The man-girdle

It's not that I'm unsympathetic to middle-edge bumps and bulges. After all, I turned 50 this year. But still -- this from the Wall Street Journal makes me laugh:

Robert Verdi, 39, says he began craving a so-called mirdle, or man-girdle, recently after starting to develop a "muffin top." "I'm now at that weird age where I'm starting to have a little bit of a spare tire, that midsection squish," says Mr. Verdi, a New York stylist and TV personality. Feeling self-conscious while prepping for a recent date, Mr. Verdi took scissors to a pair of high-waisted women's Spanx so it fit him like an elongated tube-top beneath his fitted shirt and slacks. "I felt like I was wearing an Ace bandage, but I definitely looked flatter," he says.

...Dan Uram, a 37-year-old aspiring actor in Beverly Hills, Calif., bought a Solidea body shaper last year to give him an edge in auditions as well as in dating. He says the men's body shapers are part of men's liberation. They help level the playing field for men and women. "Lots of women wear girdles," he observes.

Still, there can be concern over having to explain the shaper in intimate situations. Mr. Verdi, who wore the cut-up women's shaper, says he worried about what his date would think of it. The date, however, didn't mind, he says.

This issue reminds me of an office Christmas party years ago a co-worker (who was on the heavy side) showed up in curve-hugging dress and a figure that was clearly being shaped by some type of industrial-strength undergarment. Rather than thinking she looked great, the guys simply said "wow, Lynden must be wearing one hell of a girdle!"