Uniforms

Personally, I blame CHiPs.

Uniforms. You can't avoid or ignore them. They're everywhere: cops, firemen, soldiers, postal carriers, UPS delivery-people, maintenance workers, catholic schoolgirls (I swear, that's there only for list completeness.)

Now, of course, the uniform itself isn't what most people find arousing, right?

RIGHT?

I suppose I'm not precisely the best person to answer this question for the general uniform-aficionado population. It has been suggested that I'll do anything in polyester. That's completely false. It's got to be polyester and leather (Barefoot cops? I don't think so.)

Once again, the question arises, "And just where did this little kink originate?" I repeat, I blame CHiPs. You remember: early eighties, California Highway Patrol, everyone was ga-ga over Erik Estrada (yuchhhhh). Let's just say that that show (along with BJ and the Bear and Emergency!) more or less prove the "impressionable youth" theory for me.

Plainly put, I like uniforms, particularly police, fire, and military. I also collect uniforms and police and fire memorabilia, paraphernalia, and equipment. I'm always looking to buy, and I have a number of items to sell (list to be posted soon).

Actually, I've been thinking about this, and the way I see it, there are probably two levels at which people are interested in uniforms. First, there's the "I wanna be a cop (firefighter, Marine, soldier, etc.)" mindset. As I alluded earlier, our perceptions of persons in the position of overt authority (police officers and soldiers, essentially military and paramilitary persons) are shaped by the media. So when CHiPs is a top-rated show and it shows cops as being hip, with-it guys who get to ride motorcycles, why would anyone be surprised that CHP uniforms are currently one of the most expensive uniforms to try to collect.

Nowadays, we get COPS and Real Stories of the Highway Patrol (R.I.P.) which portray police officers as regular guys who have to ride in ugly cars and play "he said, she said" with drunk rednecks. (cf. "If you don't get the hell off my lawn, I'll set my dogs on you!")

What does this mean? I have no clue, but it kinda makes me feel some sympathy for the poor guys. Any of them in my area who would like to drop by to see how deeply that sympathy runs can e-mail me <grin>.

The other level is the "I want a [insert uniformed authority figure here] to 'like' me" mindset. By "like" I mean one of any number of non-negative emotions like respect, need, enjoy being around, not want to kill, whatever. Yes, I do mean "not want to kill." You'd be amazed at the vast range of uniform kinks that exist.

This second form of uniform interest mainfests itself as a desire to serve (or would that be service?) a person in uniform.

I'm sure there's more to be said, but I'm not coming up with anything coherent. If you have any questions or suggestions for topics to address, e-mail me (all together now, "mailto link at the bottom of the page") and I'll address them by e-mail and/or by web.