The Voice of Fashion: Why Men Don’t Take So Easily to Skirts

[jamie001]

The problem is that men are always seeking approval from other men.

Really

I don't GAF if other men approve or not. Seeking approval by limiting what
you wear is giving other people control of your lives and being a sheep.

In most cases, true

Do you want to be a sheep and follow the herd, or do you want to break free
from the herd, march to your own drum, wear what you want to wear with a
don't GAF attitude, and experience true liberation? It is your choice.

BUT I MUST DISAGREE WITH THIS LAST PART
I march to my own drum, whether it be large or small.
I wear what is best for the activity I'm doing, or going to do.
I Will Not Wear A Skirt around machinery or when working on a vehicle.
That's common sense. I would not wear a formal dress to operate any heavy equipment.
Function over form. Too much material to get caught on/in moving parts.
That's a safety issue

My health, and well being, are more important than what clothing I choose to wear.

Granted, at 72 years of age, I have much more freedom to choose what I wear than
I did prior to retirement. I'm no longer using, or working around, any machinery
that could cause harm to me, or anyone else.

Uncle Al

Uncle Al,

I 100 percent agree with you regarding safety issues.

[crfriend]

Wounds heal, tears don't.

Indeed, scratches heal. Generally speaking, however, amputations and de-glovings don't.

I'm with Al on this one -- dress according to what you're going to be working. High-speed rotational machines are especially hazardous if one is wearing flowing clothing.

Back when I was working in computer field-service in the '80s I wore a necktie -- and managed to get one caught in the paper-feed machinery of a large-format electrostatic plotter. I was fortunate to have long-enough arms to reach the power switch in a hurry and then open the top of the machine so I could escape without being strangled. Had that been a high-speed belt-drive I could be dead now. (And the tie was tucked into my shirt at the time but fell out at an inopportune time.)

[jamie001]

Wounds heal, tears don't.

Indeed, scratches heal. Generally speaking, however, amputations and de-glovings don't.

I'm with Al on this one -- dress according to what you're going to be working. High-speed rotational machines are especially hazardous if one is wearing flowing clothing.

Back when I was working in computer field-service in the '80s I wore a necktie -- and managed to get one caught in the paper-feed machinery of a large-format electrostatic plotter. I was fortunate to have long-enough arms to reach the power switch in a hurry and then open the top of the machine so I could escape without being strangled. Had that been a high-speed belt-drive I could be dead now. (And the tie was tucked into my shirt at the time but fell out at an inopportune time.)

The necktie is the most useless clothing item ever invented. During the 80's I told my boss that I don't want to wear one. He told me that I cannot be taken seriously without a necktie. I replied saying "Can the female engineer that I work with be taken seriously?". His answer was "get back to work".

[phathack]

Back when I was working in computer field-service in the '80s I wore a necktie -- and managed to get one caught in the paper-feed machinery of a large-format electrostatic plotter. I was fortunate to have long-enough arms to reach the power switch in a hurry and then open the top of the machine so I could escape without being strangled. Had that been a high-speed belt-drive I could be dead now. (And the tie was tucked into my shirt at the time but fell out at an inopportune time.)

I always wondered why IBM required its field service engineers to ware a tie that could easily get caught in the equipment they were servicing. Fortunately, I never had a job that required a tie.

[Coder]

The necktie is the most useless clothing item ever invented. During the 80's I told my boss that I don't want to wear one. He told me that I cannot be taken seriously without a necktie. I replied saying "Can the female engineer that I work with be taken seriously?". His answer was "get back to work".

This reminds me of a funny conversation from a great movie:

Dora Belair:
Look, you work with me, I expect a pro. You don't even shake hands; you oughta see a shrink!

Mike:
Miss Belair, if you feel compelled to grab part of my body and shake it before you can even be friendly, you've got far worse problems than you think I have.

Humans do a lot of stupid things, assign a lot of significance to meaningless behaviors/conventions, and we rarely question them.

[moonshadow]

For me, wearing a skirt isn't quite as baked into my "identity" that it used to be. Often times I wear pants or bibs as needed.

Sometimes when I get home from work, I'll just run back out in my work pants.

You tend to get to a point where you have nothing left to prove, at that point, you wear a skirt because you truly want to, not because you have to prove it to yourself that you can.

It's not even about safety anymore... sometimes I just don't feel like wearing a skirt.... sometimes I do.

I wear what I want.

