Kilts

[mugman]

Actually, we don't call them potartoes over here. Well, I don't. Tomartoes, certainly .
Now, 'route' is interesting (OK. I'm easily interested). We say root, you say rowt. Yet I never did hear the song sung as 'Get your kicks on Rowt 66'. Fascinating stuff
Then there's leesure, as in leesure center (or is it centre?)...Oh, shut up Mugman...get a life Sulk.

[Milfmog]

Oh, shut up Mugman...get a life

I'm tempted to say that's good advice, but that would be churlish and out of character for me... ...and anyway I enjoyed the distraction from the (apparently) deliberate trolling earlier in this thread.

Have fun (and call 'em whatever you want, I don't mind really)


Ian.

[Sasquatch]

Tomato, tomahto,
Potato, potahto.
Let's call the whole thing off!

sasq

[Peter v]

having fun, but getting way off topic.
I would define kilts as Harley's.
The fact that harley's have been around since they were first made, becomming a brand that all people knew/know. That is then the "real " men's bike. Great motorcycles, but only one of the many. Not THE motorcycle, maybe THE bike of choice, which is a totally different story.
Kilts have been around for ...Much longer, and are a traditional "dress" ( part of a traditional costume) and Kilt wearing by men has survived (luckily) until this very day, that is so well known that although it being a skirt, men wearing them are accepted at once, whereas men wearing any other skirts are not so well known, and causes people to have to think. Thinking is not the strongest point of so many, so the easy way out is to dismiss wearing any other type of skirt as then being wrong. , as opposed to men in kilts, which is so well known. Many people can luckily enough think, but the rest cannot differentiate between a skirt and another skirt, between an established type of skirt, the skirt with tradition, and men wearing other skirts.

That probably has much to do with the choices which men can make, to wear a kilt, some because it is a very definite choice, and a great garment to wear, others possibly because it is "safe". We will only know if men wearing kilts tell the truth, and we can make statistics.

It is a fact ( from reading about men in skirts and talking to them ) that many men take the "safe" route rather than go where they actually want to go. Thus avoiding possible confrontations. Men wearing kilts don't have to explain that it is a men's garment, that has been established historically. The fact that so many people who we may meet can't or won't realise that other skirts can also be worn by men, that men would actually want to wear skirts, just for them being skirts, and not wearing them as a traditional costume, may be the reason keeping many men from actually wearing what they would wish to. Luckily there are men who do wear what they want to, thus opening up possibilitys for more public awareness.

Then following up, men who are now wearing kilts "to be safe" may ALSO have other skirts in their wardrobe to wear at their own choice.

[mugman]

The big problem is of course the possibility of ridicule. People know so little, or nothing at all, about anything that doesn't interest them, so they join the masses and make presumptions based upon general attitudes which have no real foundation.
Apart from many other things, I have a strong interest in steam locomotion, and its preservation as part of social and technological history. Yes, boring as hell to some, but there we are. I once mentioned this briefly on a CV in the 'Other Interests' section, and the pig ignorant woman who was intending to employ me immediately started to try poke fun as me being basically a trainspotter, an 'anorak', the popular generalisation that people make to belittle anyone who is interested in trains. (I did get the job, and I eventually learned that she collected cuddly toys).
For people who have never considered any of the other angles on a man in a skirt other than one connected with transvestitism, for them the wearing of a skirt crosses the popular boundaries of what makes one a true man, or not. It's therefore not surprising that men who have come to realise that skirts are an intelligent replacement for trousers, for the sake of maintaining their own honour cannot make that transition. Their lives might already be henpecked by wives and partners in the way that some couples put each other down when a marriage is just about ticking over. I know of a few married men who, despite starting out with marriages made in heaven, have become soured over the years through the wives' quickness to ridicule them over any small inefficiency, mistake, or whatever else they can latch onto by way of unnecessary criticism. These fellows would never, in a million years, get away with wearing a skirt, even if they wanted to, without being laughed off the planet.
This is where the kilt can become a saving grace. But even then, it takes some pluck to wear one if you know it's going to be seen as being weird or stupid. We all know roughly how the folk around us are going to react. Personally, I feel I've at least achieved acceptance now from my own family and friends...even if they still can't get a handle on it.
Over the last couple of years I've built up a collection of a dozen from various sources, and being able to choose from options which go far beyond 'Shall I wear my jeans, black or brown trousers?', I do look forward each day to wearing something which is either one of several completely different tartans or one of several completely different plain kilts. Yes, I want to go the whole way and use skirts too, as kilts can be cumbersome at times, and heavy and stifling in the summer, but thankfully they are a 'safe' halfway house. I drove around yesterday in a denim skirt. It was incredibly comfortable, and I even made a very brief public appearance when I had to get out and raise the hood when it started to spit rain (I have a convertible sports car). So, guys, I'm getting there by gradual default of unforeseen circumstance .
I know this is not being suggested, but I think it is wrong to devalue anyone's courage by inferring that they wear a kilt only because they can't deal with wearing skirts. That's as bad as belittling a guy from the other direction.
If a kilt serves one's purpose, and is the cul-de-sac of skirted wear for someone, good on them for at least standing their ground.

