Mens Fashion And The Man As A Peacock

There is a scientific theory that describes why the male peacock has such colorful feathers in comparison with the female peacock who is rather plain and dowdy. It is called the beautiful son hypothesis. The theory goes like this. Because a female wants to have as many grandchildren as possible she picks the most prominent male suitor she can find.

When the males battle over the females, they need to have strengths and characteristics such as sharp horns that allow them to overcome their competition. When the female makes the selection of a mate, without the males having to fight each other for her, the males develop characteristics that make them stand out from the crowd. The wide range of adornments found in nature for males of many animal and bird species is explained by this compelling need to attract female attention.

Male humans have the same need to attract females, since they normally do not do physical battle over them (although this does happen on occasion). There are some things a man can do to win over the females, to show off his prowess, such as having a nice car and dressing well. This is the modern man's version of playing the peacock.

In historical times, men's fashion was much more outrageous than it is generally today. There were times during the reign of King Louis XIV in France when men were dandies and they actually looked quite a bit like peacocks. Surprising to many are the historical facts that men wore high heels prior to women trying them on, men were the first to wear corsets, and men were also the first gender to wear silk stockings.

During the time of Louis XIV it was not uncommon for a man to spend many hours preparing, dressing, and putting on make-up in order to impress the females. The refined man of those times wore elaborate makeup and fancy wigs, with his clothes decorated with ruffles and lace. The finishing touches were a bit of color to the cheeks, rouge for the lips, and a heavy dosing of perfume.

The men carried handkerchiefs that were perfumed as well because of the stench of the offal in the streets and because it was customary to bath only once per year in spring. It was seen as a physical demonstration of the success of a man, that he was of the rich gentry and therefore did not have to lower himself to the toil of hard labor, if he could spend hours and hours dressing himself for court.

It was the French Revolution, a populist movement, that replaced all this and the political struggle included rejecting all the men's fashion of the aristocracy. It became unmanly to dress in frills and those styles were abandoned.

Because of this in modern times, men have toned down their styles quite a bit, but there are still elements of men's fashion that trend towards flashiness along the lines of the peacock. Every once and awhile a new fashion trend will sprout up that is reminiscent of the peacock such as the glam rock movement in the 1980's or the more recent extravagances of the hip hop movement.