What the? … Part Three

The sight of a leopard print doesn’t necessarily make us feel sexier or more sexually attracted to the wearer … it actually scares us … and for some completely stupid reason we’ve associated the rush of  fear induced adrenaline with sexy … why? … because with each passing year we see more sexy women wearing it than we do see actual leopards trying to rip our throats out … so we’ve reprogrammed a perfectly reasonable natural defense mechanism into sexual attraction. Don’t believe me? One psychology experiment I read today found that men got aroused watching a nature documentary on leopards! This is clearly reprogramming, not nature. Technically if we found enough sexy women to wear ‘unwashed dog’ perfume for several years we’d eventually find the concept of sniffing dogs sexy. Sound far fetched? Actually it isn’t …. Sound repulsive? Indeed … so now you understand why I now dislike leopard print … because I re-made the connection between pattern recognition and survival.

Wearing animal hide was initially a sign of strength, power and affluence. A sign that you had conquered fear and were a great warrior … this was certainly sexy… but it was MEN who wore the first animal garments. As the years rolled on we forgot about the power necessary to conquer the vicious animal, the violence attatched to the brutal act of animal slaughter and just remembered the sexy bit … but underneath we still had the subconscious surge of adrenaline which we interpreted as “she is so hot” … no she isn’t! … ok she might be, but your heart isn’t racing only because she’s hot, but because leopards still freak out the fear center in your brain. The most amazing thing the psychologists discovered is that people with malformed amygdalas (who had the condition of being unable to feel fear) did not find leopard print particularly sexy!

When a beautiful person adds a little adrenaline to your system, yes to you, they are sexy, but when the added leopard print makes you gush with adrenaline and you feel (not think) they are even more sexy, they really aren’t … you’re scared and you just don’t know it because you’ve been reprogrammed by the fashion industry! I wonder what else you’ve been reprogrammed to believe.

The other point to all this was that once upon a time animal print signified affluence and affluence is sexy right?  Yet animal print is avaliable really cheaply and is so widespread that it can hardly be considered something special anymore (good point made by Katherine) … so why do so many still describe it as something exotic?

Surfing various blogs and facebook groups today I found at least ten lepaholic pages for every anti-leopard page – go figure! The mains reason given for pro-leopard print were:

1. leopard print is sexy
2. leopard print is exotic
3. leopard print means exclsive
4. leopard print is the domain of exclusive designers
5. leopard print hides all the lumps and bumps like camoflage * while adding even more sexiness
6. straight and gay men and women find leopard print sexy
7. leopard print is the fastest guarenteed way to add sexiness

The main anti-leopard print reasons given were:

1. leopard print is trashy
2. leopard print makes you look like you’re trying too hard *
3. leopard print is for prostitutes
4. leopard print is for people who aren’t sexy enough without it
5. leopard print devalues animals, like porn devalues women
6. leopard print attracts the wrong type of person, sends the wrong message *

None of these are my statements, I’m just quoting opinions … the * signifies I agree at some level, no * means I don’t particularly agree. You decide for yourself. Here are some current ‘news’ items … click on the image for the original celebrity story.

OK I guess that’s enough ranting on leopard print from me. I hope young designers will think more about how print affects perceived sexiness. I’m going to go and try re-reprogramming myself!