Do women hate men's hats?

[GHT]

And this shocks me in another, deeper way. People simply don't understand quality when they see it. I'm not being pretentious, I mean, how can they look at my silk lined, leather headbanded, beaver fedora, and not notice that it's qualitatively better (and therefore more expensive) than a polyester hat with a foam headband and 'one size fits all' written on a tag inside?

Most people simply don't wear hats, unless it's a baseball cap, even then they don't know which way round to wear it, but because of being ignorant of the time and skill that goes into a good hat, why shouldn't they think that a wool felt fedora with silk lining from Amazon, with a price tag of £27:50 to £27:99, depending on head size, is the norm for hat prices?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hand-Gents...840?s=clothing&ie=UTF8&qid=1552491848&sr=1-11

I am blessed that while Herself is fairly open about what she does and doesn't like, she has never once refused to be seen with me out wearing something she's not keen on. I don't think the hats have ever come into it - she's even a fan of the Ushankas. I might be pushing it, though, if I ever got hold of one of those ELC B5 flying helmets I fancy, in particular if I were to wear it with the B3 or the Irvin...

We are much the same, when she confessed that she hated my biege coloured trenchcoat because it was reminiscent of a Benny Hill, dirty old man, raincoat, I sold it. A small price for a wardrobe of beautiful Aloha shirts.

 

[jswindle2]

I wasn't a hat wearer until about 2005 when I got sun stroke. Ever since then, I've worn a hat anytime I'm outside. I wear anything from a Panama during the summer for daily wear, a wool newsboy while walking the dog in winter, all the way to the high crown 20's - 30's fedora for daily wear in the cooler months. I get nothing but compliments from women and I live in a small Texas city where most people that do wear hats, wear caps or cowboy hats. It all comes down to how you carry yourself. Since I don't care about others opinions, I have the confidence to pull them off. It may also help that I'm 45 and give off an air of maturity. I do rarely get an idiot that says something stupid, but I ignore them.

 

[SlyGI]

I was born and raised in Texas. I can confirm with jswindel2 regarding hats in small town Texas. Now, Texas is a big state and I haven't lived in every part of the state nor do my relatives. But I've never received a weird look or anything in the Tyler, Wills Point, area, or in the the Bartlett area of Texas.

When I've been in Houston and Dallas, I've actually received complements on my hats. I currently live in the frozen tundra of Minnesota, and I have received some complements on my hats here as well. People are much more likely to stare up here in Minnesota, but they don't say anything when they stare (positive or negative) so I don't know if they are staring at the hat or at a bugger on my nose or something.

HOWEVER if you look at YouTube or other social media, many people give the fedora a bad rap. Mose memes show a fedora wearer as a younger gentleman with patchy facial hair, a bit overweight, a fedora, and a weird look on their face.

 

[Artifex]

I wonder where the stereotype in that image actually comes from. Young men of sedentary hobbies might well be overweight, but what has that to do with narrow-brimmed hats?

It also strikes me that online communications could well be the only opportunity such people have to socialise without being harshly judged.

 

[scottyrocks]

I wonder where the stereotype in that image actually comes from. Young men of sedentary hobbies might well be overweight, but what has that to do with narrow-brimmed hats?

It also strikes me that online communications could well be the only opportunity such people have to socialise without being harshly judged.

I think it has something to do with taking what are perceived to be a mix of 'undesirable' qualities and putting them together in a such a way as to make the subject look as undesirable as possible, probably due to the insecurities of the person or persons making the observation, especially about a real person or people.

Proportionally, the larger a person is, the better they look with a bigger hat, in general. Again, stereotypically, a small hat on a large man can convey the idea of oafishness and/or lack of intelligence, for example. Think Laurel and Hardy, Lou Costello, and the Little John in the Bugs Bunny cartoon who says, 'Don't you worry, never fear, Robin Hood will soon be here.'



If I looked like this Little John, I don't know how funny I'd think that image is.

In short, people can be mean for no good reason.

