Thanks. Wow, so that was a style once? So many things pass me by…
Shoot. That look (and the self-cutoff) is a love potion for me, as long as the guy isn’t un-fit.
It was big in the Southwest. Still some wolves out there. Not sure if Pennsylvania ever jumped on that train.
Probably forever. Even “regular” clothes for guys tend to be roomy, and I think there are a lot of factors, both cultural and physical, that feed into that. One is overweight, which as I mentioned has got to be feeding into the exposed shirt-tail trend. I have never in my life seen so many adult guys going around with shirt-tails out, even when wearing the kind of shirt that, theoretically, is supposed to be tucked in. In my cantankerous opinion, they all look like they’re in the fourth grade. I can see why fat guys do it, but fit guys follow suit.
Another factor (IMO) is that, in recent decades, mainstream culture has come to despise the male anatomy, specifically our manly bits but also anything in the region, like backside, thighs, and so on. A cardinal design axiom in mainstream fashion seems to be that no article of clothing shall be permitted to give away any hint of the wearer’s male anatomy, which means that trousers have to hang off us like a set of curtains. Trunks and swimsuits, at least, used to be an exceptional case; since at the beach, skimpier and more revealing attire was expected and accepted for everyone. Even apart from Speedos, which were never very popular anyway, men’s trunks used to be quite short, and fairly snug. But now even our boardshorts fit like dress trousers and reach the knees.
I like the look of a button-down shirt untucked on college age guys. I liked it when I was in college and even now. I don’t like it on grown men–unless they’re at a picnic where they’ve been playing frisby or softball etc.
I don’t understand men’s shorts these days. Why is baggy better? I don’t want to return to those oh so tight short of the late 70s, but come on…
IMO, wolf shirts were never IN fashion. They just were worn by a lot of people.
Actually I did have a wolf T-shirt that I bought in the early 1990s at a Steppenwolf concert. I’m a few years too young to have seen them when they were a contemporary band, but I always liked their music.
Shorts, trunks, yeah. I don’t get it either. What I was trying to say in my last post was, in the old days, you’d wear short trunks to swim in, or exercise shorts at the gym, or even just short casual shorts that hit at mid-thigh or even above. Given that they were that short, they had to be quite tight by today’s standards, because with today’s shorts, the crotch usually dangles down at or below where the legs used to end in the old days.
With all that in mind, you didn’t need to hear a person speak to know he was male, but one just ignored it. Nowadays, by contrast, if a man appears in such gear it seems people want to scream OH MY GOD HE’S GOT A BULGE!! Well of course! All men have one. While one wouldn’t wear his little shorts to a restaurant or at any but the most casual social gatherings, it was perfectly OK by the pool, at the gym or tennis court, or just hanging around the house.
This is what makes me believe that the male anatomy has become vilified of late. Why that is I don’t know, but I think it has something to do with homophobia. Straight guys are terrified of being perceived as gay, and they don’t want any gay guys looking at them in that way. I’m straight myself, so what I"m saying here may be pure hogwash. I don’t know what goes on in the mind of a gay man, but I have to assume that he’s going to be a lot more interested in what other guys look like than a straight guy would be, just by nature.
And speaking of tie-dyed clothing and stereotypes, when the Peace Corps pulled out of the Philippines due to the risk of violence – about 1990 or 1991 I think it was – one of the evacuees told me they lampooned the event on on a local television skit, and the actors portraying the Volunteers all wore tie-dyed T-shirts. 
People who wear their pants or shorts with the crotch down to the knees and the waistband down so low that half their boxers are showing might as well have the word LOSER tattooed on their forehead.
I don’t know about any one else, but I want pictures.
We live next door to a high school.
Recently my wife and I were leaving the house around 3PM and she kept pointing out that not many people seemed to be carrying books. IN the interest of full disclosure let me mention that I’m just old enough to have attended high school before backpacks* became popular, and she’s a few years older yet. I’m sure most of the students had a book or two in their backpacks.
Still, I couldn’t resist offering the explanation that the boys all need to keep one hand free to hold their sagging pants up, so it was difficult to carry books.
*How did we do it before backpacks, you ask? We just carried them in our hands. And if you were male, you were expected to carry them in one hand against your hip, arm straight. If you held them up in front of you with both hands, you would be derided as effeminate, since that’s how the girls usually did it.
We had bookbags and satchels.
Spectre, I’m afraid you may be right about the male-body hatred. As a straight female, it saddens and puzzles me. (I never had any problem with those 70s shorts!)
I, for one, despise the roomy/baggy look like you, but thanks to “metrosexual” fashions coming into vogue, it’s been possible for me-- difficult, but possible-- to find well-fitted men’s clothing off the rack, even in places like Sears and Kohls. And this is no mean feat, as my build is quite slight compared to most. (It also helps to have access to a local alterations shop.)
I’ve noticed that women notice when a guy is wearing properly fitting clothes. Makes the shopping pain worthwhile. I may hate the fact that most men love baggy clothes, but it also makes it much easier to stand out and look well put together.
I went to HS from 1976-1980 and nary a book bag of satchel to be seen. Unless you were a beyond redemption nerd. I often wanted a book strap ala Tom Sawyer–it seemed so sensible, but never saw one in use, alas.
And if girls carried their books down against their leg with their carrying arm straight, that was considered mannish, so it cut both ways.
Yup, but like I said, it’s an entirely different crowd; truck drivers, “hard” women, motorcyclists (wolves and motorcycles are often depicted together on shirts), and those who lead a more “Appalachian” lifestyle.
Punk whippersnapper! Get off my lawn! :mad:
I never tuck my shirts in even though I’m normal-weight and fit, the reason being that I was born with a mighty swayback and unusually protruding buttocks (mostly bone). Tucking my shirt in makes me look weird and effeminate. I learned this early on when a group of teenage girls followed me around in a mall, giggling how I have a huge ass (I weighed app. 130 lbs.). Never again.