About

How Society Wants Men to Dress / How Men Actually Want to Dress is a comparison meme juxta positioning fashion considered "normal" with fictional character's uniforms, high-effort cosplays or absurdist goals borrowing from other memes using the phrasal template "How society wants men to dress" on the first image and "How men actually want to dress" on the second. The meme has also evolved to where the initial comparison image can be something from a male model fashion week outfit, which is often considered wacky in its own right, and consequently compared to something that is considered a normal outfit, like jeans and a T-shirt. Whenever a character with a very iconic outfit comes out, such as Joker, it often re-ignites the meme or a discussion on male fashion.

Origin

The basic idea of the meme likely originated from the IRL fashion world where several magazines and blogs suggest that fashion shown during expos and runway shows are disconnected from everyday men's fashion senses.^[1][2]

The earliest known meme iteration of the phrase is dated April 25th, 2017, comparing a relatively normally clothed man to a fantasy artwork of a knight. This was first posted to iFunny by GreatLakesRepublic, earning 12 likes in four years (shown below).^[3]

The next instance of the meme, comparing runway outfits to superhero outfits, is dated December 5th, 2018, being posted to Facebook^[4] by All Things DC And Marvel, receiving over 900 likes in three years (shown below).

Spread

The meme began spreading further online in 2019, with a post on /r/memes^[5] by Redditor kstan007 on August 24th, 2019, gaining 97,300 upvotes in two years (shown below)

Following the performance there, it later appeared in the /r/memes^[6] subreddit again, this time posted by Redditor SirRedRavxn, on October 26th, 2020, gaining 60,000 upvotes in eight months (shown below).

On the /r/Shitpostcrusaders subreddit, the meme evolved further, making itself more inclusive by making it also be usable for examples involving women. This first post was done by Redditor^[7] Loud_Function_2296 on February 13th, 2021, garnering 11,100 upvotes in four months (shown below).

Related Memes

First Date: She vs. Me

First Date: She vs. Me or First Date: Her vs. Him refers to a series of Girls vs. Boys memes in which outfits worn by two people going on their first date are compared against each other, with one of the outfits breaking a norm while reflecting a person's interest in a certain media. The format gained popularity on Facebook in September 2021. The memes usually compare a woman wearing a casual goth outfit against attire such as armor from video games or unusual outfits from movies.

Various Examples

Search interest

External References