Skirting with the S.O.

[GothScot]

Hey forum,

Spent a brilliant week with the female working on academic stuff. Decided we'd walk over to the pizza joint for dinner. She wanted me to wear the cargo kilt, so, after an initial bout of cowardice, I obliged.

Yeah, big shock. Not a bloody thing happened. Mind, it is a college town, albeit a fairly conservative one.

And she also surprised me by finishing my tan maxi that we went to buy the fabric and patterns for when I spent time with her around the holidays. I'm posting the snap she took of it. Now, I either need to find a belt for it or develop hips as it is a tad loose in the waistband. All the same, feels brilliant walking/sitting down in, although fabricwise, there's a LOT of it.

A bit on the 1970s folk singer side. Reminded me also of Pam Dawber's skirt in the opening titles of Mork and Mindy. Granted, not the most masculine skirt. Nor am I really.

Still, I think I've got a keeper g.f. wise, don't you?

[skirted_in_SF]

In my experience elastic in the waistband can be your friend. As you've noticed, it's hard with the common male waist to hip ratio to find a skirt that will fit over the hips and not feel like it is going to head back south once you let go. Properly sized elastic will solve that problem.

On the plus side, it does sound like you have found a keeper. Not only accepts/encourages skirt wearing, but makes them for you too. (couldn't find a smiley for green with envy)

[Uncle Al]

How about this one - - - -

If you want to type the code, it is : mrgreen :
just don't leave any spaces between the colons.

Uncle Al

(Who's also at the thought of full support
from the S.O. or Wife.)

[Stu]

GothScot

Yeah, big shock. Not a bloody thing happened. Mind, it is a college town, albeit a fairly conservative one.

Why was that a "big shock"? What did you expect to happen? If you wear something which is evidently some kind of kilt, or a sarong, or a plain denim skirt, you will get zero reaction. Nobody will look at you twice. I'm not sure why you hesitated initially.

I'm not sure about the Pam Dawber skirt, though - as you say, that is a bit feminine and i could see it raising a few eyebrows.

Stu

[GothScot]

"Why was that a "big shock"? What did you expect to happen? If you wear something which is evidently some kind of kilt, or a sarong, or a plain denim skirt, you will get zero reaction. Nobody will look at you twice. I'm not sure why you hesitated initially."

Outside of the town being a former stronghold for the KKK (and old habits die hard here), the part of the Midwest we are/were in has a MASSIVE contingent of UPC members and their offshoots, some quite verbal in their beliefs, as well as an unhealthy contingent (if there IS such a thing as a healthy contingent) of good ol' boys who not only demonstrate their lack of understanding in physics, yelling insults from passing trucks, but also if there's something that makes their widdle brains hurt, it's easier to hit it than comprehend it. Two legs separate = heterosexual, two legs together = homosexual.

I still love the long skirt she made me. Don't care how girly it looks. I feel fantastic in it.

[luvtoskirt]

I don't think the long skirt looks girly at all. if you feel good, you look good. I think you are fine in the long skirt and should not worry what others think.

[TomH]

Sometimes it's easier for the rest of us to know if you're being brave or foolish, if we even have the slightest idea of your 'location' on the planet. The name we choose for ourselves here doesn't always give enough information, but adding a location can help.

The guys here that wear skirts all or most of the time have said many times that it's not unusual to go unnoticed. Glad your experience was the same since you were worried. The imagination can really get carried away if we don't test it even just a little.

Tom

[GothScot]

TomH

You asked for my location? She lives in Indiana, an hour Northeast of Indianapolis in a place famous mainly for David Letterman going to school there and the Klan having its base of operations there as well during the 1920s.

Students at the local uni/university lab school who show the least little bit of deviation from sex/gender "norms" get bucketloads of grief. An LGBTQ student got beaten severely by a townie who had more beers than brains there last Fall.

What was a lovely night out could've ended in us getting jumped by yokels.

[Uncle Al]

Interesting I didn't know that MIE was a stronghold for the KKK.
The "Uni" used to be a great teacher college. I started life in FWA, but
graduated ISU at HUF. Then we moved to Texas in 1975. Best move
we ever made. I don't like the 100+ temps but love not having to
shovel snow.

So, better late than never, from one Hoosier to another -

Uncle Al

[GothScot]

I'm actually West of Chicago by an hour or so. She still lives in Muncie, though. I go there for two reasons: Her and Pizza King. There's one closer to where my parent lives (an hour from Terre Haute), but it's not the same.

Yes Uncle Al, I remember you were a former Indiana resident.

[sapphire]

It would be possible to add elastic to that skirt, but given the yoked design of the skirt, it would be a bit of a challenge.

If the design includes side seams on the yoke, the yoke could be reworked to take in the side seams. Doing that might be problem (ie a lot of work) if the yoke is lined.

