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Posted by: Denelle

This story pertains more to the ladies (unless you guys have some secret fetishes you're not telling us about) but it will be interesting to see if any guys will see the relevance and why I'm posing about this here.

Here's a little secret, guys: Wearing pantyhose is no fun.

Sure, their sheer allure enhances the legs. But they're tight, uncomfortable and one little rip can make them run -- and ruin an entire outfit. And while they once were a
staple in a career woman's wardrobe, sheer hosiery today faces an even a bigger snag that can't be fixed with clear nail polish or a Band-Aid -- more than a decade of eclining sales.

"The casualization of the workplace, it is not as strict as before," said Romaine Sargent, vice president and general manager of marketing for hosiery at Hanesbrands. "Women have more options and some are choosing to wear sheer hosiery less."I know this article is talking about career women, etc. but it struck me in its "church culture" significance as much or more than its workplace relevance.

Where once upon a time (as recently as when I was a teenager, so maybe 10 years ago) you simply didn't go to church without wearing nylons. And on the off chance that for some reason you did committ such an attrocity then you certainly didn't even think of stepping foot on the platform.

But then things started to change.

First it was just Wednesday nights and you could get away with wearing tennis shoes or maybe some kind of sandal. And then somebody realized that really cute strappy sandals don't look good with hose and so they were disappearing during the summer months, mostly on Sunday mornings (but certainly never on a Sunday evening). A few brave souls even went so far as to start showing up for midweek services and youth events in flip flops (and somewhere Harry Branding was spinning circles in his grave - obviously a St. Louis joke, sorry).

And then I moved to California and found my self in a hosiery free zone. The consistantly beautiful weather means you don't need them for warmth and everybody is tan (many thanks to their heritage) and so you don't need them for color. In fact, in the five years that I lived full time in CA I think I probably could count the number of times I actually wore hose for anything (well, maybe it was more than I can easily count but it certainly wasn't often).

So imagine my surprise when I moved to New York and found that once again wearing hose was more of the rule than the exception. At least in religous environments.

Here, the old guard holds firm and by far anyone over the age of 40 is never caught without proper hosiery. A few of us brave souls (the majority of us under 30) do dare to attend Sunday service without hose but are fully aware of the scathing glances cast our way. The ones that surprise me are my peers who faithfully and dutifully wear those contrictive garments week in and week out.

Would you agree? Are hose disappearing from your church faster than the world's Giant Panda population?