Creative Writing - Help Please

[charlotte]

My take on skirts is very simple, I find them much more comfortable to wear than trousers.

Hello Stevie,

Why did you try skirts the very first time? I guess you didn't know skirts were comfortable before you tried them the first time? Did you like them instantly the first time you tried? What feature did you notice first?

I also would echo an earlier question, which do you prefer? I would assume for, at least some of the time, you have no choice, i.e. school dress code.I wil impose another question, how would you feel if your Dad , brother or male schoolfriends wore skirts?

I think I answered the first question earlier -- let me know if you want to know more about any part of that.

Hmm ... that is an interesting question about my brother/father. It's a hard question. I am not sure if I can answer it well without having a specific look to discuss. I think I would be uncomfortable if anyone in my family wore something unusual that either looked unsuitable, or was hard to explain. I don't think I would be uncomfortable seeing them wearing a skirt. Or being with them. Just uncomfortable having to explain why they were wearing a skirt to my friends. I hope that makes sense.

Charlotte.

[Since1982]

I think I would be uncomfortable if anyone in my family wore something unusual that either looked unsuitable, or was hard to explain. I don't think I would be uncomfortable seeing them wearing a skirt. Or being with them. Just uncomfortable having to explain why they were wearing a skirt to my friends. I hope that makes sense.

That's interesting, you feel you can ask all kinds of personal questions of us and then not give us any similarly honest answers yourself without dropping some definitely insulting comments like

"I think I would be uncomfortable if anyone in my family wore something unusual that either looked unsuitable, or was hard to explain."

So that's what you think of us? Animals in a zoo. Great! By the way, IF you publish anything you see in this site "SkirtCafe" without WRITTEN/NOTARIZED clearances/permissions from the individuals involved, be ready for possibly some lucrative (to us) lawsuits.

[A+J]

Hello,

I hope this is OK to ask this:

I am doing an English course at school, and am working on a piece of creative writing. What I was hoping to get was some ideas from the male forum members for how it feels for a boy to wear a skirt for the first time. What does a boy notice about wearing a skirt? Physical sensation? Emotion reaction?

I think I can imagine most of the likely descriptions — I wear skirts myself, of course — but thought it might be interesting to ask in case I get some perspectives that never occurred to me.

Thank you.

Charlotte
charlotte.jane.martin@gmail.com

Hi Charlotte

I´m from Sweden. I have been wearing skirts for the past 5-6 years. I´m not just wearing skirts but I also wears high heels, nylons (hose). I´m dressed as a female from my waist down. I´m dressed like this every day now to work. Working as an administrator, working mostly with other women. Sometimes I´m dressed 100% as a female.
Why? I just feel to dress this way. I feel better.

Wearing skirt, I have to walk, sit and stand differently. I have to walk as a woman, I have to sit as a woman, I have to stand as a woman. In other words I have learnt myself to move as women do. I always sit with my legs crossed. Standing with my legs tight together. Taking short dainty steps.

Emotional, my girlfriend saying I have changed. She tells me I´m more relaxed, calm. She tells me I have started showing my feelings. Showing more emphaty. I don´t know. Guess she is right about this.
I do know I see things differently now.

[crggrg]

hi charlotte
i have to say that the main reason why i tried a skirt 1st time was when i started secondary school and i was jealous of all the girls being able to wear skirts in the summer where as all fo us boys had to wear long trousers which were far too warm to wear, so i thought i would try one on and see what it felt like.

if you want anymore information about this then you can have a look at my '1st school skirt' post in the personal stories section

craig
currently wearing a blue and white striped skirt about 3 inches above the knee

[charlotte]

It's worth noting that many of the participants in this forum haven't seen their boyhood, save in pictures and dim memories, in decades; some of us are likely old enough to be grandfathers to secondary-school "youngsters".

That having been said, I didn't put on my first skirt until I was well into my 40s and was immediately impressed with the sense of liberation I felt from the experience. For perhaps the first time I felt breezes hit spots that had been covered in the twin-tubes of trousers get up and underneath; the immediate thought that sprang from that was a feeling of having been cheated over the years with the notion of skirts being off limits.

Hello Carl,

Thank you for the reply. The "boy" issue is somewhat irrelevant, I guess. The problem I had was that I have never not worn skirts. So whilst I can see the difference in feeling between pants and a skirt, I was struggling to imagine what it might be like to wear a skirt for the first time. So the experience of wearing for the first time age 40 is interesting to me -- thank you for your suggestions. I think the boy in my story could also feel "cheated" also, having appreciated the benefits of wearing a skirt.

Thank you.

Charlotte.

[charlotte]

if you want anymore information about this then you can have a look at my '1st school skirt' post in the personal stories section

Thank you for the extra information. I'll go look for that post.

[crfriend]

The problem I had was that I have never not worn skirts. So whilst I can see the difference in feeling between pants and a skirt, I was struggling to imagine what it might be like to wear a skirt for the first time.

