Pretty Skirts?

[Mouse]

So this is a picture of me, in what I term internally to myself in fun, as my "Pretty Skirt". To be clear I am talking about the skirt and not my ugly mug.


This is a close up of the skirt in question.

So my questions to the members are :-

1. Are men allowed to wear something that is "pretty"?

2. If I said to one of you that your skirt was "pretty", would you take that as a compliment or would you be offended?

Fun fact, a search of Skirt cafe for the word "pretty" results 494 pages of posts. I have not been through all pages, but in the random pages I looked at "Pretty" was not much used, if ever as an adjective, as in "that is a pretty skirt".

[Jim]

I have a few skirts I consider "pretty". I wear them sometimes on special occasions. I like pretty things as celebratory, but don't like calling a lot of attention to myself, so it's a bit of a conflict.

[Barleymower]

It's a difficult one isn't it, it really digs into our pysche and makes us aware of conditioning.

In answer to your question: it's fine to have pretty skirts. The skirt is really nice. I was worried about it too. Both my wife and daughter agreed: first people notice the skirt i.e "that man is wearing a skirt" they don't really then follow it up with "and it's pretty". Don't worry.

[jamie001]

I always wear pretty skirts with flower designs. I get a lot of compliments that describe my skirts as pretty!

[Barleymower]

I always wear pretty skirts with flower designs. I get a lot of compliments that describe my skirts as pretty!

Somehow I knew that was coming.

[victor1964]

I have a few that fall into the pretty category, I think the term for the kind I have is ditsy. I quite like the floaty material skirts although I only tend to wear these when the sun is out. Quite a dramatic change from my usual black.

[Barleymower]

Most of my skirts are "pretty". I'm not really into thick denim skirts or rugged utility skirts. I've got trousers and shorts for that. When I wear a skirt I want it to be nice.

[denimini]

How could one not like pretty skirts? It would be like saying I don't like joy and cheerfulness.

[Stu]

"Pretty" is an adjective which tends to mitigate against another adjective - "masculine". Now that doesn't mean males should see pretty things as un-masculine. An example of this occurred a couple of times when I lived in Sweden and colleagues bought me flowers, which I initially found odd. We don't buy men flowers in the UK - only women and girls get flowers. Guys get bottles of whisky etc. The taboo is even stronger when it comes to clothing and adornment and it is at its strongest when used to describe a person. You don't call a man or boy "pretty" because that is too closely associated with femininity. Regarding the skirt in the photograph, I might call it pretty if worn be a female, but I would generally use other adjectives because of the context of a male wearer - maybe "patterned".

It reminds me of a story in the news about three or four years ago when a private school in the UK declared it was taking gender out of its uniform policy and replacing it with students being required to choose Option A or Option B, but they weren't allowed to mix-and-match. It was clear that Option A was really the boys' uniform in all but name - shirt, trouser, blazer, black lace-up shoes. Option B was intended as the girls' option - blouse, pleated skirt and blazer, but that wasn't stated. One of the staff was interviewed on the news and gave the game away when she said: "...and we looking at allowing students who go for Option B to continue to have the possibility to wear our pretty summer dresses every year from 1st May". She meant "girls" didn't she? And Option B doesn't get this - they have to wear the same as for the rest of the year.

[Seb]

Which is also a bit funny, because when we talk about our pets, they can be pretty or cute, irrelevant of their gender.

While I'm not a fan of someone calling me pretty, I sure don't like the masculine version either, handsome. Mostly I think because I don't agree with either.

I think it should be okay to call a pretty/cute/fun skirt(or shirt or wherever) so, even if it happens to hang on a male frame.

[Mouse]

I always wear pretty skirts with flower designs. I get a lot of compliments that describe my skirts as pretty!

You see that is where I had some concerns linked to Stu's point about not giving flowers to a man. My skirt in the picture has little flowers all over the blue panels. I know men get to wear flowers on their Hawaiian shirts, but I wasn't sure about skirts?

[Myopic Bookworm]

It's blue, so obviously it's a boy's skirt. And you are wearing it like a man!

My own taste tends towards things that are "smart" or "elegant" rather than "pretty". But if someone sincerely complimented something I wore as "pretty", I'd take it positively.

[Barleymower]

I always wear pretty skirts with flower designs. I get a lot of compliments that describe my skirts as pretty!

You see that is where I had some concerns linked to Stu's point about not giving flowers to a man. My skirt in the picture has little flowers all over the blue panels. I know men get to wear flowers on their Hawaiian shirts, but I wasn't sure about skirts?

It was said yesterday (not by me). "A man wearing a skirt is way different from a man wearing a skirt trying to be a women". Wear as many flowers as you want, if you want flowers on your clothes that's fine. It does not make you any less of a man. It's just you being you.
When you/we think about it: what has come over us if we are worried about liking flowers?

[MrSoapsud]

You don't call a man or boy "pretty" because that is too closely associated with femininity.

IIRC the term "pretty boy" is fairly derogatory, at least in the past, probably implying gay or at least effeminate.
Personally I'm not sure about wearing more flowery items. Sometimes I've seen pictures of the "GenderBlender" couple and thought that they'd be better wearing each others clothes - his were more flowery and hers more plain. I'm not sure I'd wear some of Paul Crathern's more flowery dresses but, as I said, that's just my personal opinion and may change over time.

[Mouse]

But if someone sincerely complimented something I wore as "pretty", I'd take it positively.

I am really glad you said this, since one of the things that started this idea for a thread, was the tartan skirt you wore to the Skirt cafe meet in November. As Geron was taking a picture of you, I had the thought "that is a pretty skirt". http://www.skirtcafe.org/forums/viewtop ... 99#p254099 It was closely followed by the thought "I wonder if I am allowed to have such a thought, better keep it to myself, don't want to offend these new friends who I have just met"...

Anyway, I thought it was pretty and on the back of that thought, I decided that I wanted a tartan skirt as well, so I bought the purple one as pictured in the second pic of this post http://www.skirtcafe.org/forums/viewtop ... 66#p257066 MB's skirt is a proper pleated one as the tartan is straight all around the skirt, where as my copy skirt is a simple circle skirt from China of very thin tartan, where the tartan is all over the place as it hangs.