I commuted in with my friend Rich this morning. I had on my puffy down coat and in conversation he pointed out that “only women wear those coats”. I looked at him askance and gave him a wholehearted, “No they don’t! Men wear them too!” But he may have a valid point…
As I stand here at Penn waiting for the 7:37, I’m looking around and I see a bunch of puffy coats but all of the wearers are women. I see men in wool coats, barn jackets, pea coats, fleeces, sweatshirts, rain coats, leather coats and gosh darn it, not a single one of them in a puffy coat!! What the heck? It’s weird!
Do men not feel cold? Does 30-something-degree weather not call for a down-filled coat? (Ducks and geese know a thing or two about keeping warm, right?) Are down coats too cumbersome to carry around with them? Or do they simply think these coats look stupid?? (I do have to say trying to squeeze me and my puffy-coat-wearing butt into a two-seater this morning with another puffy-coat-wearing passenger was like the Stay-Puff Marshmallow man trying to fit in a seat next to the Syracuse Orangeman mascot…)
It is only November and the temps haven’t reached anywhere near “frigid” so maybe it is a little too early for the puffer. But when the temps are expected to dip below the 30s again, I’ll be wearing my down coat and looking around to see if Rich’s theory holds true about men and their no-down-coat-wearing rule!
From Here to New Jersey 