I swear that some days when I'm reading this stuff in here I have to check the calender to make sure we haven't somehow slipped back in time 50 years or so.
Yeesh, I see lots of people - men and women, gay or not - using some sort of 'personal organizing system' - be it a 'messenger type bag', a satchel, a brief case with a strap, or some sort of backpack. People here - a modern, urban Cosmopolitan environment - just have too much stuff to lug around with them, particularly if they are commuting in a way that not personally waging war on the planet. So if your on a bike, mass transit, bus, light rail, train, or just walking your going to need some survival stuff be it bike gear (gloves, riding clothes assuming your work does not want to to show up physically stinking) or mass transit stuff like MP3 players and books. Everyone has a phone, many have some sort of pad/laptop, even those of us who try to avoid dragging computers and pads, and chords have a notebook, or nice portfolio (I kinda like using my non-electric pad and pen, it scares people, though I'm not sure why - perhaps its me). Only a fool goes anywhere in the Bay Area without another layer because the weather changes according to geographic location and the hour, it used to be just the women who wore trainers on their way to and from the job, and have heels for business hours, but I see lots of guys doing it these days too (but not heels, yeesh), perhaps they are biking or walking. Other guys - real guys, manly macho men doing manly things that make them smell bad at the end of the day - carry their work boots - I know I do. Because after walking the 25+ miles I cover during an average/routine show (yes, we've put a ped on me) that lasts 12-18 hours I sure as hell want to get those heavy (high, leather,steel-toed and all) things off my feet and slip into my trainers. And hey, if you don't like it, or think its somehow effeminate (hysterical considering I'm most likely wearing pink lace underwear) I'll just whack you up side of the head with one. Or just let those boots get close enough to you that the smell alone will kill you.
And I don't know about Texass (and neither does anyone else in this country either), but I've never seen bike messenger bags as "gay" or "effeminate" - and I don't see the real highly gay people, or the fems wearing them. Hell damn few girls wear them because the strap doesn't quite work well with boobies (so I'm told). They are pretty much a male fashion accessory, and one highly preferred by the bike/bus people (because Buckminster Fuller was right about form following function).
The one that WolfMan is getting has young lawyer/college prof (maybe screenwriter) written all over it (and all over it's price tag too). I doubt that anyone in LA is going to find it either "gay" or "effeminate".
And a fanny pack? Really? Unless your jogging along the coast or skiing up in the Sierras I can't think of any appropriate use for them in this state unless you're trying to pretend you're from Ohio or something.
Oh, by the way... self respecting red blooded American Dudes don't give a stale turd in a toilet about what anyone else thinks about them, that's the 'self-respecting' part.
I just really don't like these girly men society is raising today
Maybe you might be more comfortable in a different culture. I hear Somalia is real butch. Lots of guns, almost as many as Texas. And 'society' ain't doing nothing, people make choices. You can like their choices, dislike their choices, or be apathetic as all get out (my personal choice) about them - pretty much makes no difference. Opinions about society and 50 cents can get you a phone call, if you can find a pay phone anymore.
I mean, really, what exactly bothers you? Not enough Hell's Angels, gangbangers and violent felons about these days? Is football in jeopardy because all the guys have gone soft and now want to play canasta instead? Are all the bars and brothels closing? Not enough Harley-Davidsons, and mid-life crisis sports cars being sold? While it might be true that violent crime is dropping, its' because today's modern now a go-go man is into the white collar crime wave - all the loot and none of that pesky jail time.