And since we’re talkin about ties, I learned that there are a lot of people who don’t know exactly how to tie a necktie. Well if u’r gonna wear these unique pieces of wearable art, u gotta know how to put it on to maximize your swagger. Here are a few tips:

Tying a Necktie

The Four-in-Hand Knot is the most popular type of necktie knot and easiest to learn, probably over 80% of tie wearers knot their ties with this. The knot is long and straight but slightly lopsided.

The Half-Windsor Knot is a medium triangular knot that is considered more formal than the four-in-hand.

The Windsor Knot is a wide triangular knot that is usually worn for formal occasions, this type of knot should be worn with wide spread collar shirts.

The Pratt/Shelby knot is Semi-wide knot, when beginning to tie this knot the tie is turned outward.

Quick Tips to Wearing a Tie

• The front point of your tie should be just long enough to touch the waist of your pants.
• Your tie should be darker than the color of your shirt.
• The general width of a tie is 3.5 inches, this width will not fall out of style.
• The width of a tie should be approximately the same width of the coat’s lapel, if the lapel is wide, the tie should be wide and if the lapel is narrow the tie should be narrow.
• The knot of the tie should be proportional to the collar, it should not be too big where it spreads the collar or forces it open and it shouldn’t be too small that it becomes lost in the collar.
• The color of your tie should not clash with your outfit but the colors should not be so similar that they fade into the suit.
• The main color of a patterned tie should complement your suit and the secondary color should pick up your shirt.
• The texture of the tie should go with your outfit, for instance a shiny silk tie should go with a shiny silk shirt and a wool tie should be worn with a wool suit.

Caring for your Tie

• A properly cared for tie can last you virtually forever.
• Hang up your ties, it helps take out some of the wrinkles. Knit ties can be stretched when hung, so gently roll them up and store them in a drawer.
• Hang ties up on a rack designed for that purpose. Ties slip and twist on hangers, and will probably fall off.
• Rolling up the tie from the narrow end first and leaving it for a couple of days will remove wrinkles in the tie.
• Storing ties out of the light prevents fading.
• For traveling, loosely roll ties and place them inside a pair of socks or use a tie case.
• Cut any loose threads on your tie. Pulling them can do major damage to your tie.
• Don’t wear the same tie twice in a row, ties need time to return to its normal shape.
• Always unknot your tie when you are not wearing it, leaving it knotted can damage the tie and cause create permanent wrinkles.
• To untie your tie, reverse the tying procedure. Pulling the smaller end through the knot can cause the tie to stretch out of shape.

“Drag was originally a word used to describe the actual clothing actors wore on stage when they performed as women. As you no doubt learned by watching Shakespeare in Love, female roles used to be played not by actual females, but delicate young male actors. Even so, the term doesn’t actually date back to Shakespeare’s time. Instead, it came into popular usage during the age of British vaudeville shows when the cross-dressing was used for comic effect. The men would dress in drag and the women wore breeches as a theatrical method of satirizing the qualities unique to the opposite sex. It would not be until almost the middle of the 20th century that drag was specifically used as a term to describe female impersonators and this was also the era in which drag began to become more closely associated with homosexuality.”

so Bill S. didn’t come up with it. well at least according to this one unchecked source i found on the internet. another source of knowledge that we all must submit too;).

well at least that explanation helps me out a little bit cuz i thought the drag thing only referred to me, but of course there are drag kings as well as queens. soooo, what’s the difference between a drag king and a stud? while i know that being in drag is the full ASSumption of being a man and being a stud is still a woman who carries a masculine appearance. wow, that last sentence so over simplified my dominant sisters, it almost seems offensive. but y’all know i love ya. hell, i’m the unofficial #1 stud lover, so i’m really not tryin 2 b that way. sometimes, i don’t have the vocabulary 2 properly express my thoughts. so bear with me on this one.

despite that very simple distinction between the two, there is a whole spectrum of womyn that fall in between the drag king and the basic tomboy sporting baggy pants. there are womyn who relate more to male energy. so much so that they emote it. so wearing the clothes aren’t a conscious effort to become manly but more like a result of already being manly. chicken or the egg maybe? does it make a difference? i think it does.

in the end Mulan gets her man. she was just in drag. and how often (if at all, are str8 womyn drag kings?) mulan, didn’t relate 2 the boys at all. barely understood them. whereas i know studs that could walk amongst bio dudes and not miss a beat. have great conversations about sports, drink a beer and genuinely complain about womyn. fascinating. ever heard a stud talk about womyn as if they weren’t one? i hear it all the time. so it’s not drag for them. but then there are other studs who acknowledge their womanhood, only deal with womyn, and only seem 2 relate 2 womyn. r they in drag? do the clothes match what’s inside?

when it is just an outfit and when it is a manifestation of the inner person?

p.s. i like the end of the movie in which this male dominated society that treats womyn like second class citizens all bowed down to her for her heroic efforts. even the emperor bowed to Mulan.