Who do you think dresses these 'straight' men? Gay guys. what a really dumb article. I'm being nice btw. Did you really get paid to write this swill?

ummm, you can be straight and fashionable without any gay man's help. goodbye.

Its like Details, if my straight friends dont see women in bold poses they read all about fashion in 30 seconds. And I really love Details.

I think that its a complete myth. A lot of gay guys are really flamboyant dressers. Some of them wear prada and gucci but thats just label whoring. There are a lot more straight men with much more style. I know more straight men that know more about mens fashion and style than I know gay men. And being a student at GW and NYU, I know and have met a lot of gay guys. If you ever join the forums such as www.styleforum.com, superfuture, or aaac... you will realize that it has a lot of men that love fashion and clothing but arent gay. Gay men loving and knowing a lot about clothing is a myth. The same goes for women. A lot of them dont kown how to dress well. Since poeple associate gays with women I guess thats where it comes from...

This article lacks diversity. It portrays a stereotyped vision about gay men as if all are flamboyant, style concerned people. That is definetely not the real word. Gay men should have been interviewed to give their point of view about this subject.

International Male and Carson from that show is evidence that not all gay men are stylish.

It's like saying all black guys have rythm.

Why would you believe this obvious myth to be true in the first place. No group of people are all the same to begin with. This article should have never been published. It makes me disappointed in Details...

Well, this is my opinion, as if it matters. I am a heterosexual male who cares about style. I constantly have people ask me if I am gay or if I'm bi just because I have a good sense of style. I like this article because if it reaches the right people, they will understand that you don't have to be homosexual to dress nice. Stereotypes in themselves should not be relied on to give accurate information. With that being said, I am also one of those african americans priveleged enough to have rythm... Go figure huh?

I understand the point behind this article; encouraging heterosexual men to be proud of their own interests in style. However, this article creates as much myth as it exposes.

It plays off of stereotypes without really exposing enough angles to make any discoveries. Not all gay men dress well, it's true. Not all fashion designers are gay. And heterosexual men are often seen as dressing well all the time. So what? Everyone knows stereotypes are only a generalization. It’s an observation.
So this article tried to explain from a heterosexual point of view where this stereotype comes from and how it affects us. But I think the source of this stereotype is much deeper and multifaceted than three designers.

All gay men want to feel wanted, just like any other person. Looking good is the most immediate way to achieve this. It is also part of Gay culture as much as rhythm is part of African American culture. It’s part of our culture because we take pride in continuing the practice. It may come from the perception of the majority pressed onto the minority and then upheld as you suggested. But I feel it’s more to do with general human nature and contemporary western culture.

I hardly know one gay man who does not express himself in some way aesthetically or artistically, be it visual art, fashion, interior design, or culinary arts, gay men obsess over aesthetics and are very proud of their practices. Gay men are proud of beautification in American culture as much as African Americans are proud of their role in Western music.

Let’s stop for a second to speak about what it means to have style. Is it cleanliness? Is it a name brand? Is it the cost? Is it was a fashion magazine says to buy? Is it originality? Honestly who can say who is dressed well and who is not? Everyone has different taste. Good style is too relative to even label and far too diverse to press onto any demography.

Gay men are very an open or even rebellious people. They are tested endlessly by culture during their discovery and acceptance of a homosexual nature and lifestyle. More than any other group of people they are questioned for being who they are. This makes them very expressive and original people. They have more practice listening to themselves, at least the ones living their life under the gay label.

The honest truth is gay men are not afraid to dress different or create something new out of what already exists. This is what fashion is; what's trendy and what WILL be trendy. Fashion is telling people how to live. Gay men have no apprehension to try newly introduced fashion or going one step further and creating new ways to wear things. Gay men can be a part of this because they already have gone through so much rejection to be who they are that if they don't live by their own rules they don't exist. Fashion is not scary to gay men.

I guess I’m saying there are many ideas out there to why straight men should not be fashionable than there are to why other kinds of people are fashionable. Heterosexual men do not have the same tests growing up. No one questions their sexuality. They face other obstacles. One I can point out is "measuring up." This often can include conformist behaviors and more importantly a fear of sticking out in the wrong way (like being gay). So just as much as straight men can't cry they can't wear silk neck scarves or white loafers. If they express themselves in a non conformist way people question their sanity or sexuality.

Now I just committed a grave error in outlining such a stereotype. Also made the mistake of neglecting all the other reasons gay men dress well (vanity, pride, cleanliness, sex appeal and attraction, rebelling gender roles, learned behavior, elitist behavior, and their own conformist behavior within gay culture among many others). But stereotypes are in the human collection and that is why we have this conversation in the first place. People want to understand and label everything. The world is less scary when we do. However making this world less scary is not as simple as a label. It’s a quick fix, soon to be disputed and ultimately never answered. The label for you makes things scary for me if I can’t be who I am because of it. We don’t need the label. Fashion and gender roles will continue to change in the future just as it has in the past. In short, this article should be less about explaining the relevance of fashion to sexual orientation and more about encouraging all men to just dress how they want. Just be yourself.

I think the article has a point, because it's real that if straight men dress stylish people might think they're gay, but honestly I believe that style has nothing to do with your sex.

The article is well-researched and conveying an intelligent idea (I didn't read it entirely-but givin the writer the ben of doubt)-that it's lamo to say that stylish means gay. In the U.S. perhaps it is a safe generalization but that is ethnocentric so let's not.

I've know gay men who were/are fashion tradegies and straights who are stylish, and not to mention label-whoring which has no class whatsoever. Being a fashion victim is OK if you are not lemming/sheeping whatever Details feeds you to make you feel like you feel like you are in the know. That aside, I'm a crossover in that I'm gay, but I wear fleece regularly.

Truly. Today's gay men are not fashionable at all. They are still hanging on to the 1980's Chelsea Boy look and trying to butch it up with camflouged prints. I beleive straight metrosexual guys are by far more authentic and fashionable. The have a great look.