Male Crop-TopGate 2024 Is Real, And It’s Time to Stop

Back in the late 80s to early 90s, there was a period where people seemingly decided to say, “fuck it.” Whilst pushing back against what was considered ‘normal’ had been going on since we left the primordial soup and gained legs, the pushing seemed to get stronger. 

And so, the male crop-top emerged. A piece of fabric strewn across the wearer’s front, with that most scared area between top of the pelvis and bottom of the chest being left revealed. But the male crop-top has since been banished under fragile masculinity and Calvin Klein singlets. It’s been shunned for its midriff empowerment and sexual passion.  

Male crop-tops originally began as a “by men, for men” trend back in the 70s, with weightlifters cropping their thangs as way of getting around gym rules about being shirtless. Name brands like Nike would eventually jump on and produce their own shirts. In a way, the trend was a product of the hyper-masculine gym-bro culture of the time.  

But the male crop-top evolved to be a sexy staple for men, straight and queer, over the next two decades.  

An event historians call The Yassification of Aiden, we saw a very closeted writer from Palmy (it’s me... I was the very closeted writer from Palmy) watching the 1984 Nightmare on Elm Street. A young Johnny Depp strutted about in a cropped football jersey. While Mr Depp is incredibly controversial now, him wearing a crop-top isn’t. Johnny’s football jersey with full belly on display made me yearn for a world where I felt comfortable strutting that shit in such a style.  

Many years later, during a second event called The Yassening 2: Crop-Top Boogaloo, I watched what would become my favourite film, Trainspotting, for the first time. The film came out in 1996 with Mark Renton sporting a tight yellow crop-top with a picture of a woman lying on the beach on it. The way Mark acted out retrieving drugs from a toilet was disgusting, but the way he wore a male crop-top while he did it was not.  

But today, no matter where I go, I cannot find a male crop-top to wear anywhere... particularly not in Palmy.  

In recent years it seems like male-presenting crop-tops have been viewed as an exclusively queer community piece of clothing – a ridiculous view considering their origin. While it is rarer to see them today, they’re itching to make a comeback.  

The male crop-top had its last resurgence in 2014 when Kid Cudi wore a red one on stage. The next year Zac Efron was spotted in a black crop-top with fringe (a bold choice) for the Bad Grandpa film.  

10 years on from the last time male crop-tops were trending, it’s time to bring them back. And I know just the person who can make it happen... Michael B Jordan. His publicist needs to get him out of those tuxes and into a male crop-top stat. Society would go crazy, and Male Crop-TopGate 2024 would be no more!