i feel like non-feminine fanciness used to be a much bigger part of the option space for male gender roles

not everywhere & certainly not for everyone but like, it's something that feels missing to me & i wonder exactly what happened

in the examples i can think of, it was only very upperclass ppl exhibiting this

but we have more resources now....why is it completely gone

here are a couple of theories, im going to ignore the "18th c revolutions" aspect of all this assuming we can take it as a given

--beau brummel did it haha jk

i wonder how much the relaxing of gendered dress distinction had to do w this. if women wear dresses & men wear pants, the frilliest braidedest little officer uniform will look masculine

i also wonder how much the collapse of fighting as a regular part of life relates to this. most of the examples pf male fanciness that have been brought up in.this thread (& mostly by girls u will notice) are war related