I mentioned my unreasonable relationship with the Male Loafer to someone on Saturday.
They disagreed. ‘Never trust a man in deck shoes, with no socks’ was their reply, well…. yes, I can see where that comes from too, but I still have to say that my instinct to walk the other way when I see a man in a loafer and my instant mistrust of their politics and ethics, could be considered a cause for concern.
We better define loafer here. My definition – it has no laces, so is what they call in the trade a “slip on” and very often it might have some sort of metal bar across the top, purely for no other than decorative affectation. Often it has a very flexible sole, sometimes with tractor marks. Loafers and jeans ….ugh. White loafers, in my opinion, the devil’s work. I may need some help to get over this suspicion of the wearer’s character, and wondered if I ever had an incident in my life that I have wiped from my conscious mind that involved a man wearing a pair of loafers.

I have to say, I don’t really hang out with a lot of people who wear this particular type of footwear, no idea why. Is it restricted to a different strand of society that I am not hanging out with? Who wears loafers? I see them on the tube, and sort of know instinctively that the wearer and I will not have anything in common. Do they cross many strands of our metropolitan society? I don’t really know. I did once have a driving instructor who wore white loafers, and I am, curiously, still a non-driver. I also was, well there is no easy way to say this, ‘kidnapped’ by a man I hardly knew who wore loafers. Well those two incidents alone could be the root of the problem. Much to my dismay, I caught Mr P. browsing the loafer section of a reputable internet shoe store. I was so relieved when he uttered his disgust of ‘le loafeur’ – close shave there though.
I dwell on things like this a lot…..Yes it is sad. Is it just a very minor type of prejudice? I am not homophobic, but I am loafaphobic? Could it be just a liberal way of being ‘phobic’, and that phobia is a completely natural thing, that we all have. Imagine all the love and good banter I might have missed out on by giving men with loafers a wide berth, (ha ha deck shoes, wide berth ha ha ha, good joke me hearties!). Ah Soh!
SONG OF THE DAY
apt, methinks……Walk On By -Dionne Warwick
written by the marvellous Burt Bacharach….ahhhh
I’m with you 100% on this one Gitika. Especially the white ones. They kind of manage to send a shiver down my spine, and raise the hackles at the back of my neck all at the same time. Can’t trace it back to any known childhood experience, but maybe it’s too deeply buried in my subconscious. Ideally they’d be banned, along with any piece of clothing made in yellow.
well I am glad it is not just only me, but would not like to start a loafaphobic epidemic…I mean , each to their own…ha ha
funny about yellow clothes…I am quite partial to a bit of yellow , but one of my mates has the same affliction as you too!
have a good day!