IS THAT YOU, MANLY MAN?

I wish somebody sometime would explain to me why we have allowed a handful of individuals in the fashion industry the ability to determine how we view ourselves? As James Taranto in the Best of the Web for June 9th at OpinionJournal.com (scroll down for article) says:

Want to know how to be a manly man? Ask a fashion industry insider. Agence France-Presse did:

Macho man is an endangered species, with today's male more likely to opt for a pink flowered shirt and swingers' clubs than the traditional role as family super-hero, fashion industry insiders say. . . .

"The masculine ideal is being completely modified. All the traditional male values of authority, infallibility, virility and strength are being completely overturned," said Pierre Francois Le Louet, the agency's managing director. . . .

"We are watching the birth of a hybrid man. . . . Why not put on a pink-flowered shirt and try out a partner-swapping club?" asked Le Louet.

Sure, why not--if your idea of a real man is someone named Pierre Francois Le Louet!

Ah, but a little further down in the article, we see the real motivation behind their "findings":

The emergence of this new male beast who wants to look and feel good, and who will also have an impact on the role of women, presages a new potentially lucrative market for the European fashion industry.

"All those labels which have adapted to this freedom of expression are on the up, all those which are too rigid will suffer in the future," Le Louet said, pointing to the growing success of sports and casual wear manufacturers.

"Male beast??...too rigid???" Sheesh.

This is what has always befuddled me about pop culture. It is constantly having to reinvent itself in order to get the next generation to buy in (key word: buy) to what they are peddling. And they aren't even original, but simply rehash the same stuff with a new label and higher price tag about every 20 years or so. Materialism run amok.