Cunningham's Menswear Too Much for Internet?

Last week, the New York Times ran a video by Bill Cunningham featuring men’s street styles from NYC collected over the past month. Whether you love or hate the bright colors, busy patterns, and slimmer cuts, you have to admire the guys’ creativity and chutzpah (and the way Cunningham says “trousers”—make that “trowzas”).

Of course, leave it to the comments section to try and kill the joy of oxford shoes, checkered suits, and fresh boutonnieres. Trolls on Youtube and the Times were gender policing in full force (not to mention spouting some serious homophobic BS) in reaction to the video. Statements like “These men don’t look masculine at all,” “What kind of man puts that much effort into his appearance?” and the most puzzling: “My Grand mother [sic] says be a good man and wear simple clothes” represent the other side of the infuriating coin that says “Ladies like pink and are horrible at the maths and the sportz.”

It’s 2013, time to let go of our stringent gender hangups already. Besides, the looks featured are essentially variations on the three-piece suit and t-shirts and shorts. Lucky we’re not in eighteenth-century France — some people might lose their heads calling out Louis XIV’s heels (in both senses of the word).