Fashion or Gay?

According to a survey conducted by an authority, about 69.9% of Americans said at least one of their acquaintances was gay. No wonder the same-sex relationship draws great attention of the public. Let's just have a look at the following facts:

1. A constitutional amendment banning gay marriage ranks 21st out of 22 issues of importance to Americans.

2. Marriage and family recognition issues affecting same-sex couples have played a recurrent and central role in U.S. presidential politics.

3. Internationally there is a distinct trend toward protecting the committed relationships of same-sex couples. For example, 14 countries, including South Africa, Israel, and Britain, protect same-sex couples.

4. In addition, it is said that in the presidential election of America, candidate's attitude toward gays, guns, and abortion has direct relation with the final result since it is likely that close to 10% of democratic primary voters are gay, lesbian, or bisexual. Therefore, in a close election, gay votes can make the difference between victory and defeat.

I don't care about social or political impact of gays, what attracts me is the relationship between fashion and gays, which seems to have great influence on the attitude of Americans, especially men toward dressing. Believe it or not, in their mind, fashion is tightly connected with gays. Generally speaking in Americans'eyes, gay guys have following similar features:

1. Fashionable and stylish. Pay attention to fashion and have a good eye for fashion.

2. Well-dressed. Carefully select and match their clothes, impressing others as tasteful and delicate.

3. Showing affection toward silk clothes and tight dresses.

4. Often going to the gym to keep a perfect figure.

5. Handsome, considerate and easy-going with girls.

Actually many TV plays and movies illustrate the appearance of gays. Take the hot TV series Queer Eye for the Straight Guy for an example. It talks about how five gay guys save a straight man who knows nothing about fashion. From wardrobe, hairdressing, fine food, room arrangement, to life style, these five gay guys display their insightful view toward fashion, successfully changing the straight guy's image. It seems that only gays can really catch the essence of fashion.

There's no story without coincidence. Most renowned American designers of women dresses are gays, such as Dior, Yve Saint Laurent, Giorgio Armani, Marc Jacobs, Michael Kors, etc. Even Tim Gunn, chairman of fashion design department of Parsons The New School for Design, doesn't cover his gay romance. After appearing in the live fashion program Project Runway, he completely becomes a stylish idol of gays. Gradually, an underlying principle that works in design circle is: he should be a gay if he wants to be an excellent fashion designer. Sometimes I even doubt that some designers who are said to be gays are actually not gays. They just use the status as gays to increase their popularity. No matter you look back the history, or check the situation in big cities, such as New York and Paris, it will surprise you to find that a history of fashion is actually a history of gays.

Considering about the relationship between fashion and gays, many common men, or as it is said straight men, dare not to be fashionable. So you will find that few Americans wear pink shirts as our British do; Asian men like to carry Louis Vuitton bags while Americans never carry. No wonder most products of Ed hardy, an American brand, are sold outside America and the sale of lovely UGG boots is low in America. Actually, Americans have been inculcated the relation between fashion and sex when they were born. In hospital, a newborn boy is packed with blue cloth while girl's is pink. So you see if a mom sticks to pack her boy with pink, she will suffer from great pressure.

I ever read an interesting article in Details. Its topic contained two questions: "British or gays?" "Asian or gays?" and there were two pictures under each question respectively. In one picture, it was a fashionable British man while an Asian man with stylish dresses was on the other picture. Americans were totally at a loss when they saw the two fashionable guys, so they posed the above two questions. In their mind, no one but gay can be so "fashionable". They even list down many details in dressing of the two guys, such as hairstyle, long nail, smooth chest, shining shoes, florid sunglasses, etc. to support their view: they two are gays.

After reading this article, I can't help thinking what's fashion? What can American males wear?

By the way, how can an American compete with a British or a Frenchman when they pick up the same girl?