Why We Fear Men In Lingerie

This article jumps in the deep end, but don't worry, it makes sense in the end, I promise.

As recently as WWII, European communities had to contend with the possibility of being wiped out. Men went away to war, leaving only the frail, the sick and the young. Upon their return from war, we saw the conception of the baby boomer generation, a generation founded on all important 'family values'.

These so called family values were important in a time in which many strong, virile men had been lost. Any population that experiences conflict will invariably experience a rise in birth rates after the fact, usually to compensate for losses, perceived or real.

At the time, therefore, it seemed important that men be 'real men' and women be 'real women'. The end of WWII was over almost 70 years ago. Since that fateful day in 1945, we have experienced a global boom in population which is putting the survival of our planet at risk.

We are also seeing an increase in men and women staying single for longer, choosing not to have children, and exploring and expressing their homosexuality, if they happen to be wired that way. I say exploring and expressing because the time in which we now live gives more leeway for people to be gay than ever before. There were gay people a plenty in 1945 as well, however they were not looked upon kindly, possibly because their 'decision'to be gay threatened the breeding potential of a community.

Are we really all about the simple act of reproduction? As individuals, perhaps not, as societies, we do seem to behave in the best interests of the survival of the species, or the group. Lean times call for more conservative traditions (ie, those which support strong nuclear families which are seen as being the best conditions for rearing live young) and times of plenty encourage reckless hedonism which cause birth rates to drop. This is not necessarily a conscious decision made by individuals or their communities, yet the decisions are made nonetheless. Over history we can see these swings in the pendulum of tolerance from permissive to ultra conservative.

For some people however, times are always lean. They rely entirely on conservative values and behave always as if the sky were about to fall. These people live in fear and react with strong negativity to any perceived threat to the survival of their community. This leads to racism (diluting the gene pool with genes from other communities, many of which may have dominant traits which could override the ones they wish to pass on), abhorrence of gay men or women (who will put paid to reproduction all together), and to intolerance of behavior which seems to indicate homosexuality (ie, crossdressing, ie men wearing lingerie.)

The fact that many men who wear lingerie are straight and have children escapes these people who are reacting to primitive cues which trigger their fear and anger. The same cues which make some people put on white sheets and burn crosses are the same cues which make a middle aged housewife snicker at the idea of a man wanting to wear panties.

We can move beyond the reptilian brain, or we can remain puppets to genetic cues designed to make largely unintelligent creatures reproduce effectively. We can choose fear, or we can choose love. We can see a man in a cute pair of panties, or we can see a threat to the very survival of the species, it is up to us.