My Day In Jeggings By Marcy Beckerman Analysis

In “My Day in Jeggings – Confessions of an Average Guy in Extraordinary Pants”, Marty Beckerman describes his experience in wearing female jeggings, where he focuses not only in the social aspect of what people thought about him, but he expresses his own thoughts about what it actually feels like to use the garment. He explains his experience throughout funny and relatable things modern people (teenager & young adults) can relate to, as he is a professional humorist. If he had used a more serious tone for this piece, it wouldn’t have been as interesting as it is now. This is not to say that this is not a serious topic, it’s just the way Beckerman formulates his statements makes it easier to follow. Further into the piece it is noticed that

Beckerman in uses exaggerated examples, to engage his audience while comparing men jeggings to things that modern people can relate.
In the beginning he talks about other men wearing jeggings, he writes “Conan O’Brien in acid-washed jeggings was a disturbing sight” (Beckerman 308).

Although Conan just did it as a joke, Beckerman thinks that jeggings aren’t designed for men and it’s not very pleasing to see them wearing it. He emphasizes on jeggings not being available to men in regular clothing stores. So Beckerman ended wearing women jeggings, he writes “I would have to cross a sacred barrier” (Beckerman 308). It’s so called “sacred” since wearing another gender’s cloth is looked down by society and is generally related to homosexuality. Beckerman was confused at the moment of trying them on, as he has already crossed the barrier, he says “Should I use the men’s fitting rooms or the women’s” (Beckerman 308), this was done as a satirical comment, but it relates to the phase of him trying something that is “forbidden” and not looked great by today’s

society.
Before trying them on he was warned that he will “…learn things about himself that he will never be able to unlearn”, this comment made by the lady at American Eagle was made after she stated that all her gay friends loved jeggings, meaning in somehow that Beckerman might actually like them so much, that he could get confused by being homosexual.

Once they were on, Beckerman says that it felt like a “NASA rocket Launch”(Beckerman 308), over exaggerating the process in which he goes through actually putting them on, it give the impression that trying out women’s jeggings as a men, feels completely different from anything men are used to feel in terms on putting on clothes. He encountered some problems wearing the jeggings, one of them is the “Bulge”, he uses this term in order to create a break from the article, and to make the audience feel that despite this is a serious topic, and the article should be taken lightly. After they were on, Beckerman says “… the material conformed to my body like a technological wonder substance from an advanced civilization”, he makes the audience think that a pair of simple jeggings are a technological advance, something like the next iPhone or the best Lamborghini. Being the incredible thing he describes, he decides to purchase them and go to the streets. As he walked down the streets of New York he describes, “I felt as if I were naked in a meat freezer, except without the delicious meat” (Beckerman 310), Beckerman is comparing his legs

with some awesome steak that is waiting in the freezer to be eaten, but he finishes the sentence saying that he is just feeling cold and that he doesn’t have amazing legs which is pretty true for most of the population. He often got this comment: “How are these any different than skinny jeans?” This resembles that people will often compare things with things are more familiar to them, therefore as they are not used to seeing a guy were jeggings, they thought he was just wearing another version of skinny jeans.
The way Marty Beckerman uses exaggerated examples to engage his audience is superb. He discusses a delibarate topic which is about men wearing garments specially made for women, and why it shouldn’t be looked down as it is in the 21st century. Beckerman manages to explain a serious topic while at the same time been interesting and relatable, the key of getting the attention of his audience is exaggerating everything like comparing a NASA rocket launch to putting on some jeggings and making funny and relatable comparisons to things that are common in a daily life of a person. Although he seems to be in favor of wearing women garments, he never pursues the reader to try it himself, but instead, puts the reader to a position where they can see themselves in it. Thanks to the comparisons Marty Beckerman achieves to deliver a clear point on a serious subject.