So is it just the US that has hang ups concerning clothing

[Pythos]

The reason I ask this is because I have heard that it is becomming quite acceptable for men to ditch trousers and wear leggings or skirts as men, and not get too much guff. Is my take on this correct, and it is in fact the US that is still a few steps behind?

[knickerless]

You will always get some negative reaction from the mindless yobos who hang around shopping cetres at night but on the whole here in the UK you don't get any negative reaction. In fact sometime you spend all day out and about in your skirt and get no reaction at all.

Nick

[crfriend]

... on where you go and who you associate with. I get little to no reaction in my little corner of the country, but I'm in a reasonably open-minded part of the country. Even having said that, it turns out that there are pockets of tolerance all over the place -- some of the folks here live in what stereotypes would say are positively backward areas but who state that things are fine.

So, the long and the short of it is, "Your mileage may vary."

Too, and put rather bluntly, most folks are too tied up in their everyday struggles to much care what any given bloke is wearing; those that do raise a stink probably don't have much of what would pass for "a life". True, once in a while there will be truly disturbing incidents, like the one that made DanR shut CitySkirt down a while ago, but that was more a case of mob mentality whipped up by a right-wing moron (viz, "a life"). For the most part, our demons are not strangers on the street -- it's those closest to us.

[Charlie]

... on where you go and who you associate with. I get little to no reaction in my little corner of the country, but I'm in a reasonably open-minded part of the country. Even having said that, it turns out that there are pockets of tolerance all over the place -- some of the folks here live in what stereotypes would say are positively backward areas but who state that things are fine.

It's the same this side of the pond, in the UK.

Charlie

[JeffB1959]

I think we Yanks tend to be annoyingly puritanical when it comes to lots of things, like sex, nudity just to name a few. When it comes to clothing, that tends to be gender specific for us Americans, saying only women can wear this while only men can wear that, and people can be rather narrowminded in that regard. So, yeah, compared to other societies in other countries, I'm of the opinion that the U.S. is somewhat behind the curve when it comes to the concept of fashion freedom.

[Stu]

I think we Yanks tend to be annoyingly puritanical when it comes to lots of things, like sex, nudity just to name a few.

I don't. I think that some Europeans have become too blasé about these things when we ought to be a bit more puritanical at times.

Sex and nudity have their place - in private and predominantly in the home. I'm pleased that Americans haven't forgotten that. Most Europeans feel the same way, it's just a few who let us all down.

Stu