A Hands-On, Investigative Look into Jewelry On Hands (of Men)
By Will Reed
Two years ago, I found a stainless steel ring in a ceramics studio that may or may not have belonged to someone else. Noticing, after a few days that no one was coming to claim it, I took the liberty upon myself to take it as my own. I had never been one to wear rings or any type of jewelry before (other than the classic high school whiteboy to gold chain pipeline), but I was drawn to the imperfections of this particular ring and have not taken it off since. It’s bent, contorted, and honestly pretty ugly, but it has become so much a part of me in recent years. I’m not kidding when I say I get anxious when I take it off and let someone try it on. I feel naked without it!
Student, Miles Asare
Throughout middle and high school I never saw any men wear hand jewelry. But, during my first semester at Middlebury I began to see men wearing hand jewelry more and more, both around campus and on social media. This trend has most certainly taken a firm hold across the entire world. While I do think social media is the medium that is a direct cause of trends like these, I also believe that there are a number of perspectives regarding male ring-wearers that are quite interesting indeed, mostly pertaining to the progressiveness and fluidity to gendered jewelry trends as a whole. It’s surely increasing, and not only evidenced around the community here at Middlebury but also amongst younger pop-culture icons as well.
A 2019 article from the New York Times stated that, "Millennials are driving men’s jewelry sales, generating half of the growth, followed by Gen Z and Gen X.” (1)
What’s interesting here is that jewelry, specifically rings, are mostly being worn by younger generations. While this is probably a direct result of generational discrepancies in opinion concerning the move towards fashion fluidity, it certainly can be seen that these trends are leading to various progressive mitigations between stereotypically gendered fashion trends.
Junior Feb and notable campus icon, fashionista, newest Otter member, Vaughan Supple wears many a ring day to day. He jokingly discusses his appreciation of rings:
“Rings are like … you know what has rings, the stump of a tree. The more you have, the wiser you are.”
Vaughan wears eight silver rings, noting that he wears one for “each of his wisdoms (noble),” which is really awesome of him to think for sure.
But more seriously, Vaughan states that, “One thing [he] truly believes is that male fashion is lacking in accessories, at least in the mainstream. Women’s fashion goes so much beyond a shirt, pants and shoes whereas men typically wear a fraction of that kind of stuff (accessories). Rings are a really fun way to customize your appearance as a male-identifying individual.”
Students, Vaughan supple and cam Truman-Wyss
Other stylish, awesome, funny, ring-wearing, Junior feb Cameron Truman-Wyss appreciates the forward moving mentality regarding men’s jewelry. He states that, “the increased commonality of men wearing rings is indicative of the line between masculine and feminine attire being blurred.”
For men and women alike, jewelry has increasingly become a form of self expression. With forward, progressive leaning clothing-fashion trends, the erasure of once gendered fashion norms now even extend to the fingers.
Junior Mira Irfan says that men who wear rings are “hot.” Louisa Stevens agrees with her.
While it’s definitely linked to the classic catching on of a trend, the bridge between typically masculine and feminine apparel is becoming increasingly fused and physically integrated as the world moves towards gendered hybridity.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/11/style/jewelry-mens-rings.html