"Fashion, as well, has traditionally been derided as frivolous and feminine." “Post-AIDS there was this backlash of straight men not wanting to be perceived as gay” argues Dr Shaun Cole, Associate Professor in Fashion at Winchester School of Art. In the UK, Thatcher introduced Section 28, a new law which banned the "promotion" of homosexuality in British schools, leaving a whole generation of LGBTQ people growing up without adequate education on an important facet of their identity. As the 90s gave way to the 00s the advent of Don't Ask Don't Tell and the brutal murder of young gay man Matthew Shepard betrayed a culture of closeted identity, homophobia and harassment. It was this re-branding that led to the trends demise. It wasn’t long before brands such as Nike picked up on this and began designing and marketing men’s crop tops for that very purpose. Around the same time, bans on being bare-chested in gyms led to weight-lifters also wearing crop tops in order to still show off their physique. It was a very masculine gesture, or look." Athletes were working hard and they wanted people to know it. As Professor Vicki Karaminas from the School of Design at Massey University in New Zealand explains, "The midriff cut extended their silhouette and enhanced the size of their torso and muscles. This accidental exposure then gave rise to a trend in the early 80s of players deliberately cutting their jersey tops in order to show off their chiseled bodies. In what sounds like the start of a cringey gay porn film, football jerseys were constantly being torn and ripped during matches, exposing player’s torsos and abs. When using a search engine such as Google, Bing or Yahoo check the safe search settings where you can exclude adult content sites from your search results Īsk your internet service provider if they offer additional filters īe responsible, know what your children are doing online.The perception that a man wearing a crop top must be gay, in the closet or at the very least feminine is almost ironic given that the garment’s birth is actually credited to one of the most hyper-masculine activities of all time, American football. Use family filters of your operating systems and/or browsers Other steps you can take to protect your children are: More information about the RTA Label and compatible services can be found here. Parental tools that are compatible with the RTA label will block access to this site. We use the "Restricted To Adults" (RTA) website label to better enable parental filtering.
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