City and Country Kilt Experiences Today

[skirttron]

Hi Gang,
I've been wearing kilts a lot lately, with excellent results, including earlier today when I went shopping in an outlet mall - no dumb comments at all except for a few giggles from a couple of hooded youths who had slipped under security. Nice coffee from Seattle, chat on the cellphone, nice conversation with shop asssistants, that sort of thing. Buoyed up by this and other recent urban experience, I decided to round the day off with a walk in a local coastal village. Now, the houses are quite nice there, and the area is good, so you would expect no hassle. Oh dear oh dear! As soon as I got out of the car, a knuckle-dragging type across the road yelled out, "Sexy Legs", his jaw scuffing the pavement in the process, then a few yards down the street, some boys started making bagpipe noises. I did complete my walk, past the banjo shop and cult temples (only kidding), but by this time, my sense of danger was at DefCon 2, so I quickly hiked back to the car and drove off.
I suppose we have to do this sort of thing to get kilts/skirts out there and normalized. This won't put me off.

[longshadows]

I've been wearing kilts a lot lately, with excellent results, including earlier today when I went shopping in an outlet mall...
I suppose we have to do this sort of thing to get kilts/skirts out there and normalized. This won't put me off.

Yes, there are times I feel a little depressed when I sense that someone is belittling me for wearing a kilt. What I should be thinking is how sad that this person isn't able to see beyond this piece of cloth. Some of you may recall how the emergence of "long hair" in the mid-sixties (with the Beatles) caused a social backlash. Because of the length of their hair, some kids were expelled from schools, people were refused service in some establishments, some people were attacked and others had to submit to haircuts to keep their jobs or remain in school. Today, the haircut of the Beatles would be considered almost conservative, by most standards and no one would even give it a second look, except in admiration.

I'm not sure one can clearly separate between the reactions of "city" and "country". I live in a small city, known as relatively "liberal" socially and politically. I get very few comments or even noticable looks. It's like "so what". On a recent trip to Dallas, known as a bit more conservative, I got a lot of looks, but I also got a lot of questions and compliments. My favorite, as I was leaving a wedding in my SW Blackwatch kilt, navy blue blazer and tie was, "how classy!" So, you just can't tell when or where a positive stroke or an ugly remark will come from.

I think the key for any kilt wearing man (is that an oxymoron?) is to walk proudly, hold our head high and feel good about ourselves and our vesture. We can never know how many seeds we are planting in the minds of other men. Our own self-confidence and obvious joy at wearing a kilt will come through. It's not always easy being on the "cutting edge," but where would we be today, if there had not been people throughout history who were?

[Since1982]

If I see a young man sporting a Beatles Haircut today I think, my goodness look at that conservative haircut, I wonder if he's a Senate intern?:rotfl:

[W.M.]

Longshadows lamented:

What I should be thinking is how sad that this person isn't able to see beyond this piece of cloth.

To the open-minded, the skirt/kilt will be an educational experience, but for the close-minded it will be yet another blindfold

[Chuck Ivy]

For anyone: If at all possible, participate in a charity walk or run while wearing a skirt. I did this a couple of years ago and it was really great. Hundreds of people, police escorts, no trouble. Saw some kids kinda smirking and talking to each other and it was obvious from their looking that I was the center of their attention. I also made sure the police took notice of me. Lots of things are OK, especially if you're doing it for a charity cause. I wish I could do the walk again, but back, hip, and leg pains, along with heart trouble keep me out of it now.

Chuck Ivy

[Since1982]

Welcome to the land of the Decrepit Americans. I've been here for about 10 years now and believe me, it's not a fun place to live. Every morning I get up, take about 30 pills wait until they take effect and unfreeze all my joints and come out to the computer to check this site.

[borrowedTime]

For anyone: If at all possible, participate in a charity walk or run while wearing a skirt. I did this a couple of years ago and it was really great. Hundreds of people, police escorts, no trouble.

No doubt you're right that you won't have any trouble doing this.

But because it's an exceptional event, and not normal life, I rather doubt it has any real effect on enhancing the idea that skirts can be everyday clothing. Because charity provides a 'reason' to do this, I doubt it will cause anyone to change their opinions.

Are you, by running for charity while wearing a skirt, not implicitly saying "please sponsor me to do something embarrassing which it's not normal for a man to do"?
The charity runner is thus making a statement that wearing a skirt is a shameful enough activity that it's valid for people to sponsor them to do it.

Surely we're really aiming for a time when simply wearing a skirt is too acceptable for it to a sponsorship-worthy activity.
In the same way that a woman wanting to be sponsored simply to wear a skirt most likely wouldn't get too far today.

[Since1982]

The charity runner is thus making a statement that wearing a skirt is a shameful enough activity that it's valid for people to sponsor them to do it.

I don't think so, maybe if it was a Church Deacon dressing as a BDSM dominatrix it might be considered shameful of embarrassing, but a simple incident of a man in a skirt would just start tongues wagging with "look at that, I wonder why he's wearing a skirt, let's ask him" or "what a good idea" "looks cool" or "I might try that"..or any of dozens of other good responses.