[Sasquatch]

Actually, we don't call them potartoes over here. Well, I don't. Tomartoes, certainly .
Now, 'route' is interesting (OK. I'm easily interested). We say root, you say rowt. Yet I never did hear the song sung as 'Get your kicks on Rowt 66'. Fascinating stuff
Then there's leesure, as in leesure center (or is it centre?)...Oh, shut up Mugman...get a life Sulk.

I think route (rowt) is southern. I grew up saying it like that. But i think that most of the north and midwest says route (root).

sasq

[Peter v]

Mugman, very well spoken.

I only wish men would finally end their fear of, as you stated:
"for them the wearing of a skirt crosses the popular boundaries of what makes one a true man, or not.
What is a true man? And I am thinking of men in pants for an easy comparison.
I suspect that if any man is not in a hunting mode for sex with a woman, then he is not a man any more.
Utter utter rubbish. Just stupid thinking.
A true man is any man who goes the way that is best for him, but as always, with full respect for others, not being the same as full obedience for others. Which can entail that he is what some would call "soft". The very idea that a "man" is easy to define in a very narrow type of emotion, of behaviour is just so nieve. Where some are still trying to prove that their testosterone level is high, others just want to enjoy living. Those men who aren't "hunting", prowling in a sexual sense, trying to prove constantly how virile they are, how "manly" they are, may be seen as femme men, but that is ridiculess. And I am not even talking about men in skirts. Men in skirts are or can be just as diverse in emotion, in behaviour as all other men.

I believe that once men in general do openly realise that fact, then there may be much less negative feedback and much more common sense towards any men who are at that moment not exactly the same as those looking on, as is often the case with men wearing skirts. Possibly, the people who have understanding for men in skirts are themselves long over that testesterone high, man or woman, not being mentally driven on a one way street, man / woman, sex, and are getting on with their lives, thus being able to look at life, and men in skirts in a normal way.

Perhaps that is why only certain types, certain age groups are the ones who generally call out and try to hurt in their nasty and demeaning way.

Although I do believe there are just some born losers. Like this afternoon, I was riding on my bycicle, was nearly home, and I was shouted at, very nastily, very mean by a young boy on a bycicle who was about 14 years of age, or younger. He called out as if I was a stray dog on a farm, "man wijf" in Dutch which means man/woman, which is a demeaning term for men who dress femme.

I wonder what he was thinking, besides the fact that if anybody he shouts at that way had gotten hold of him, may do him some bodily harm. Not being 18 makes no difference. His object was to hurt, and if he succeeded, what would then be his reaction to somebody "losing it and prcactically killing him? Reacting to such shouting is only really bad for yourself, if you lay a finger on the culprit, then YOU will be put in jail, not the culprit. The best thing is to ignore that but you do hear it. It is like someone spitting you in the face, to protect yourself, it is best to walk away, if you can.

Whatever he thought, nobody has the right to shout , swear any demeaning remnarks at anybody else. And that was just a young boy. What is to become of such bastards, if they have no respect at all for others at that age?
With people like him and others who just are not inteligent ebnough to think straight, I can understand that if you think that you will be in contact with them, then wearing a skirt may seem the wrong thing to do.

[mugman]

One advance which has come out of adopting the Utilikilt type of kilt, is that I am no longer assumed to be from Scotland, and don't now hear remarks like 'Look - a Scotsman' drifting across. So it has acted to confuse, which is no bad thing - people now have to stop, think, and back peddle over their presumptions regarding the country of origin of someone in a non-tartan modern kilt. Hopefully it strengthens the message that kilts are just as serviceable outside of the Scottish label.
The cargo-pocketed 'urban' kilt possibly causes more glances and grabs more attention than the conventional one. It's new to most folk who have never seen one before, and demonstrates that a guy can have a change from pants, and can rock the bifurcated boat, and can look confident, comfortable and cool about it, all in one shot.

[Since1982]

I like the question, Are you Scotch? To which I always answer, nope, Scotch is whiskey, I'm human.

I suspect that if any man is not in a hunting mode for sex with a woman, then he is not a man any more.

Actually I'm getting on to being too old for active sex with a woman, passive is fine tho...I do find that in passive sex, a skirt is tons easier to enjoy the experience than any kind of trousers are. I find that stumbling around the room tripping trying to get out of trousers without breaking my neck can really be a pain in the arse. 'Specially if I fall!