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An awkward end to a beautifully chiselled legacy. The last celebrity male midriff in public for a while was Ginuwine’s extreme cropped blazer and no shirt look for the 2000 Radio Music Awards. Straight, closeted and even out men disregarded the trend, instead replacing it with ill-fitting trousers and distasteful tank tops (the 00s was an odd time). The men’s crop top, now less about athleticism and more about fashion, sex and androgyny, started to embody all the things masculinity wanted to distance itself from: camp, queerness and effeminacy. "Fashion, as well, has traditionally been derided as frivolous and feminine." “Post-AIDS there was this backlash of straight men not wanting to be perceived as gay” argues Dr Shaun Cole, Associate Professor in Fashion at Winchester School of Art. In the UK, Thatcher introduced Section 28, a new law which banned the "promotion" of homosexuality in British schools, leaving a whole generation of LGBTQ people growing up without adequate education on an important facet of their identity. As the 90s gave way to the 00s the advent of Don't Ask Don't Tell and the brutal murder of young gay man Matthew Shepard betrayed a culture of closeted identity, homophobia and harassment. It was this re-branding that led to the trends demise. It wasn’t long before brands such as Nike picked up on this and began designing and marketing men’s crop tops for that very purpose. Around the same time, bans on being bare-chested in gyms led to weight-lifters also wearing crop tops in order to still show off their physique. It was a very masculine gesture, or look." Athletes were working hard and they wanted people to know it. As Professor Vicki Karaminas from the School of Design at Massey University in New Zealand explains, "The midriff cut extended their silhouette and enhanced the size of their torso and muscles. This accidental exposure then gave rise to a trend in the early 80s of players deliberately cutting their jersey tops in order to show off their chiseled bodies.
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In what sounds like the start of a cringey gay porn film, football jerseys were constantly being torn and ripped during matches, exposing player’s torsos and abs. The perception that a man wearing a crop top must be gay, in the closet or at the very least feminine is almost ironic given that the garment’s birth is actually credited to one of the most hyper-masculine activities of all time, American football.