“Men’s” fashions circa 2017
Not sure what you got your man this Christmas by way of closet fodder, but you just may (or may not) want to run your gifts by the following from Vogue if you want your man to be the “it” guy in 2017.
Apparently, “Interest in menswear is at an all-time high. It’s chronicled on countless Instagram accounts, zines, and websites, and made poster boys of everyone from Nick Wooster to Luka Sabbat. Now that the men’s shows have wrapped up in Europe, #menswear maniacs are already obsessing over what to wear come spring 2017. We’d place our bets on oversize suits, flood pants, and lots of leopard print.”
[jwplayer FBVJiiqf]
The boots, it seems, do not make the man in 2017. Not unless they’re leopard print; whatever it takes to sap the expression out of him, that is the outward appearance of anything close to masculinity and the impetus to do something about it.
Story hour at your local library – 2017 style!
Literacy is where it’s at. The ability to read – to communicate via the written word – is a precious commodity too often denied.
But what about reading between the lines? Seasoned bibliophiles know the literal meaning of what is written is often not the real message. Even those who cannot read, despite the lack, are often blessed with that God-given common sense dismissed by those who believe themselves learned.
How else to explain the abusive exploitation of children’s story hour in Brooklyn, New York? According to PJ Media:
The Brooklyn Public Library took a cue from the San Francisco Public Library by initiating their own version of the “Drag Queen Story Hour” for kids. That’s where dudes dress up like chicks and read fairy tales about chicks loving dudes to your “curious” toddler.
(Are you cringing yet? I still am.)
Kids aren’t curious about transvestites. At least, not in the way trans advocates like to believe everyone is curious about transvestites. Kids, especially little ones, couldn’t care less whether or not what you’re wearing corresponds to gender norms.
(You’ve got to love PJ Media’s commonsense, but accurate, observations.)
So, this has nothing to do with engaging toddlers with the practice of reading, which is what library story time is supposed to be all about. Instead, “The Drag Queen Story Hour” is yet another example of social justice advocates manipulating a fun family event for the purpose of political grandstanding.
Scary Mommy floats out the predictable “justification,” stating: “Molding kids while they’re young to accept and celebrate differences is how we raise kind and empathetic kids. Raising kids that can flex their mind to encompass all representations of people will be paramount to promoting more peace and less divisiveness.”
But words, as any reader knows, take much of their meaning from the context in which they are used. “Kind” and “empathetic” can translate into enabling and confused, something that doesn’t promote peace at all, but rather invites the opposite.
What is truly scary is what we all will be celebrating in this country by confusing our children en masse when it comes to accurately assessing what their five senses register.
One cannot just wish reality away, despite the fairy stories that seem to have overtaken those in positions of authority.
Time for those of all ages to attend the kid’s story hour to communicate just how well we do read.
Beards and nail polish ‘okay’ in 2017!
Army Times reports:
Army leaders are considering some big changes to the service’s uniform and appearance policies in 2017.
The Army Research Lab has been conducting a compatibility study of protective equipment with facial hair, long hair and head coverings, an ARL spokeswoman confirmed. This includes testing combat helmets this fall at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, with volunteers – male and female – who have hair with more than two inches of volume when tied back.
And as for beards, the Army’s top enlisted soldier is open to them.
“From a personal perspective: Am I opposed to it? Not really,” Sergeant Major of the Army Dan Dailey told Army Times in November. “I think we have to look at it, we have to research on it, we have to be informed by it.”
There has to be more study on how a beard would work with protective equipment, and decisions on length and shape, he added.
“But I’m not an anti-beard guy, and neither is the [Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley]. We have this conversation,” he said. “But we have to do it for the right reasons.”
Meanwhile, Dailey’s senior enlisted council is batting around the idea of allowing women to paint their fingernails and wear earrings in the Army Combat Uniform.
The Marines, Navy, Coast Guard and Air Force all currently allow nail polish, and all of those except the Marines allow small, stud earrings in their utility uniforms.
“I keep finding a stalemate. I have senior females in my council, and, actually, we defer to them on these things,” Dailey said. “What I’m finding is I’m having senior female NCOs tell me no.”
While the council is leaning toward a no on earrings, he said, the opposition to nail polish is rooted in having to enforce colors, length and general appearance.
“Honestly, the reason where we are today is because it got out of control,” Dailey said about the current ban on nail polish.
Senior leaders are wary of soldiers taking advantage of the policy again.
“My counter to that is, not all of them,” he said. “And I’m not going to base the policies of the Army on those who are undisciplined. Because we, as noncommissioned officers in the Army, should be able to keep that at bay.”
So, the senior female leadership of our military is opposed to nail polish. Hmmm. And allowing beards – for men, I’m presuming – is not categorically opposed. But policy should be changed for the “right reason.”
But what is the right reason? Political correctness? Mandating that square pegs must now be admissible to round holes – even if they have to be crammed in, corners be damned?
With 2016 having come to a close with the issues of women in combat and “transgenderism” seemingly voted in despite “right reason,” the Army is kidding themselves if they think the beards and baubles and nail polish amount to any change at all.
Right reason, however, is on the way – in the form of retired Marine Gen. James N. Mattis (Mad Dog Mattis) recently tapped by President-elect Trump to act as secretary of defense.
One can only hope that Mattis (who said per the Washington Post: “… responding to ‘political Islam’ is the major security issue facing the United States”) will carry that penchant for root causing to get rid of all distracting weeds.
That would be a big change!
