Friday, February 09, 2007

What do modern men really want?

A French hosiery company thinks men want their own line of panty-hose – I shit you not.
DIJON, France (AFP) - One of France's leading hosiery makers is launching a new line for men next month -- pantyhose with a welcome front opening and big feet, available in thick mannish knit but also as sheer tights.

Gerbe, which is based in eastern France, said this week that the country's first hosiery line for men would go on sale in March "due to increasing demand from male clients."

The pantyhose comes with a larger belt than for women as well as an opening, with "Men opaque", "sheer" or "satin" available in four models of tights, with and without feet, and three models of feel-good knee-high hosiery made to help drain toxins and massage tired limbs.

Where’s John Wayne when you need him? But seriously, I am told lumberjacks will actually wear women’s queen-size panty-hose under the thermal long johns for extra warmth while working in the woods during the winter but….I haven’t actually met a man who owned up to it. Lumberjack or not – well except for the Trannie I met in the public laundry mat a few weeks ago (my washer died after 15 years – damn the Japanese and their planned obsolesce).

The Yahoo article goes on suggesting a French fashion messaging board was responding to the announcement “with a touch of scepticism” but before you breathe a sigh of relief for French manhood the comments posted ranged from "Why create pantyhose for men when women's tights are fine?" said one. Tights are unisex," said another, "except that women's are always softer."

I shouldn’t really be too surprised as this was this was one of the military get-ups of French UNIFIL forces deployed last summer in Lebanon. (French soldiers from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).(AFP/Dominique Faget)

French manhood is now officially an oxymoron at The Last Amazon. And for the Last Amazon as well as her mother. I am not sure about the boys. As soon as they can get control of themselves and pick up their heaving selves off the floor - I’ll try asking again. I don’t know, maybe France should seriously consider attracting a huge influx of Lebanese men to coach French males on how to be men and French at the same time.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

ha ha, would you wanna get into contact wearing that crap. no wonder they cut & run!

Mjölnir said...

Well, having spent a great many years as a logger on the wet coast I can give credence to the part about "lumberjacks" wearing pantyhose under their work clothes, but the reasons I heard were that in the wet weather, which was most of the time, they kept the outside pants, which were usually cold and wet denim, from sticking to your legs when you were climbing up and down the hills and log piles all day. I never did try them (really!) as by the time I heard of this I was running machine most of the time, but if they work as well as I heard I probably would have, there is nothing more uncomfortable than having cold wet heavy denim sticking to you when you are running around outside. Another one you may have heard is loggers slathering skin-so-soft on themselves to keep the bugs away, and I can tell you I did this, because it WORKS! Not a horsefly or noseeum or anything else would land on you when you wore that stuff, even if you did "smell like a cheap whore" as we used to say..

Oh, and FYI, the term preferred is "logger", "lumberjack" is not a term you ever heard except in books an Monty Python songs.

Skal!

K. Shoshana said...

Bear, apparently the French UNIFIL are whining big time because the local Lebanese won't sell them shoes...go figure.

AlbertanfromBC, interesting about the skin so soft. I have an old recipe my grandfather use to use but its harsh and dirty. The closest most of my readers get to bush is a scrub around their house or mall so if I used 'logger' they wouldn't get it, and I would probably have a dozen emails complaining about my spelling, though, I am pretty much guarantee everyone has heard of Monty Python - hence lumberjack

Mjölnir said...

gotcha on the lumberjack moniker.

And try the SSS when bug season comes around, you'll be amazed if its still the same stuff. But it has to be the bath oil, not the other stuff Avon makes with the same name, and it only lasts for a few hours. Just get your SO to slather more oil on as needed (say no more say no more)

Skal!

Michael said...

Thank you for the laugh, Kate. As usual, it is much appreciated.

And that photo may go a long way toward explaining French military history over the last 2 centuries...