Out and About -- In the World at Large

[Daryl]

My enthusiasm for skirts dipped around 2015 but I might just get back into it again, as long as they're of a mainly utilitarian look and material. The next difficult step would be going for something two or three inches above the knee - I would need some Dutch courage to cope with that in public, and as I drive everywhere Dutch courage is not an option.

I assume that "Dutch courage" is the same as "liquid courage". Not a kind of courage that I'd recommended even for skirting on foot. Falling down in a skirt is definitely not recommended. I am the voice of experience here. I once tripped on a sidewalk and smashed my face and teeth so badly I needed medical attention. That my skirt wound up around my waist before recovering and picking myself up was not an amusing experience (the way a surprise wind can be). A nice young woman rushed to my aid and refused to leave me alone until she was sure I was stable. I was glad for her but not for the other dozen or so people who probably also witnessed it. At the very least they would have had why skirts are NOT practical confirmed in their minds.

To my mind skirts much above the knee on a man are only brushing with exposure, and therefore not comfortable, so why bother? Male geography just is what it is.

[mugman]

You're probably right. I suppose exposing the knees fully is the limit without tights, and as I don't see the point in wearing tights, which are even tighter 'trousers' than trousers, just above the knee will be the sensible termination for me. What I wear at home doesn't count of course.

[Daryl]

You're probably right. I suppose exposing the knees fully is the limit without tights, and as I don't see the point in wearing tights, which are even tighter 'trousers' than trousers, just above the knee will be the sensible termination for me. What I wear at home doesn't count of course.

Yeah, even when I see girls wearing tights under dresses all I think is they are just wanting to wear pants but look like they are not. Just above the knee is the sensible spot for me, too, which is one reason I've mostly stopped wearing my UKs...they ride up much higher than that, in the back especially. I also wear my skirts around my waist not my hips, which already makes them higher.

When at home with no visitors I mostly fluctuate between a thawb and a nightshirt, and pay noattention to what might be happening. Hmmm, maybe I should worry about those rumours that the NSA is watching us all the time secretly...

[mishawakaskirt]

Men have been talking about venturing outside there homes skirted in the neighboorhood. I have many times. I will admit, I am very cautious about it. I mostly do it after dark, if I need somthing from our car. I look and listen before stepping out the front door. I generaly stick to denim or Khakis colors, knee to ankle length. So unless some one is really looking they are going to "see" shorts or trousers.
Had a near miss one day, I ventured out, fiddling in my car, for a minute or two, suddeny I heard a car, I opened my car door and jumped in the drivers seat just as a negiboor drove right past my driveway looking towards me.

If done enough, I know I will be spotted, if I has not already happened.

Mishawakaskirt

[Daryl]

Men have been talking about venturing outside there homes skirted in the neighboorhood. I have many times. I will admit, I am very cautious about it. I mostly do it after dark, if I need somthing from our car. I look and listen before stepping out the front door. I generaly stick to denim or Khakis colors, knee to ankle length. So unless some one is really looking they are going to "see" shorts or trousers.
Had a near miss one day, I ventured out, fiddling in my car, for a minute or two, suddeny I heard a car, I opened my car door and jumped in the drivers seat just as a negiboor drove right past my driveway looking towards me.

If done enough, I know I will be spotted, if I has not already happened.

Mishawakaskirt

I think most of us have been there. After a while it becomes like that mountain people climb just because it's there daring them to, and what was just curiosity before becomes pretty close to an obsession. The usual explanation that pops up in people's minds when they see your obsession (and they do) is that only some kind of sexual thing can drive a man to such a degree in the presence of all kinds of reasons not to do it, not least among those reasons being the lack of need. Our mentally rehearsed "reasons" seem shallow by comparison, mere camouflage. Even though they may be the actual reasons for the curiosity in the first place they are not what keeps us moving forward. That is something stronger, more like defiance than obsession; male defiance.