 

[LizzieMaine]

That stereotype was well established during the vaudeville era, when the sight of a large man with a tiny hat was a cue to the audience that this fellow was the comedian. Audiences of the day were thought to require visual shorthand to know who was who in a fast-moving act, and comedy headgear was an easy way to accomplish that, an idea picked up from circus clowns. Likewise in silent pictures, when you often had a lot of random people jostling around in a scene, it was easy to follow the movements of the comic by looking for his hat -- and all major silent comedy stars had their own distinctive headgear: Chaplin's derby, Lloyd's boater, Keaton's pork-pie, Langdon's deflated trilby, and so on and on.

Comic strips picked up this image in the teens and twenties, when a small derby or broken fedora worn on the back of the head became the universal symbol of the sap. Gradually this comic-strip hat evolved into the stereotype of the fedora with the brim turned up in the front, which was still a common symbol of dopeyness well into the 1970s. The "neckbeard" memes of today simply evolve the hat into yet another different style, but the meaning is basically the same. It's fascinating how these tropes, once established, burn themselves into the subconscious like a universal cultural memory. People who have no idea why will see someone in an off-center hat and assume they're supposed to be funny.

 

[scottyrocks]

That stereotype was well established during the vaudeville era, when the sight of a large man with a tiny hat was a cue to the audience that this fellow was the comedian. . . It's fascinating how these tropes, once established, burn themselves into the subconscious like a universal cultural memory. People who have no idea why will see someone in an off-center hat and assume they're supposed to be funny.

It could just be intrinsic.

If I were to walk around with a very small hat perched atop my head, even young children would laugh (I know - I've done it). It's just a funny image, regardless of when it came into vogue. Yes?

 

[3fingers]

If I were to walk around with a very small hat perched atop my head, even young children would laugh (I know - I've done it).

My grandson, who is not quite two,has a straw fedora that fits him perfectly. When I set it on my head he and his older sister both giggle like hyenas. Apparently some gags are truly timeless.

 

[scottyrocks]

giggle like hyenas.

Great imagery there that put a smile on my face this early AM.

 

[SlyGI]

Beside the point of historic humor in a large man with a small hat. How do women, and men, and society, perceive hats on men these days? I'm sure it depends on culture and sub-culture (I would consider us on the Fedora Lounge a sub-culture of American culture).

I think I get more complements from African Americans than I do other Americans-- both male and female African Americans. If a person looks like they identify with the Steampunk sub-culture, they are more likely to complement me on my fedoras.

Thinking about when I did get a laugh from a person, the person was/is usually a female, outside of my home state, whom the internet would call a "THOT." I don't really know what "THOT" means, but it seems to be a younger girl who likes to party on alcohol, drive around, and eat at late night fast food taco houses that are generally painted pink or a form of aqua-blue and serve strong machine margaritas.

Anyway, these girls have a tendency to make rude/snide comments regarding my hats. Se la vie.

The perception of a hat does go with how a person dresses in the hat. A guy in blue jeans, plaid shirt, with a with a baseball cap with the words John Deer across the front, a small to great belly, may be first perceived as a trucker.

A younger male of high-school or college age wearing a baseball cap with a polo shirt and khaki shorts maybe considered more preppy.

A person with an old straw cowboy hat, jeans, t-shirt, beard, all finely groomed to look worn, may be first identified as a "hipster."

BUT, this is what I think is so sad: I think even if a man like Clark Gable, Bogie, or someone else dressed like the old days in a fedora, was seen walking around the Galleria in Houston or the Mall of America in the Twin Cities, would be looked upon as an abnormality at best or be seen as someone trying to be someone they are not-- maybe trying to be an old school film noir actor. I guess I'm trying to say that they would be looked at as if they were almost in a costume. Like seeing a "cowboy" walk around in hat, boots, spurs, caps, holding a rope for cattle roping. He maybe a real cowboy but with the entire ensemble walking around the Mall of America he would look like he was "trying too hard."

 

[SlyGI]

I think the link below speaks to part of the problem:

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/785ag4/the-history-of-the-fedora

Unfortunately, most people in the USA are followers when it comes to style: Everyone wants to be different but in the same way. Vice is just capitalizing on this to make $$.

