Lauredhel writes on the enjoyable
Hoyden Around Town a post comparing
the sexualisation of Olympic sports uniforms between the genders. I am not convinced that this is a feminist issue, if anything the male Olympic uniforms are under-sexualised and almost puritanical in their hiding of what are fantastic physiques.
Men's fashion quite literally sucks. Men's fashion is dumpy, frumpy, curtain like in its use of fabric and to be honest punishes those who want to show off their glowing physiques and sexuality. The Olympic fashions display this disparity between the gender's in their socially acceptable ability to express their physiques and sexuality to their contentment.
One of the few positives of recent years in fashion has been the male 'allowance' to ride their pants low and show curve of the stomach to the pelvis. We can probably thank Brad Pitt for that one, though I don't doubt the Hollywood stars do a cycle of steroids before a film where they show off their bodies; however for folks such as myself in their late 30s who spend five to seven days a week in the gym it is a positive.
I am not dumping on those that aren't in shape. I have not always been a fit and trim figure, in the latter years of my marriage my body got away from me and that was a mix of many things of which stress and what was a failing marriage impacted me negatively (when in reality I should have gone the other way and worked harder to make myself more physically attractive) but in my twenties I was a pretty well muscled and trim figure.
I am a tall, skinny and lanky guy, so even when I am in good trim I remain pretty skinny which should be perfect for male fashion; except the only shorts I can buy these days - even small sizes - touch my knees. IMO shorts should never be more than half-way down beyond the thighs.
It is the same with tops, the singlets and t-shirts that pass as fashionable in the sports store are more like curtains or bed-sheets than shirts. They end up draping me down to the knees as well. As a result I end up buying cotton shirts from
designbyhumans.com which shrink down to a more pleasant size and fit.
The place where I cannot fathom men's fashion is the gym. Men wear these clothes that are little more than velvet drapes more suitable for the living room than the gym, yet women get to wear sports bras and short shorts. I do not understand why I don't get to go bare chested. The United States has determined my nipples are no where near as offensive as Janet Jackson's metal pierced nipple; yet the gym allows sports bras but not bare male chests.
I am somewhat amenable to the sweat issue, but even so, women can wipe off their sweat with sports bras that expose most of the back, so why can't men?
It is the same in the pool. Most me - and by that I mean 99% - wear big baggy shorts in the pool. They may as well swim with a parachute for all the drag it produces. I can count on one hand those that wear speedos, of which I am one. Yet a woman wearing a bikini or a two piece in the pool would not be blinked at, nor would her sexuality be questioned as men in speedos often face.
I don't think women being over sexualised is the issue. Women are given greater scope to express their sexuality, physique and liberty of fashion than men are. Men's fashion is limited and at the moment is puritanically frumpy, conservative, boring and quite crap.
The male physique needs to be brought back into focus as an instrument of sexuality. Starting with the Olympics where the physiques are exceptional is a good start. Time to hike the shorts up and make the singlets tight again.
Phoenix Eats Out is the restaurant review site for
Phoenix,
Scottsdale and
Old Town Scottsdale which lists the modernist and contemporary restaurants, taverns and bars in the greater Phoenix area.
This is the list of the most popular restaurants pages from phoenixeatsout.com that have been viewed the most;
My personal favourite restaurants in Phoenix are
AZ88,
Postinos,
Bomberos with
Grazie,
Humble Pie,
Orange Table,
The Vig,
Fez and others coming close behind. View the complete list with the photo-journalistic style images on
phoenixeatsout.com
Arizona is an outdoor state and has lots of hiking in the city and around the state. Phoenix is unusual for most cities in having several large mountains in the center of the city with great hiking. Anyone who comes to Phoenix has to do the
Echo Canyon trail on Camelback and the
Summit Hike on Squaw Peak or Piesta Peak. The views of the city, suburbs and surrounding mountains are wonderful from Camelback and Piesta Peak.
For more experienced hikers there is the McDowell Mountains in North Scottsdale that has several difficult and strenuous hikes in
Tom's Thumb and
Bell Pass. Alternatively, you can hike the highest mountain in Arizona. At 12,600 feet
Humphrey's Peak is a long and difficult hike.
Between 2004 and 2009 this site,
southsearepublic.org, was a constitutional blog based on scoop which focused on Australian and global constitutional issues.
One of the strongest aspects of it was the development of constitutions by those involved in the blog. These constitutions are the outcome:
The constitutions were built using principles from Montesquieu's separation of powers, the enlightnment's universal political rights and the ancient Athenian technology of sortition and choice by lot.
South Sea Republic started in 2004 as an Australian constitutional blog in 2004 based on scoop software. It was an immigrative outgrowth of Kuro5hin. The archives for each year since then;
The articles are ordered by views.

I am an Australian living in the United States as a permanent resident.
I am a software developer by trade and mostly work in Java and jump between middleware and front end.
I originally worked in the New York area of the United States in telecommunications before moving to Washington DC and
working in a mix of telecommunications, energy and ITS. I started my own software company before heading out to
Arizona and working with Shutterfly. Since then I have joined a startup in the Phoenix area and am thoroughly enjoying myself.
I do a lot of photography which I post on this website, but also on flickr. I have a photo-journalistic website which lists
the modernist and contemporary restaurants in phoenix. I have a site on the
Australian Flying Corps [AFC] which has been around since the 1990s and which I unfortunately
lost the .org URL to during a life event; however, it is under the
www.australianflyingcorps.com URL now.
The AFC website has gone through several iterations since the 90s and the two most recent are
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2004-2002) and
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2002-1999) which are good places to start.