wasn’t all that dramatic for the men.</p>
<p>Men aren’t supposed to draw attention to themselves with their clothes and aren’t supposed to really follow the “trends”, whereas women often will try to dress “trendy.”</p>
<p>The only time most guys will ever dress according to the latest trends is between prepubescence and the late 20s.</p>
<p>The question would be, if a woman or a man stopped dressing fashionably, would anyone notice? If anyone did notice, would it be the men or the women that she interacts with? And if anyone did notice, would they care about it enough to affect their relationship?</p>
A guy who wears expensive suits or watches wants to be respected and wants to communicate the fact that he has lots of money. That certainly might catch the eye, but it catches the eye in a sort of “handsome and dignified” way, rather than in a “hot and sexy” way.</p>
<p>Not sure this applies universally. In my old NYC working-class White/Latino neighborhood, if any boy/man paid too much to dressing in the latest fashions or even very well…he’d be targeted for homophobic taunts and beatings. </p>
<p>It was unkempt actual ripped up jeans* and hole-ridden t-shirts for us. </p>
<p>If he was dressing to impress girls/women, he’d be considered “emasculated” and “whipped” by the girl/woman in question. </p>
<p>Also, many hardcore STEM techies in high school and work felt paying too much attention to aesthetics/fashion marked one as “intellectually inferior” and "not having one’s priorities straight. </p>
<ul>
<li>Ripped up and holed from actual heavy wear and tear…not pre-ripped from chain stores like the GAP.</li>
</ul>
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<p>Sometimes on some private college campuses, some middle/upper middle-class students could also interpret that as someone attempting to imitate their perception of how the wealthy monied elite dressed. </p>
<p>Some older relatives/HS classmates who attended elite private colleges have found the real wealthy classmates turned out to be ones who made it a point to dress no differently or even more unkempt-ly than the rest of the campus. </p>
<p>One older cousin-in-law found a college classmate at Princeton who dressed really shabbily turned out to be the son of one of Hong Kong’s most prominent billionaires. Turned out he was doing this to not only avoid advertising his wealth, but also to facilitate his fitting in well so his social circle isn’t limited to those from his family’s socio-economic class. She didn’t find out until graduation when she met his parents and her parents mentioned it to her.</p>