 

[The Jackal]

I think I get more complements from African Americans than I do other Americans--

This has been my experience as well. Every time someone went out of there way to speak to me about my hat, it was an African American. And of various age groups. I think a nice hat is still more likely to be seen in ethnic communities than in the white neighborhoods, based on my experiences, and thus they seem to be more accepting of them in general. For example, I've never been in a black church where there wasn't at least 2 gentlemen with hats, whereas I can't recall seeing anyone with a hat in any of the white churches I've been in.

Mileage will vary, of course.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The universal headgear here is the Red Sox cap. There are variations of it to suit different demographics, but the most commonly-seen model is the faded blue cotton version with an adjustable leather strap on the back. You very seldom see an actual on-field-model cap worn on the streets here, although occasionally off-brand versions in odd colors show up. These types of caps are worn by everyone -- male, female, white-collar, blue-collar, everyone from lawyers to sternmen.

This isn't really a new thing here. Going back to my childhood fifty-plus years ago, billed caps were far more common than any kind of fedora, even on older men. The main difference was that the caps then didn't usually have any kind of logo unless they were actually part of a uniform, such an oil-company insignia on the cap worn by a gas station worker. There were many, many Army-style green cotton caps in evidence -- not actual Army caps, but civilian knockoffs, and the wearers were neither proclaiming their veteran status or affirming their loyalty to Castro. These were simply the common, default cap sold at the local store where most of the men in town bought their work clothes.

But even more common than the Army-type cap was the red-and-black checkered wool hunting cap. This cap was very common on older men when I was growing up, worn with the earflaps up and often with the visor bent up-- not in a Huntz Hall sort of straight-up way, but just slightly bent upward at the tip. I don't know what function this served, maybe to keep the rain from dripping off the front, but it was a very common style.

Late in his life, my grandfather -- who had worn uniform caps most of the time -- began affecting a green corduroy narrow-brim fedora-type hat that was slightly too big for him. It would slide down and rest on top of his ears, but I guess it kept the top of his head warmer that way.

 

[Frunobulax]

I think the link below speaks to part of the problem:

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/785ag4/the-history-of-the-fedora

Unfortunately, most people in the USA are followers when it comes to style: Everyone wants to be different but in the same way. Vice is just capitalizing on this to make $$.

We batted that article about in another thread when it came out. The only guidance I can give is, "don't read Vice."

Sent from my moto g(6) using Tapatalk

 

[GHT]

When Mike Tindall, The Queen's grandson-in-law, doffed his hat to her, she seemed to rather like it.
https://www.standard.co.uk/insider/...h-out-loud-with-ascot-hat-trick-a4170306.html

 

[scottyrocks]

Unfortunately, most people in the USA are followers when it comes to style: Everyone wants to be different but in the same way. Vice is just capitalizing on this to make $$.

I remember when I was riding, bikers (HD-type - black leather, bandanas, boots, etc) claimed that they dressed that way to express their rugged individualism . . . just like all the other guys who dressed almost exactly the same way.

 

[Zombie_61]

...The perception of a hat does go with how a person dresses in the hat. A guy in blue jeans, plaid shirt, with a baseball cap with the words John Deer across the front, a small to great belly, may be first perceived as a trucker...

Hey now, I have a John Deere ball cap and I...

...uhh...yeah, you're right.

 

[scottyrocks]

Hey now, I have a John Deere ball cap and I...

...uhh...yeah, you're right.

Put on a Fed IV instead, and you're ready for Ford Finger Friday.

 

[Zombie_61]

Put on a Fed IV instead, and you're ready for Ford Finger Friday.

You're right, changing the hat made all the difference.

 

[Edward]

My grandson, who is not quite two,has a straw fedora that fits him perfectly. When I set it on my head he and his older sister both giggle like hyenas. Apparently some gags are truly timeless.

My young niece had a tiara some years ago that used to have a similar effect when I wore it.

Hey now, I have a John Deere ball cap and I...

...uhh...yeah, you're right.

I know a neighbourhood you'd fit right into...