Meggings Trend Is Making Us Relive Labyrinth Trauma

The “meggings trend” — which is really part of a larger trend of taking traditionally favored-by-females accoutrements such as purses or pantyhose and calling them “murses” or “mantyhose” — is not yet sweeping the nation.

But expect to see the meggings trend take off, one proponent says, as males embrace the universally unflattering look that appears cheap no matter how much you pay for a pair of the unfortunate things.

Like “manscaping,” the meggings trend takes something men find too girly (epilation aside from beards, for instance) and repackages it with a name that seems to only highlight how unmanly the idea really is. Laptop bags are a common sight for dudes, but every time you call the thing a murse, it highlights the fact it’s sort of a purse, so why don’t you put on a tutu while you’re at it and develop a crush on Channing Tatum?

Meggings as a trend seems to have grown out of the mantyhose thing — for some bizarre and masochistic reason, men felt they were missing the yet to be disclosed benefits of pantyhose, and simply adopted the practice of wearing them.

So why meggings? One early adopter of the meggings trend dished on his fondness for a fashion affectation we’d all hoped had been left behind back in 1987.

(It is at this point in the meggings trend discussion that women of a certain age recall the film Labyrinth, the inevitable trauma inflicted by David Bowie’s early meggings, and the subsequent inability we developed to listen consensually to any of his music until sometime in 2005, which was a shame.)

Mark Dorosz, meggings trend trailblazer and director of biz dev at education startup Interactive Services, was quoted by BetaBeat on his meggings love. According to Dorosz, you can thank skinny jeans (which were never a good idea for anyone) for the new meggings buzz:

“Male tights are so much more comfortable than skinny jeans… I’ve always had good legs and it’s nice to show them off all year round.”

To that we may say, Mr. Dorosz, that lots of men have admirable cabooses, and yet chaps have not become standard issue menswear.

Do you agree with the meggings trend proponent that the male leggings are destined to become a hit — or do you think dudes should just stick to broga and not visually inform us of their religions?