Male zettai ryouiki

[McSweeney]

Most anime fans are probably aware of the concept of "zettai ryouiki" which is when a girl wears a skirt in combination with thigh high socks. Several scientific studies have concluded that wearing such an outfit makes a girl's attractiveness level shoot up by approximately 1,000,000,000%. A classic example is Rin from Fate/Stay:

Spoiler: show

I thought it was unfair how girls have such an awesome weapon in their arsenal, but there is no equivalent for guys ... or is there? A while ago, I started theorycrafting a male fashion equivalent to zettai ryouiki. The problem was, I couldn't just slap a skirt and some thigh high socks on a guy, because number 1: it's weird for a non Scottish guy to be wearing a skirt, and number 2: even if you replaced the skirt with some shorts, it still wouldn't work, because girls generally don't oggle a guy's legs. But what DO they oggle? Their arm muscles! This epiphany was the key to unlocking male ZR ...

Female ZR works by covering up part of the girl's thighs, yet offering a teasing glimpse, greatly accentuating them. In order to replicate this with guys, we need to do the same thing: cover up some of the arms, but offer a teasing glimpse. I worked out that the perfect proportions would be to cover up the bottom part of the forearm, but expose the top part, and also expose the bottom part of the bicep, with the rest of the bicep being covered up by a t-shirt sleeve. In order to test this on myself, I went out and got a pair of athletic elbow sleeves, but I moved them farther down than intended (it doesn't work if you use them as intended, like LeBron does here, because it disconnects the arm and the proportions don't replicate female ZR). By doing this, the t-shirt sleeve acts like the girl's skirt, and the elbow sleeve acts like the thigh high sock.

Here was the result. I present to you a world's first, male zettai ryouiki:

Spoiler: show

So what do you think? The start of a new fashion revolution, or the dumbest idea ever? I think it's pretty sexy myself, now imagine if some famous celebrity who actually was sexy did this?

[Talon87]

WHAT HAS SCIENCE WROUGHT!?

[Doppleganger]

I think it's a legit idea, but being a male myself I can only see it as cool and not necessarily sexy.

Although, I'm not sure if the sleeves are the right way to go about it. Covering up the forearm with the bicep showing, as well as leaving the deltoid cover up, does sound right, but I think you need to hide the hand as well.

Take the Warrior from Hexen:



If you assume the sleeve starts where the graphic cuts off, you've got a shot of his beefy arms but his perhaps less impressive fingers or deltoids are covered up. It shows just enough skin so that the eyes rest on the bulging bicep, much like how with ZR the eyes stop at the thighs.

[McSweeney]

You're right that it might work better to cover up the hand as well, because otherwise it would be like a chick with bare feet. They actually tried that with Hatsune Miku Append, and it doesn't seem as popular as her classic design. Although I'm sure that foot fetishists everywhere rejoiced.

[Jerichi]

I don't think arm guards/gloves/whatever have the same cultural and aesthetic appeal as kneesocks do.

[Shuckle]

If I'm recalling female opinions correctly, the aesthetic you're looking for is to take a button down and roll up the sleeves so your forearms are showing.

Forearms are key.

[Jerichi]

Can confirm.

[Talon87]

I think you guys are missing the point. A man might say he prefers to see a woman's full thighs and shins exposed too. That's not what zettai ryouiki is. Zettai ryouiki is, for the men to whom it appeals, all about that partial concealment, partial reveal. It's also about a conceal-reveal-conceal pattern, not a conceal-reveal pattern. What you're describing with the "what women really want" thing ... is nothing more than a long-sleeve shirt with the sleeves rolled up. That's fine and all, but it's not the men's fashion equivalent that Mcsweeney seems to have been seeking out.

Originally Posted by TV Tropes

[Zettai ryouiki] has gained popularity around the world, especially in Japan, where it is a very popular fashion item with girls and young women, so the occurrence of zettai ryouiki can be regarded as Truth in Television.

That's the other half to this thread that I perceive. Note Mcsweeney's closing thoughts. This is less about "Have I discovered the preexisting men's fashion trend that matches zettai ryouiki?" and more about "I recognize that there is no preexisting men's fashion trend that matches zettai ryouiki, so I wonder: would this be it?" At least, that's how I've read it.

I don't really get zettai ryouiki myself but then again I'm not much of a legs man. However, if I were to try and analogize to explain the appeal by way of analogy, I guess I would turn to clothing conventions like breast coverings or facial coverings. You often hear men remark that between a) breasts fully covered, b) breasts partially exposed, and c) women in complete nude that B is the most alluring. I don't particularly agree nor disagree -- for me personally, it's more of a glasses deal where glasses on and glasses off each have their own appeal and if I had to pick I think I'd go with the nude in each case -- but putting aside my own beliefs I think that the same phenomenon that is at play for the men who loudly shout "B! B! B!" for the breast example is the same phenomenon at play for the men who love zettai ryouiki when it comes to thighs.

tl;dr you're asking for nude forearms and that's okay but it's not what this is about.

[RealMrGame10]

According to a real life female sitting next to me who is in no way shape or form from my mind the male equivalent is a button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by RealMrGame10

According to a real life female sitting next to me who is in no way shape or form from my mind the male equivalent is a button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up

That would be a short skirt without leggings. It's not the equivalent. This shouldn't be hard to grasp, guys. Clothes, peek of skin, clothes. Not clothes, all of the skin forever.

[Shuckle]

Well if you really really wanted to you could still wear thigh highs and a miniskirt???? you'd just get a lot of weird looks is all.

Just one step towards the ultimate expression of masculinity.

[Jerichi]

I agree with Talon; there's nothing quite equivalent with men since there's not really going to be that bit of skin deal.

[McSweeney]

Talon is right in that the whole idea is to replicate female ZR for guys, hence the covering up of the bottom and top parts but exposing the middle part. However you guys also have a point with the rolled up sleeves. If exposing the whole bottom part of the arm is considered to be a bigger turn on than my own invention, even though it more closely follows the principles of female ZR, then I can only admit defeat.

[Jerichi]

I think the biggest difference here is that the skin is not the thing being looked for - it's the muscle and the definition, which you can still see okay through arm bands or whatever.

[Kindrindra]

So I think I'm completely out of touch with the goal we're trying to achieve here, but I have to say that short sleeves and long gloves together sounds badass and the world needs more characters with that.


I mean I'm pretty sure that the male equivalent of Zettai Ryouiki is just an unbuttoned shirt. Cloth on the left, cloth on the right, nudity between.