I find it strange that people here seem to think it likely that old men will have any significant effect on this issue. I can't imagine men over 40, even over 30, being relevant. This change when it happens will happen because young people decide to embrace the change on a massive scale, like what happened in the 60s when men started wearing their hair long. And even that has been largely reversed but it is now mostly acceptable and understood. I read on Wikipedia that men wearing earrings happened because of male pop stars doing so, and in the US especially just one, Mr. T. The obvious analogy with men wearing skirts would be Jaden Smith.Grok wrote:I think the key is older men. Men who-if they were going to reproduce-have already done so. (In this respect they would under less pressure than younger men). Men who are maverick enough to try something new, at least in terms of attire.
So.... Imagine a group of older iconoclasts. They are very conspicuous because they are willing to experiment with unorthodox clothing.... Imagine further that young men...and young women...get used to the idea of a man wearing one pipe. Because of a bunch of iconoclasts.
I could easily see young men deciding to wear skirts not to emulate a bunch of old men but to rebel against their parents' and grandparents' generations. There is a strong political split developing between the generations now. Study after study shows the millennials and younger to be the most liberal in the history of the country. And yet we have a 70-year old president who is extremely conservative, ruling together with a radically conservative Republican party. On perhaps the issue of the most importance to youth, global warming, we have a president and his party that are in total denial. I think things are ripe for a big split that results in young people not trusting the older generations, like in the 60s. Add a war to the mix, which we could very well get, and it could push things to the breaking point. But just keep Trump there, and the conflict between generations will become much stronger.
Right now, the style for young men (and women) is skinny jeans, just the opposite of skirts in a way. But often the pendulum swings exactly towards what is the opposite. In a way, skinny jeans and pants being the hip style just makes things ripe for something totally different to come to the fore. And what better way for young people to stick it to their elders than to embrace something that they would just find weird, namely, skirts on men.
I suspect that it will not be millennials who make this change happen but their younger brothers, the ones who would look up to Jaden Smith as a role model, and whose sense of the adult world is molded by seeing Trump in the White House.
I'll soften these comments a bit by saying that I do think that all the discussion that's been going on for 5-10 years now on the internet about men wearing skirts, and the example of utilikilts and other non-traditional kilts, and even the example of men such as ourselves is helping to change the way people think about this issue just a bit. Enough so as to make it a bit easier for someone like Jaden Smith to come along and be able to start a change.
I have spoken about politics as a motivating factor for young people to embrace men wearing skirts. I think that is very likely to be true. I think we are entering a period when young people will be way more actively aware and involved in leftist politics, like in the 60s. That is likely to color everything that happens in this country over the next 10-20 years. I don't think one can talk about what will happen in the US without taking this into account. These changes will not be confined to the US. They will be worldwide. And the signs of coming change are easy to see in other countries even today.