THE WELL UNDRESSED MAN

I've previously mentioned that my preferred attire is to be naked from the waist down. If society allowed it, that's how I'd probably be the vast majority of the time...unfortunately social mores and proper behavior mean I'm pretty much limited as to where and when it's acceptable -- even at home I rarely go completely naked waist down except when I'm alone.

Which brings me to the topic of the day: dressing and undressing.

Some years back I was at the gym with a friend of mine who is a psychologist. We'd known each other for years (though recently lost touch when he moved to the East Coast) and had quite a few discussions on a wide variety of things.

As we were heading for the showers he stopped for a second and remarked that I was one of the few people he knew who undressed from the lower half first. Most people, men and women, dress and undress from the top down, he said. I tend to go pants off first and on last. Nothing profound or calculated, just how I've always done it. I joked that it was my urologist's fault.

Months later on he and I were talking one afternoon when he mentioned that he'd been intrigued by my pants-first approach and had done a little independent research on the relationship between physical openness and dressing behavior. In his estimation the way people dress and undress is indicative of how open they are regarding sexual and physical matters, and that most people go shirt/top first because socially it's more acceptable. He noted that I tend to be an open book with intimate friends, and that physical modesty isn't one of my strong points.

I was a bit surprised that he'd spent that much time on the topic, but the more I thought about it and the more I watched other people as they dressed and undressed (trying not to be too creepy about it) I started to think maybe he was right. For whatever reason I see that the vast majority of people seem to start undressing by taking off shirts and blouses rather than belts and pants.

I'm not sure what that means. But it's an interesting observation.