Skirt Cafe is an on-line community dedicated to exploring, promoting and advocating skirts and kilts as a fashion choice for men, formerly known as men in skirts. We do this in the context of men's fashion freedom --- an expansion of choices beyond those commonly available for men to include kilts, skirts and other garments. We recognize a diversity of styles our members feel comfortable wearing, and do not exclude any potential choices. Continuing dialog on gender is encouraged in the context of fashion freedom for men. See here for more details.
I came across this article. It's actually a discussion about short skirts on women but it could equally apply to me, or us - perhaps more so because we are not following the herd but leading them.
There are a trio of sentences at the end of the article that really stand out to me:
Telling a teenage girl that her clothes are wrong, and that she should feel like a bad person for wearing them. It would be so great if we could stop doing that; if we could create a culture where girls felt like they could wear whatever they wanted to school without having to worry about how anyone was going to react. Until I have the spare time to start a movement to put an end to stupid misogynistic dress codes, I’m going to do what I can, which is this: I’m going to stop judging people on their appearance, and hope that they’ll be kind enough to do the same for me.
That's what I feel that we have at the moment " .... stupid misogynistic dress codes .... ". I'm sure that you all feel the same. But it added the perspective from a woman's point of view that the problem with our dress isn't ours - it's other people's. The fact that what we wear doesn't fit into that narrow box that other people have doesn't mean that we should alter our behaviour - it means that others should expand their box to incorporate changes in the environment around them. I feel that all we can do is set the example for others to follow.
I have a problem with my weight. As a diabetic I struggle as the hormone insulin encourages the retention of fat. I have put some weight on which means that my normal trousers I am struggling to get into. I don't want to buy larger sizes for what may be a temporary situation but I have lots of skirts that I fit into readily and which I would love to wear but MOH would be against this. How I wish that life were simpler!!!!
I believe in offering every assistance short of actual help but then mainly just want to be left to be myself in all my difference and uniqueness.
Hi Dennis,
Of course it's a pain to have your choices restricted and dictated for you.
Regarding the article, the whole skirt length thing for women has been around since Hector was a pup. I well remember my Dad having a go at my sisters for their minis in the early sixties. Even he would use the phrase "your're asking for trouble going out like that". Being rather younger I always thought he meant they'd catch some disease. Of course, we know what he really meant.
The article is an echo of his concerns in those long ago days.
As far as it relates to us. some would say that we're asking for a beating by going out skirted.
Fortunately, they are in a minority and I'd hope a shrinking one. Hopefully, we as a group can make that happen sooner rather than later.
No life aint fair but it aint fair equally, whether you're male or female. It's just unfair in different ways.
Steve.
Yeah, yeah the feminist echo chamber, impenetrable for reason. Having a dresscode which restricts clothing choices for both sexes is sexist for both sexes because it restricts clothing choice based on genitalia. On the other hand it is not discriminatory as long there is no preferential treatment of one sex over the other. Something can be non-descriminatory and sexist at the same time.
As far as it relates to us. some would say that we're asking for a beating by going out skirted.
Fortunately, they are in a minority and I'd hope a shrinking one. Hopefully, we as a group can make that happen sooner rather than later.
No life aint fair but it aint fair equally, whether you're male or female. It's just unfair in different ways.
Steve.
Life is a concept and concepts don´t even exist. You have to distinguish accidential conditions and choices. Former is morally neutral. If you treat someone differently based on predjudice and genitalia, that is a different thing. Giving women preferential treatment in terms of reproductive "rights" is a choice. Treating males in distress like ***** by white knighting for the sneaky woman involved is a choice.
We've been away for the weekend at Butlins ( a holiday camp ) and we went swimming a couple of times there in a complex of pools enclosed in a pyramid structure and containing various flumes. Anyway, MOH normally wears leggings but for the swimming she allowed herself a knee-length dress because "it's easier to pull on a dress with being damp after swimming". Yet she wouldn't allow me a similar option of a skirt as being easier to pull on. Another example of double standards again and it really iterated ( irritated ) me over the weekend but I didn't show it.
