If She Said It’s Ugly, It is…But If He Does…?

Just as I take the stuff out of my suitcase, it’s time to pack again for a little vacation. Well, sort of. We are heading to a suite in Fort Lauderdale, where we promise to do a white-glove inspection and share it with our readers.  We are fitting in a bunch of other fun things on our trip, a trip to the Everglades to ride an airboat,  a trip to a place called Jungle Island, and a chance to visit with a very old friend.

I read a story that rang quite true in the WSJ yesterday. It was about how women often like to get their men to change or upgrade their wardrobes. And how sometimes this makes the men mad, they think, hey, I’m fine the way I am, so why should I wear those new clothes that she bought me?

The story makes a salient point–it’s ok for women to criticize men for slovenly appearances, but men can’t go the other way.  Describing a woman’s outfit, as I once did,  as  ‘grandmothery’ is the kiss of death.  But women think they know much more than men so that they can’t possibly need fashion advice.

I remember  hearing about a woman who had a guy she was seeing who only owned several pairs of black jeans. That’s what he wore…and never ever deviated from that. She also couldn’t wrestle his white man’s sneakers off of him either.

Even if they were going to require being dressed up, those black jeans always were part of the picture.  Or how about things that look really dumb but some refuse to acknowledge it?  A lot of men’s headwear fits into this category, as do women’s pajama bottoms worn in public.