What do you think of men wearing earrings?
Both of you are right on target. Sean, your story brought back a lot of memories! I had my left ear pierced at 39 TRONG 1991. I thought maybe I was too old, but just wanted to do it and thought it would be cool to wear an earring. As you well know, it took balls for a guy to get his ear pierced back in those days. It was becoming more common, but older people in particular really frowned on it. I remember vividly being in the mall and walking up to Piercing Pagoda and saying I wanted to get my ear pierced. I was very nervous and embarrassed and must have turned beet red! Sounds crazy now, doesn’t it? But when I looked in the mirror and saw that stud in my ear I really liked it and figured I made a good decision. At first I wouldn’t wear the earring in front of family and friends, only when I was on vacation. After awhile I kind of lost interest and stopped wearing it. Later I found that I missed it, had my ear re-pierced, and this time wore an earring pretty regularly. It turned out I got practically no reaction from anyone except a few buddies who liked to tease me about it which was cool with me. Fast forward to 2008. By this time I was 56 but looked and dressed a lot younger than my age. I was in the mall — a different mall — with my 17 year-old nephew, who wore an earring in each ear and still does. We passed by Claire’s — pretty girly and creeped me out! — and saw a guy in the window getting both ears pierced. My nephew teased me into getting my right ear done and so I impulsively “took the plunge.” Also had a second piercing in the left ear. Totally glad I did. Tại 65 I still look pretty good and still wear my earrings — small studs or small silver hoops in both ears and a second stud in the left. Sometimes I revert to the old style and wear just an earring or two in my left ear. Can’t wear them to work but otherwise wear them a lot. I’m glad young guys now don’t have to go through all the hang-ups we had and the embarrassment we had to go through about something as trivial as a couple of holes in their ears. Pretty mainstream nowadays. It baffles me that many still make such a big deal out of it. As J.T. said, it’s only a jewelry choice.