I recall when I first started going out regularly in the single tube. I hoped that I would be beside my car when my neighbour also came out to go to work. I even got around it quickly a few times just so he couldn't see me from the waist down. When I realised that such actions seen rightly would tell the viewer that I was "hiding", I stopped immediately. We hide from things we are ashamed of as well as merely from worry about bad reactions, and no way was I going to risk signalling shame, because I had nothing to be ashamed about but once you've signalled it, that's an impression that sticks in people's minds.

That more than anything else was probably the beginning of my real freedom in dressing as I like and not as others want me to.

[skirtyscot]

Keyworth, thanks for that detailed description of your first time out skirted. You've reminded me that that was just how I felt too! Seems ages ago now, and wearing a skirt is now commonplace for me. It's good to remember the topsy-turvy emotions of the first time. But it's much better when it doesn't bother you at all!

[mugman]

Tonight is my first 'publicly supported' solo keyboarding gig for about three years. I'm not nervous as with the band in the latter part of the last century we got through hundreds of four hour jobs without problems. But anxious that I get the controls right, and at the right time. As I'm also vocalising 90% of the programme, getting in a pickle with singing and pressing a bank of buttons at the same time is not an option I want to fall foul of. Luckily the length of playing is just a couple of 20 minute spots as a cabaret act. It's a charity ballroom dance in aid of the North Devon Hospital Cancer Support Group, so my preference for something jazzy has to go on hold.
To promote 'kilts for the elderly' I've chosen my one with the red, white and blue pleats, plus a fancy black shirt and white(ish) jacket which I had shortened as I always think a normal length jacket looks odd with a kilt. I had all my gear PAT tested yesterday evening which is possibly not necessary but always wise, and a reassurance.
The main entertainment is from a dee-jayed Big Band Ballroom-themed disco (the mind boggles).
Depending upon how many turn up will, I think, decide upon whether the next five bookings to August will be scrapped or not.
Wish me luck!

[Daryl]

Tonight is my first 'publicly supported' solo keyboarding gig for about three years. I'm not nervous as with the band in the latter part of the last century we got through hundreds of four hour jobs without problems. But anxious that I get the controls right, and at the right time. As I'm also vocalising 90% of the programme, getting in a pickle with singing and pressing a bank of buttons at the same time is not an option I want to fall foul of. Luckily the length of playing is just a couple of 20 minute spots as a cabaret act. It's a charity ballroom dance in aid of the North Devon Hospital Cancer Support Group, so my preference for something jazzy has to go on hold.
To promote 'kilts for the elderly' I've chosen my one with the red, white and blue pleats, plus a fancy black shirt and white(ish) jacket which I had shortened as I always think a normal length jacket looks odd with a kilt. I had all my gear PAT tested yesterday evening which is possibly not necessary but always wise, and a reassurance.
The main entertainment is from a dee-jayed Big Band Ballroom-themed disco (the mind boggles).
Depending upon how many turn up will, I think, decide upon whether the next five bookings to August will be scrapped or not.
Wish me luck!

Break a leg!

Any chance we'll get to see video of this event?

[Tackleberry]

Well Monday morning as I had the flat to myself unusually I decided to wear a skirt out of the flat and to my car to drive to one of my favourite walking places before work...

[crfriend]

Well Monday morning as I had the flat to myself unusually I decided to wear a skirt out of the flat and to my car to drive to one of my favourite walking places before work...

I take it you have flat-mates. Why try hiding from them? My experience with flat-mates is that they usually wind up almost close enough to be intimates. Hiding, I suspect, is a waste of time.

[crfriend]

"That guy looks like a girl!" -- so said an entirely juvenile voice when I strode into my local this noon for a quiet luncheon. At least the little guy got it right that I'm a guy, but was entirely confused about everything else in play. I think the only anchor the little guy had was my moustache and beard; the ponytail with a fancy fastener and the skirt threw him. (Height matters little to a 3-year-old -- everybody is huge.)

