Ever since I moved to the states, one thing has really bugged me. Why, oh why, so American men wear nothing but white socks?
You think we’re bad, try going to Japan.
I’ve generally found you can tell Europeans by their footwear. Clunky shoes are a tip-off; colored socks with sandals are a dead giveaway…
I dunno about all American men. Of course, in Boston, they wear Red Sox. When I was in London, I noticed that all the policemen wore Bobby socks. In Russia, they wear Vladivostsocks.
Now, in the U.S., the President, his feet live in the White Hose. But Congressmen, they wear the Hose of Representatives. They buy their footwear at Socks Fifth Avenue.
The biggest stocking in the world, of course, is the Sock of Gibralter. And the animal who wears the most hosiery is the socktopus.
I’d go on, but it’s almost time for trick-or-treating, it’s Socktober. A suggestion, Colin, don’t make too many generalizations about socks – they’ll all think you’re a knit-wit.
Um, what American men have you been looking at? I rarely see white sox outside of an athletic event. Otherwise, pretty much everyone I know wears dress socks, usually black, navy, or dark brown.
I wear only white socks (“sweat socks”, I believe they’re called) because I find them comfortable; dress socks are annoying. But anyone wearing a suit is likely to be wearing dark socks, IME.
I wear white socks when I wear shorts. But only then. For some reason, white guy’s bare legs look pretty silly with dark socks.
CK, put a sock in it. Those weren’t even groan-worthy.
Oh, I wouldn’t say that I wear nothing but white socks. Usually, I try to have a pair of underpants on, too.
Dave Barry once wrote a column asking why dark socks look so stupid with shorts. I don’t remember the conclusion he came to. In this country, it seems our society deems dress socks as æsthetically offensive by themselves. People who wear white socks with a suit are just slobs, though. Athletic socks are more comfortable as well.
Because most of the socks you find in your garden variety clothing store are white. Also, because it’s a neutral color. But, as has been stated, with suits, the white has gotta go.
I wear sox of blue, brown, black or gray. I dislike white sox.
I love the multicolored sox on girls, especially the knee high, but the same sox on guys makes me wonder about them. I dislike the look of guys in sandals wearing white sox and consider any business man in a suit and expensive shoes wearing white sox as probably not all that serious.
I met a guy from Sweden once wearing rainbow socks, along with tight short shorts, who was tall, buffed and who made me uncomfortable, even though he was normal.
I’ve noticed that most American men do wear white socks only. New York seems to be an anomoly to this; since I moved here, I’ve seen few men wearing white socks. It’s funny that you should mention this, since just yesterday I noticed a man wearing white socks with dress shoes and a suit. I think he was a south Asian immigrant; I don’t know. He was, I could tell, no more a New Yorker than I am, at any rate. White socks seem to be the preferred type for the bulk of Americans outside this city, but I have no idea why. I’ve always thought that wearing white socks on all occasions is tacky. I have a few pairs of white socks to wear while exercising, but that’s about it.
My sock collection is vast, comprising several hundred pairs. My favorite is argyle, but any cool patterns appeal to me. I have pairs of solid, dark-colored dress socks, but unless I’m going to a funeral or a job interview, I’ll go with colored socks.
I was involved in the Boston to New York AIDS Ride this year and I met a guy who biked with argyles on. Damn, that’s cool. I might have to borrow his idea.
Socks seems to be an interesting thread topic of late see http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=43111 for more related information.
I have noticed this more and more of late as i have entered the computer field. It seems as though clothing and mannerism is something that people who enter the professional fields are paying less and less attention to. Frankly i regard the practice of wearing “tube socks” or “athletic socks” with slacks or dress shoes as laziness and lack of attention to detail. And in my hiring practices I do make note of it. I have a natural mistrust for people who neglect personal appearance and regard them as naieve or foolish. After all, if someone pays no attention to their own socks what else might they pay no attnetion to?
As an aside, I am an American born and bred and also on the left coast where it is a stereotype to “slack” a bit.
Interesting. I have a long-learned mistrust of fops who are always dressed to the nines. They are invariably promoted to leadership positions by incompetent managers who prefer style to substance while the people who actually know what they are doing are apparently penalized for prefering to invest their energies in understanding their trade more than their haberdasher.
