ninme

Including a rather wonderful picture of Sophia Loren.

Telegraph - Stockings: sex, power and sheer seduction
As stockings sales plummet, Rowan Pelling says you can’t beat suspenders in the boudoir or the boardroom

The lingerie dissidents would say this is the problem with stockings: they are worn for men’s pleasure, not women’s. Even if this were true, wherein lies the problem? Women routinely make huge demands of men.

When I ask single female friends what they are seeking in a partner they tend to list the following attributes: an intelligent man who earns a decent salary, owns a house, wants to be a hands-on dad, is good looking and well dressed, strong yet sensitive, funny but emotionally articulate.

As Fay Weldon wrote in these pages this week, there’s an alarming tendency for modern alpha females to view men as designer accessories - superfluous to one’s needs, but a pleasing luxury item if they come in fashionable trim. But woe betide the man who makes similar demands, particularly if the plaintive request is for his beloved to occasionally don stockings; there’s every chance he will be viewed as a misogynistic reprobate.

The truth is that wearing a suspender belt once in a while does not make you a surrendered wife. Indeed, like all the big guns in a woman’s arsenal of seduction (high heels and red lipstick come to mind), stockings can be very empowering. …

I know some women would argue that the whole rigmarole is effortful and uncomfortable, but then men don’t generally like shaving, washing and flossing as much as we order them to.

It seems to me that if a man pays you the compliment of courting you assiduously, you should return the compliment by wearing gorgeous lingerie. How can you blame a generation of modern men for not popping the question when they’re doomed to a lifetime of leggings?

So there you have it. Who needs a tax credit or a government dowry? Or, hmm… government rebates for the lingerie section of Harvey Nicks?