Earrings have become the subject of a little bit of controversy in the last decade. As a long time piece of jewelry that has belonged almost exclusively to women, the earring has taken its show to the male side. The early American roots of earrings date back to around 1920, when women began to wear them regularly. Though earrings had been popular elsewhere in the world before that, it took Western women a while to catch on to the trend. Earrings in America were much more about fashion than in other places, though, where earrings represented a tribal or cultural meaning.

Earrings were worn in the United States beginning in the early 1900s. They became popular as women experimented with piercing their ears. From there, popularity of earrings grew as more types were designed. A major setback happened for earrings around 1920, when a more conservative approach took over in America. At that point, earrings became too risqué and many women quit wearing them. It wasn’t until the hippie movements in the 1960s that earrings returned to prominence in the United States.

Those movements sparked the beginning of earring wear for men in the United States. Though tribal men had been proudly wearing earrings for centuries before, it was not an accepted thing in America for a man to wear earrings. When the hippie movement came to the forefront in America, that changed, though. Looking for different ways to express themselves, those men began to wear earrings in mass. From there, earring wear for men was still not totally accepted among mainstream America. The punk movement in the 1980s and 1990s took male earring wear to another level.

Even though wearing earrings is a more common thing for men today, it is still not completely accepted. In many professions, including those in business and the legal field, the male wearing of earrings is frowned upon. Men tend to like a different type of earring than women. Men tend to prefer the stud earrings that are small and flashy. Those could be anything from diamond stone earrings to a simple piece of metal through the ear. These are much more conservative earrings that don’t dominate the ear quite as much.

Women, on the other hand, have lots of options for their earrings. Though they also wear small stud earrings, lots of women like to wear hoop earrings. As their name suggests, hoop earrings are circular earrings that are bigger than studs. They come in many sizes, depending on what the woman is looking for.

Earrings have long been a popular thing for American women to wear. Today’s man is trying to jump on board with the earring fad, though. It’s still not a truly accepted thing in America, but it is getting closer to full acceptance. Jewelry manufacturers and retail stores don’t mind this new development, as they have an entire new market to whom they can sell their earrings.