[pelmut]

That's a safety issue

It all depends on the type of skirt and the type of risk.  Most industrial machinery doesn't have any unguarded moving parts where a skirt could get caught up in them -- and a long skirt helps to keep swarf and chippings out of your shoes.  A short skirt is ideal for jobs where water might get splashed around, because it doesn't cling when wet like trousers do.  

A skirt is quicker to remove than trousers if it catches fire but a dress is far slower and much more dangerous.

For working underneath a vehicle, a skirt poses no more danger than trousers unless you count accidental exposure of your underwear as a 'danger'.

[Grok]

- If I'm chatting with a woman that I want to become my girlfriend, there is no chance for the latter to happen if she thinks I'm trans or gay

There's definitely no chance for that to happen if she thinks her friends will think you're trans or gay.

It all comes down to tribalism. Go against the tribe, there will be consequences.

Women are the gatekeepers of reproduction. If a young man has the intention of reproducing-of continuing his blood line-then he should expect to jump through some hoops. Starting with...appearing to be a cis/hetero male. If a woman wants to become pregnant, it wouldn't make sense for here to have a gay or trans boyfriend.

Older men may have already raised a family...or, like me, gotten too old to start.

[phathack]

Women are the gatekeepers of reproduction. If a young man has the intention of reproducing-of continuing his blood line-then he should expect to jump through some hoops. Starting with...appearing to be a cis/hetero male. If a woman wants to become pregnant, it wouldn't make sense for here to have a gay or trans boyfriend.

Older men may have already raised a family...or, like me, gotten too old to start.

I'm past that part of life, my Oldest is 43.

[moonshadow]

If a young man has the intention of reproducing-of continuing his blood line-then he should expect to jump through some hoops.

That will be a hard pass from me...

[Grok]

IMO skirts for men are at least 100 to 200 years away and it may never happen. The problem is the attitude that feminine is inferior and to be avoided at all costs and that appearing gay is an abomination. This misinformation is passed down from father to son generation after generation. Here is an example that I read last week:

It is a sad state of affairs.

I can't disregard the possibility of one or two designs gaining traction in the next 10 years or so. Perhaps among younger men who noticed their elders kilting. But as crfriend has mentioned, there may only be a short window of opportunity before reactionaries choke off further change.

[jamie001]

IMO skirts for men are at least 100 to 200 years away and it may never happen. The problem is the attitude that feminine is inferior and to be avoided at all costs and that appearing gay is an abomination. This misinformation is passed down from father to son generation after generation. Here is an example that I read last week:

It is a sad state of affairs.

I can't disregard the possibility of one or two designs gaining traction in the next 10 years or so. Perhaps among younger men who noticed their elders kilting. But as crfriend has mentioned, there may only be a short window of opportunity before reactionaries choke off further change.

Yes, I believe that CR is correct about any short window that may exist. It will be killed by the anti-trans movement especially if the Conservative Party in the USA continues to demonize transgendered folks. It will be worse if the Conservative Party actually wins the elections. At that point, we will probably move back to the 1950's with anti-crossdressing laws and persecution of homosexuals like in many Muslim countries. We are headed for a very rough and bumpy ride.

[crfriend]

I feel this particularly keenly this evening as I quite deliberately dressed in "male drag" to show a woman who might have been a potential romantic link what I "look like" in "conventional attire". This is someone who pretty much admitted to me that she could never accept me into her heart because of the way I dress. So, I walked past her (she was flirting with someone else) to get a look at the weather outside (it looked pretty nasty) and back again. She was agog with the vision, and so what. If she can;t accept me for how I dress then my skirts served admirably as a Bozo filter.

I'm still saddened by it, but it is what it is, and it's better to have it dead now than from something else later on when there might have been more of an investment in it, But, yes, I truly felt like I was "in drag" for the performance because it was so "un-me".

The goddamn 'phone went off in my pocket on the way home summoning me to work, and after a couple of hours of that I'm back in a skirt again and vastly more comfortable. What the Hell don't women understand about this? (Perhaps that's never to be known to the minds of men.)

[Grok]

I mentioned this awhile back....

Some years ago, someone posted this to a kilting forum...regarding womens reactions to kilted men. "Women either love it, or they hate it."

And the kilt is recognized as mens wear, and still some women can't accept it. So...the kilt as Bozo Filter.

So if a new (non-kilt) design should appear to gain traction with men, we can gauge how likely it is to be be accepted by the larger society. IF women either love it, or hate it, the design might persist. And become another Bozo Filter.

[Grok]

I wonder if other modes of expression might serve as Bozo Filters. Jewelry. Nail polish. Long hair.