I do not recall any commentary from his caretakers (which looked like his father and grandmother), but nothing else was heard following the initial exclamation.

Why was I at my local for a noontime repast when I work 30 miles away? The weather stinks, and is slated to get worse (although there's nothing coming down at the moment). My last act during the process of leaving to go home was to stick my nose outside, see what precisely was going on, and report it back to the folks I'd been chatting with during my meal. I'm pretty much a fixture in the place now, but most potentially aren't aware of my skirts. The woman I'd been chatting with, as well as a guy who was recently diagnosed with cancer, didn't seem to be aware, but became so when I returned and related my weather-findings. Nothing was said to my face, but there was a puzzled look, and I imagine that there was conversation after I departed. I can't imagine anything bad coming from it. I'll probably find out in the next couple of days. I owe the woman a drink, however, as she was nice enough to shout me a Guinness.

[Daryl]

"That guy looks like a girl!" -- so said an entirely juvenile voice when I strode into my local this noon for a quiet luncheon. At least the little guy got it right that I'm a guy, but was entirely confused about everything else in play. I think the only anchor the little guy had was my moustache and beard; the ponytail with a fancy fastener and the skirt threw him. (Height matters little to a 3-year-old -- everybody is huge.)

I do not recall any commentary from his caretakers (which looked like his father and grandmother), but nothing else was heard following the initial exclamation.

Why was I at my local for a noontime repast when I work 30 miles away? The weather stinks, and is slated to get worse (although there's nothing coming down at the moment). My last act during the process of leaving to go home was to stick my nose outside, see what precisely was going on, and report it back to the folks I'd been chatting with during my meal. I'm pretty much a fixture in the place now, but most potentially aren't aware of my skirts. The woman I'd been chatting with, as well as a guy who was recently diagnosed with cancer, didn't seem to be aware, but became so when I returned and related my weather-findings. Nothing was said to my face, but there was a puzzled look, and I imagine that there was conversation after I departed. I can't imagine anything bad coming from it. I'll probably find out in the next couple of days. I owe the woman a drink, however, as she was nice enough to shout me a Guinness.

I frequently overhear youngsters saying such things in the elevator in my building. Parents often try to answer very quietly but I always give a smile to reassure them they don't need to do so on my account. Infrequently a child will ask me directly why I'm wearing a skirt, and I always give the plain answer "I don't like pants". Some parent's handle the answer quite well with things like "men wear skirts called kilts" and the like, and I don't quibble over definitions with them.

[partlyscot]

I frequently overhear youngsters saying such things in the elevator in my building. Parents often try to answer very quietly but I always give a smile to reassure them they don't need to do so on my account. Infrequently a child will ask me directly why I'm wearing a skirt, and I always give the plain answer "I don't like pants". Some parent's handle the answer quite well with things like "men wear skirts called kilts" and the like, and I don't quibble over definitions with them.

A while back, a young boy said something behind me, which I didn't hear, but I did hear his mother's response. "No, that's not how it works, anybody can wear whatever they want" I turned around and gave her a big smile.

[Daryl]

A while back, a young boy said something behind me, which I didn't hear, but I did hear his mother's response. "No, that's not how it works, anybody can wear whatever they want" I turned around and gave her a big smile.

It feels good when that happens. I've experienced something like it once or twice myself.

[robert]

Toddlers often comment how I dress to their parents. I have to smile because they make their parents embarrassed with the loud comments. They are only curious, and they see something that doesn’t fit in their understanding of the world. After the initial reaction, they are the most accepting.

It has happened several times to me actually. When I wear a skirt, purse, tights and high heels, the small children react on the shoes. Often I hear them say to their parents, look he is wearing girl shoes. They don’t comment on the skirt. One time this happened to me in the grocery shop, the mother approached me later and told me I looked great. The kid didn’t say anything. She was more interested in getting candy.