Sorry. Over-reaction, of course. I do not wear white socks with dress shoes and I have, on at least one occasion, voted to remain in a place where the employees would need to wear ties rather than move to a site that would have allowed casual dress, because the casual site was going to be distant from our user community and I preferred to be located where I could provide service rather than where I could dress comfortably.
On the other hand, while I can certainly name the three programmers (in 20 years) with whom I have worked who paid great attention to clothing detail and were very competent programmers, I have to get out pen and paper to begin creating the list of idiots who were, indeed, consistently promoted into management (apparently for dressing well) while providing no service to the users, no aid to their associates, and no benefit to the company.
I wear “dress” shirts even in “casual” shops, eschewing polo shirts, flannels, and dark colors–mostly because I have a generally rumpled look and I see no need to look *more[/] rumpled. However, my work is superior even when I stagger in for maintenance at 2:00 am in ragged jeans and wrinkled shirt.
Tom I don’t disagree with you at all. And have seen it myself all too often. But I decide to dress as I do because i have pride in my appearance and I am not naieve about how people judge appearance. Since I am aware of the world which I live in and I know that how you look is important even when it shouldn’t be then someone who ignores this fact strikes me as either being obstinate and of the “I’m a rebel to deal with it” school of thought or has his/her head in the clouds about the real world and therefore can he or she be truested to enact the six later firewall protection I assigned to him or her without using a shortcut and botching the job?
It’s like this: If I go to buy a car I want the car to be clean. Does the cleanliness have any effect on the car? No, but it shows me two things that a dirty car does not. It shows me someone pays attention to the car and it shows me the seller is aware of the fact that in the real world clean cars sell better. Thus indicating the person selling it probably had the sense to change the oil a few times as he or she is a realist and practical.
Even though a clean car and matching socks in and of themselves about the owner of either they both do end up having meaning.
I too have seen people get promoted for no other obvious reason than how they looked. Of course since i enjoy thinking on occasion, instead of bitching about it and telling people how it was unfair I began to dress up a bit. When the next round of promotions came down at that site upper management had more than just fluff to choose from. They had Mr.Looks, Mr.Brains, and Mr.LooksBrains to choose from. You guess who got the promotion. I mean we all know it it a facet of every job, so those who claim intelligence and yet don’t dress for promotion are either looking for something to bitch about or don’t care about the promotion enough so they don’t deserve it.
Regards,
I’ve gotten over my sock thing finally. At one time, think it was back in the late seventies, my socks, underwear and belt all matched in color. Now I prefer wearing black stockings with most everything.
Guys in white socks use to really irk me but I’ve overcome that as well. As long as they don’t insist on wearing them in bed I guess I can over look white socks with a pair of sneakers but definatly not with dress shoes. I haven’t come that far
ive hardly got any socks at all.its a common problem in scotland,put 5 pairs of socks in the washing machine and your lucky if you get 1 matching pair back.where do they all go?now socks and sandals thats another no no.
men who wear socks and sandals hardly get any sex.
men who wear sandals without socks get their fair share.
men who wear their socks over their sandals must be getting to much,i dont wear sandals so i dont know where that leaves me.
Years ago, I somehow came into possession of this proposal for a PhD thesis:
It’s been about 20 years since I got this, so I expect that there have been further advances in the meantime. Anyone know the latest research?
I had always heard it expressed as a consequence of the Pauli exclusion principle, that no two socks in the same state can exist in the same washing machine at once.
Of course, the real explanation to why socks disappear, is that people throw them out.
The stereotypical American man hates to shop for clothing. When he needs socks, he goes into a store and grabs a package of socks. Since most socks are white, it is most likely that he has grabbed a package of white socks. Same goes for underwear, too, probably, especially if he prefers briefs.
My husband always wears white socks because that’s what his mommy buys for him. She still buys him socks, especially at Christmas time. Actually, she buys me socks, too–men’s white athletic socks that strangely resemble all the socks in my husband’s drawer. They don’t even fit me. So my husband gets even more socks. At least she doesn’t buy us underwear :eek:.