That's a problem when sewing for someone who isn't local. There is not opportunity to fit the garment to the person.

Also, I hate when men refer to women as "females". It seems dehumanizing to me. "Female" what? Cable connection, electrical outlet?

[crfriend]

[...]I hate when men refer to women as "females". It seems dehumanizing to me. "Female" what? Cable connection, electrical outlet?

As an individual contributor rather than an admin of a mod, I will second that notion.

I am not sure from whence it sprang, although the "knee-jerk" reaction to it seems to point at some of the more virulent "feminists" of the past who wanted to distance themselves absolutely from men. However, it's in very wide use today, and, as Sapphire points out it is somewhat dehumanising. It's like a description of a crime-scene or what transpires at autopsy; everybody's seen the cop shows: "Female victim, aged 20 to 25, shot once in the head." It's clinically correct, but is also devoid of humanity.

GothScot -- On the long skirt. It looks pretty good from the angle the photo was taken from, but one shot from a lower angle might show it to better effect, especially if it has a flare to it. Since it has a fitted waist, however, it pretty much demands having hips to hang it from, and that's were we blokes usually don't have what it takes -- in this case, elastic waistbands are your friend! Or if after a meal you find that your waist is an inch or two larger than it was before indulging.

A thought I've fooled with, mostly as a thought experiment, has been braces (suspenders) with skirts -- especially if jackets are employed to cover them. This would be a really "in your face" juxtaposition of the "masculine look" of the braces and the (possibly, depending on construction) "feminine" look of the skirt, and would somewhat obviate at least one of the fitting problems that "conventional" skirts have (or at the very least would keep the thing from going completely south on you).

Most of my skirts are either elastic-waist (sometimes with an extra length shot through the tunnel) or drawstring for this very reason (like a snake, I expand after eating). I have a few fitted-waist skirts, and can wear them confidently enough, but the overall sensation is that they do want to head downwards along the Z-axis.

Finally, yes, it sounds like you have "a keeper", although that sounds a bit sexist -- even if she might be saying the same thing about you!

[GothScot]

And I hate it when people who don't know me jump down my throat over terms that, as far as I know, are fairly harmless!

Sapphire and crfriend since you both took issue with it, mind telling me what I'm supposed to call her? Girlfriend? That's REALLY demeaning. Partner? We aren't in a business together. Person? I've already received flak for not stating my location. I'm sure I'd get it for not stating her sex/gender. Carbon-based entity? That's REALLY dehumanizing.

Seriously, getting upset about terms like "female" or "keeper"? There are worse problems in the world!

[crfriend]

And I hate it when people who don't know me jump down my throat over terms that, as far as I know, are fairly harmless!

I believe my comments have been misinterpreted, and if that is the case then I, alone, take responsibility for it.

When it comes to matters of relationships one must be compelled to assume equality on both sides of that equation, for both partners enter into it with, hopefully, eyes and minds wide open. I was supporting Sapphire's view that the modern usage of "female" versus the older one of "woman" tends to be dehumanising -- nothing more and nothing less. There was precisely no personal invective involved, and if offence was taken please rest assured that none was intended.

Sapphire and crfriend since you both took issue with it, mind telling me what I'm supposed to call her?

I am only writing for myself here, but "partner" sounds pretty darned good. The term does not necessarily involve a "business relationship"; it also describes a deep level of cooperation beyond that which mere acquaintances have. "Significant Other" is a modern concoction that seems to be deployed nowadays in the way that "lover" was thirty years ago; "girlfriend" -- and "boyfriend" -- is typically used in a transient sense when neither individual is really sure whether the relationship "has legs" and can go the distance. Ultimately, in this writer's opinion, any long-haul relationship is indeed one of partnership; else it'll fail. Interestingly, in my view, "marriage" (and hence the terms "husband" and "wife") is a business relationship rather than a partering. Marriages come and go; better than fifty percent of them in the USA result in divorce. What sets the long-haul couples apart is that they are, indeed, partners in, and sometimes for, life.

Seriously, getting upset about terms like "female" or "keeper"? There are worse problems in the world!

True enough, but it's important to recall that words, and language, have weight. How we deploy those shape how our thoughts are interpreted by those who read them. For better or worse, the Internet is a written medium, and one should cater to that angle. Furthermore, words have power, and how they are defined at any given moment can sway entire belief systems. George Orwell posited this brilliantly in 1984. Let us take this as an object lesson.

[skirted_in_SF]

How about this one - - - -

If you want to type the code, it is : mrgreen :
just don't leave any spaces between the colons.

Uncle Al

(Who's also at the thought of full support
from the S.O. or Wife.)

OH
Being a resident of the People's Republic of San Francisco where there is much competition to be Greener than Thou, I had thought of Mr. Green in that context. Silly me.