Traditionally, men have exercised control in human affairs. Particularly in terms of sexual relations, men take the active roles, whereas women strike alluring poses and display their bodies. Men will go into great detail discussing women's body parts, hooting and whistling. But very few women stare at men.

Women are constantly being treated as sex objects, from the looking over they get on the street or in other public settings, to the various kinds of performances that are centered around women's bodies, to the sex trade. Yet in our daily lives, we rarely come across instances of men being treated as sex objects.

These days, while we talk so much about sexual equality, we should also hope that men will one day accept being the object of others' visual attention. We now see a greater number of men in movies and advertisements. More generally we can see that modern day men are beginning to adopt a new style of dressing up. But does this mean that men will perhaps change their ruler-subject relationship with women? All that we can say for sure is that this development is "providing opportunities" for women to look at men more, which may make them uncomfortable or may give them practice in being the object of others' attention.

In this way, won't women be transforming men by turning the tables on them?

The truth of the matter is that there is pleasure to be had in being a sex object, and it is quite normal for some people to enjoy striking the alluring pose. It's just that traditional social structures prevented men from playing this role, so women were always the sex objects. While everyone is subject to outside environmental influences, on the inside, character and psychology differ from individual to individual. Hence, some people like "spice girls" and others like to be sex objects. Still others may want to cast off the shackles of being a sex object, but aren't willing to take the active role either. What's important today is that we allow an exchange of these passive and active roles, so that men can also become sex objects.

Of course, you can't change the position of the sexes just by getting men into good-looking clothes. But getting decked out may be a prerequisite to having people appreciate the way you look. The reason I want men to learn from women about the art of fashion is because cultural limitations have meant that men can wear little jewelry, can't use make-up, and can rarely dress up to display their attractiveness. What cultural resources can men, these sartorially challenged sexual aggressors, use to improve this situation? A style of dress cannot be created in a vacuum, and since women excel at dressing up, I hold that men should take their cues from them. In the future, the rising culture of male adornment will bring about an age of individuality and diversity in fashion in which sexual differences are blurred.

The trends in men's fashions are perhaps all directed by commerce. Commerce and consumerism may be a Pandora's Box, but their influence is many sided. Clothing often represents power, and the culture of clothing has a big impact on the way people are viewed in society. Clothing is bound up with notions of class. Looking at it from this angle, if men can learn from women and wear clothing resembling women's, becoming the objects of others' gazes, then clothing will loose its sexual and class-based associations. Therefore, encouraging men to dress differently has the potential of changing the position of men and women in society.