Tights are making their comeback. After years of haitus and poor economic status, tights have changed their colors and patterns and have strutted back on to the runway looking fresher than ever. Although tights are a fashion accessory, hosiery has defined gender roles as much as the male Shakesperian actors who used them to play both "Romeo and Juliet". Some believe the psychological battle of hosiery is the sexual connotation that comes along with the sheer seamless cling. Orginally put on women to control and cover them the idea of hoisery could be calssified as "indirect sexism" a title that is common in feminist circles. Indirect sexism can be defined as sexism which manifests itself at the level of presupposition, and also through innuendo, irony and humor, or which is prefaced by disclaimers or hesitation (Mills, 1998). Women wore tights to cover and confine themselves. The first scandalous pictures of women were garter belt clad pages in magazines and still is regarded today is a fetish or fantasy.
Tights and hoisery have suffocated the legs of men and women for centuries. Orignally dervied from Europe during the 18th and 19th century, only men wore hoisery for the means of horseback riding. They were also considered chic for men, because even the King would stuff his hose at his calf to flaunt his covered legs. But as men's knee length breeches evolved into trousers tights for men became obsolete. Womens hemlines however were scnadelously climbing off the off the floor and rising first above the ankles and then to knees. Hoisery became a neccestiaty for women until World War II, but as budgets shrunk propagnda discouraged women from spending frivilous money. Women found themsleves bending into unsual and foregin positions trying to draw a thin line on the back of the leg creating the illusion of a modest women in tights. After the war ended and the economy regained its equilibrium, the feminist movement began and under garments were thrown into flames and hosiery was on it's way out. With a rejuvenated mindset, women began to be more natural, more comfortable, and less inhibited. In the 90's, sales for hosiery plunged, and as of a few years ago, hosiery began its revival .
American Apparel's signature accessory are tights of every texture and color. In fall of 2007, AA placed an ad in downtown New York City on Houston Street of a waifish female figure form behind. She was wearing only tights, emphasis on the only, with her legs stretched out and her body bent forward. Although there is no nudity, the ad evokes the mood of a seedy poorly lit underage teen in a basement with a Polaroid camera, which is par for the course of AA advertisement. Many believe that this American Apparel ad was pushing limits of tact in marketing. Shortly after the ad was put up, the billboard was tagged with spray paint. But instead of stylized initials, the letters read "Gee, I wonder why women get raped?". American Apparel quickly changed out the 50 foot photograph, but the cultural relevance is still legible. Is this considered indirect sexism or empowerment to female sexuality? This is the core problem between the second and third wave movements of feminism. Third wave feminism has adapted broader interpretations of words like "sexuality,""empowerment," and "sexual oppression," while second wave feminism focuses on the psychological conditioning of sexual stereotypes.
In 2000, Malcom Gladwell's "the Tipping Point" was published hypothesizing about sociological changes in trends and everyday life. The Tipping Point is a sociological term used to define the place in which a trend reaches a certain point in popularity and then tips. Gladwell's first example is Hush Puppy shoes in the early 1990's. Once considered cheap and out of style, they marched their way into young hipsters closets, tipped, and ended up on the runway. This theory can be applied to the sexual connotation of tights. With the third wave on the rise there has been a resurge of looser ideology of female sexuality and with this ideology the public witnesses hosiery back in style. Some may argue that the two may not be linked, but the cultural evidence rings true. Designer's intentions may not support a new ideology, but the public is obviously responding to the trend, whether through a spray paint can or a trip to American Apparel to pick up a pair of tights they saw in an ad.
Really the skibby socks aren't even my skibbies, they are my boyfriend's size 12 socks who mistakenly took a wrong turn and ended up in my drawer. I suppose on the right foot they are just socks, but on my feet, they look skibby. Some of you may be asking yourself 'what are skibby socks?'. While on the subject of my boyfriend, his endearingly redneck father introduced me to the phrase, and it basically means your comfy/ trashy clothes. See Ex.B
