Men should not be cropped out

Story by Layna Hong, Layout Editor

It’s normal for women to be seen wearing pants, or even men’s shirts borrowed from male friends, fathers, and brothers. However, a man wearing a crop top, which is usually seen worn on the street by young women, seems out of place and unusual.

There is a double standard when it comes to clothing, and it is unfair. Women are allowed to wear pants and mens’ shirts, but men are ridiculed for wearing clothing considered feminine, like dresses and skirts, and in this case: crop tops.

Gurl.com offers an explanation for this stigma, “part of why boys who wear dresses or act feminine are often looked down on is because females are still seen […] as the weaker sex.”

Despite this, men wearing crop tops is not a new thing. Many male celebrities like Kid Cudi, Jaden Smith, Zac Efron, Prince, and more recently Justin Bieber, have all worn crop tops. All of these men are different in career, stature and character, and the one thing they all have in common is that they like wearing crop tops.

This is why it’s unfair to label men who ‘crossdress’ as effeminate or view them as such. Women who wear pants aren’t labelled as crossdressers, or called manly. All sorts of women wear pants, just all all sorts of men wear crop tops. It’s a personal statement.

Dallas Cowboys running back Ekeziel Elliot was known for wearing midriff baring football jerseys when he played at Ohio State University. When the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) banned players from wearing rolled up jerseys, Elliot responded by rolling up his dress shirt at the 2016 NBA draft showcase.

While men wearing crop tops isn’t as normalized as women wearing pants, hopefully in the future, it will be. Gender and sexuality aren’t defined by the roles that society has put girls and boys in, it is an innate part of who someone is, and it can’t be summed up or put into neat boxes labeled female and male.

Stepping outside of these boxes is important because if young boys see their male role models doing what they like, so be it if those things are wearing skirts and crop tops, then they’ll learn that it is okay and good to do those things.

Fashion is fluid, and it wouldn’t be accurate to assign certain types of them to different genders.

Kilts, a style of a clothing with Celtic origins, are what come to mind when you hear of men wearing skirts. While usually a piece of traditional wear, in contemporary culture it is worn as everyday clothing by men and women.

Fashion remains one of the ways in which a person can express themselves. Fashion is fun because there are no boundaries; people should have the freedom to wear whatever they want, even things that may not be socially acceptable at the time.

“Some people like it. Some people don’t like it. I like a little midriff showing,” Elliott said in a 2014 interview.