When I covered fashion I was always talking about the curious vanity sizing that accommodated women who all wanted a smaller size and men who usually wanted a larger size. “Small” shirts are never plentiful in the men’s section but you’ll find tons in the women’s department.

And the size is really only relative to the type of customer they’d like to attract. The sizing is usually meant to give someone a false impression of themselves. I’ve written a lot about women’s vanity sizing and how complicit we are even as we complain about not being able to trust the label. I too am guilty.

I think of myself as a size 8, but honestly, if we went by traditional sizing I would be in the double digits. That doesn’t mean I don’t like my size, that means I’m a wee bit vain.

I noticed that every man wanted to be a large or even an extra large. It confused me. I thought they looked so sloppy in overly big shirts so I decided to write about it once upon a time. I was not prepared for the reaction, which was a bunch of stunned critiques.

Why would I pick on men? Why would I expect them to wear such fitted uncomfortable clothing? Why don’t I just leave guys alone, they don’t care about fashion and they don’t need to be harassed by the likes of some Midwest Fashion Editor person.

These were women and men, but mostly women, who complained by the way. It was really confusing and bizarre. This is the same group of readers that has been gleefully degrading, critiquing and complaining about women’s clothing for years.

I mean if I had a dollar for every time someone called or wrote to impugn a female’s style or taste, I’d have enough for a trip to Aruba. I was aghast at the double-standard even of criticism.

The oddest comment I got was that they couldn’t tell which was the good vs bad fit. They thought our model (a friend of mine) was wearing his clothing too tight. Meanwhile women suffer though heels, skinny jeans and control-top undergarments, but OK I said.

And as you could imagine, we were told that the headline was scandalous.

One really irritated reader wrote a Letter to the Editor about it:

We have had a subscription to the Post-Dispatch almost since 1960 and feel a great loyalty to our hometown newspaper. We have never considered dropping our subscription simply on the grounds of not agreeing or being very distressed because of an article now and then. So this complaint carries no sense of “clean up your act or else!”

I realize that every form of media is continually pushing the envelope, using language and subjects that used to be common only in the domain of the scandal sheets, cheesy newspapers, magazines, books, movies and songs. I was pleased that the Post-Dispatch seldom felt it had to step down into the gutter to keep the interest of its readers.

With the title of the article on the front of Home and Away, “Embracing the F-word” (Feb. 9), my family and I were deeply offended! We are senior adults, but even the people in their 20s whom I questioned thought it was in very poor taste. What were you thinking? Where was your leadership? Did you allow this offensive title to go through in order to attract more readers? Do you really think people who thought it was cool and worldly are of an age and upbringing that they would even bother to subscribe or even to read a newspaper?

Keep in mind, “If you play with pigs, you’re going to get dirty.” Please respect the long fine history of the Post-Dispatch.

Well, since the “F” stands for “fit” and that word is highlighted in RED, I really don’t understand why innocent family readers would think of anything else in such very poor taste unless they are prone to the “H-word”. Hypocrisy.

But in all honesty, the headline is meant to be cheeky but it’s duality is intended. Fit is the dirty word of menswear. Too many askew fit in deference to some irrational notion of comfort.

Read the full story here: Men need to embrace the F-word and buy clothes that fit.