I believe in offering every assistance short of actual help but then mainly just want to be left to be myself in all my difference and uniqueness.
Hi Dennis,
Now this I don't get. I can swim but not in a fluid manner, pun intended. I don't think I'd even want to try it in a skirt, just seems too difficult.
As for a dress, that reminds me of my classmates who really could swim and used nightgowns or pyjamas in water survival lessons. That was beyond me, I never even completed the 50 yard test. The reason would come after a beer or two, it's too convoluted for the cafe.
Close fit shorts, speedos, or even a one piece swimsuit would be my personal choice.
Steve.
The late Jack Williams posted clips of himself actually swimming in a dress in the sea off N. Island N.Z. I don't expect we'll see the like again. He was a one-off, RIP.
Sinned wrote:...Anyway, MOH normally wears leggings but for the swimming she allowed herself a knee-length dress because "it's easier to pull on a dress with being damp after swimming". Yet she wouldn't allow me a similar option of a skirt as being easier to pull on.
I must confess I might have told her she should stick to the leggings and just handed her a second towel "so that she could dry off properly"
However, your response was probably less inclined to cause ructions.
Have fun,
Ian.
Do not argue with idiots; they will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.
Cogito ergo sum - Descartes
Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum - Ambrose Bierce
The double standards stink. Basically women are free wear to wear practically whatever want. Whereas men must strictly stick to what society dictates is acceptable for us.
A women insisting on wearing trousers or a short skirt, as described in the OP, is simply exercising her right of equality. Whereas a man demanding more than his customary 'shirt and pants uniform,' conversely, is labelled as weird.
I think I might start doing my grocery shopping in my pajamas. Even things up a bit.
The most outrageous outfit I have seen in a public place is some dude wearing a long shirt (Think Men's Big and Tall) with no pants, shorts, or skirt. Oh yes, I could discern he was wearing blue underpants. However, he could not be arrested for indecent exposure since his genitals were covered.
I think it would have been less disruptive to simply wear a dress.
JohnH wrote:The most outrageous outfit I have seen in a public place is some dude wearing a long shirt (Think Men's Big and Tall) with no pants, shorts, or skirt. Oh yes, I could discern he was wearing blue underpants. However, he could not be arrested for indecent exposure since his genitals were covered...
And we worry about what we wear...
Courage, conviction, nerve, verve, dash, panache, guts, nuts, balls, gall, élan, stones, whatever. Get some and get skirted.
Maybe we ought to coin a word - "misandrogenic" to describe the severely restricted dress codes imposed on men.
And Sinned - I have to wear a woman's swimsuit due to my chest. So it would not make that much of a difference if I wear pants, skirt, or a dress to cover up after swimming.
Maybe you might get yourself a man's bathrobe to cover up after swimming.
You could insist that your wife never wear pants in public. My wife attempted to keep me from wearing skirts in public and I told her if she imposes that constraint on me I will insist she never wear pants in public - only skirts or dresses. That shut her up really quickly.
John
Last edited by JohnH on Thu Oct 23, 2014 11:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
JohnH wrote:
You could insist that your wife never wear pants in public. My wife attempted to keep me from wearing skirts in public and I told her if she imposes that constraint on me I will insist she never wear pants in public - only skirts or dresses. That shut her up really quickly.
John
I like that idea. I'll have to give that a try with my wife.
Having a dresscode which restricts clothing choices for both sexes is sexist for both sexes because it restricts clothing choice based on genitalia. On the other hand it is not discriminatory as long there is no preferential treatment of one sex over the other. Something can be non-descriminatory and sexist at the same time. 
You have to distinguish accidential conditions and choices. Former is morally neutral. If you treat someone differently based on predjudice and genitalia, that is a different thing. Giving women preferential treatment in terms of reproductive "rights" is a choice. Treating males in distress like ***** by white knighting for the sneaky woman involved is a choice. 