This is, perhaps, one of the stumbling blocks that may face women when first exposed to skirt-wearing guys: since most women have had skirts as an option since childhood, they may not really realise how liberating the garments can be, especially given that for the guys in question they were "forbidden fruit" during childhood.

That said, there are many women alive now who have never worn skirts, and a subset of those who view skirts as a symbol of men's repression of women. These individuals, I feel, will never "get it" that skirts can be a very viable and comfortable form of attire for guys so long as all the cultural prejudice can be shuffled aside.

I think the boy in my story could also feel "cheated" also, having appreciated the benefits of wearing a skirt.

Perhaps, but don't let me put words on your paper.

[charlotte]

Since1982:

You are being mean. I don't understand why. I sometimes don't explain myself well, but everyone else understood what I was asking. It's only you who claimed not to understand. So is this my fault, or yours?

You did not welcome me. You were mean to me once already when you misread my objectives. Having corrected you, you did not apologise, but instead went on to attack me again falsely.

I've had so many wonderful replies here from other members. Great ideas. You haven't contributed anything useful to this discussion -- just negativity and meanness. If you don't like this topic, why don't you ignore it?

Regarding your threat to take me to court: I promise not to use anything you have said in my essay -- that won't be difficult, as you've yet to contribute anything other than insults.

Disappointed.

Charlotte.

[charlotte]

This is, perhaps, one of the stumbling blocks that may face women when first exposed to skirt-wearing guys: since most women have had skirts as an option since childhood, they may not really realise how liberating the garments can be, especially given that for the guys in question they were "forbidden fruit" during childhood.

"Forbidden fruit" is a good concept. You are quite right that I take wearing a skirt for granted, and until now never thought of wearing a skirt as being some sort of privilege. Particularly because I am compelled to wear a skirt for school, and that can be very tedious sometimes -- it's certainly doesn't feel like a privilege, and infact sometimes feels like a penalty for being female.

If my brother started wearing a sarong around the house, I’d recognise it as being unusual. I might rib him about it, but I suspect I’d quickly forget about it being unusual.

Now, if my brother started wearing a sarong to school (he couldn't, but ignore that), this would put pressure on me, as his sister, to explain why my brother is “acting weird”.

I could agree that he is “weird”, which would be unfair, but is a simple path. Or I could protest and defend my brother’s right to wear a sarong. This is harder. When people do unusual things, others want to know why. People seem to need to understand atypical behaviour. So I’d be asked to explain why he was acting this way.

If, however, we moved to the South Pacific, to some island where every man wears sarongs, his behaviour would not be unusual, and none of this matters.

So this seems much less an issue of sex (that a male is wearing a skirt), but an issue of dressing unconventionally (a person is wearing something unusual for they group).

I am probably saying stuff you know very well already I apologise. It’s a one of them bendy educational things for me … what’s it called … ah yes … “learning curve”

So for me to defend my brother wearing a sarong to school, I'd have to be able to explain it, and my brother would have to be able to explain it to me. So terms like "comfort" and "liberating" might be useful, though would it explain why only he was finding it so, and no one else? Maybe the answer would simply be "because he wants to".

I think people are very schizophrenic about eccentricities: they admire them in celebrities, but suspect them in regular folk -- as though the fact of being a celebrities automatically means your choices must be good and legitimate.

Enough rambling for now.

Charlotte.

[Stu]

charlotte

My interest is that "felt really odd at first". What was "odd" about it?

A couple of things, really. Firstly, the lack of "security" you get with wearing trousers. You put on trousers and just forget about them - you can't do that with a sarong or a skirt until you get used to wearing it. That means you have to think about how you are sitting, making sure it doesn't ride up, smooth it down when standing and preventing it from "rotating", i.e. making sure the front was always precisely at the front etc. These are not things which concern you when in trousers. The next "odd" thing was limitation of movement. As a man, I'm accustomed to striding around, stepping over stuff etc, you can't always do that in a skirt. If it's a straight skirt, you are physically constrained as there isn't enough material to facilitate the movement. it's easier with a fuller garment, but then you have to be aware of it blowing up and revealing your underwear.

To be honest, I prefer trousers for most practical purposes and I wear them 90% of the time. A skirt is nice to wear either for a change (trousers can get a bit tedious), or when you intend to make yourself relax, like going for a picnic on a warm summer's day and you don't want the weighty material hugging your thighs. I have worn skirts when out and about, but it's pretty cold where I live, so trousers (and I mean THERMAL trousers) are the best option most of the time. I find that, so long as you maintain an overall masculine look, a bloke can get away with a simple denim, cord or canvas skirt just about anywhere - hardly anyone notices and any that do quickly forget about it so long as you are confident. A plain fabric skirt does attract the occasional odd glance and even comment, but the more people see men in stuff like that, the less conspicuous you look and again, they forget about it. It just needs regular guys to give the gumption and guts to do it - and also for women to realise that a skirt is such a basic garment that they can't any longer justify keeping it exclusively for their own sex any more than men could keep trousers. That means women encouraging men to try skirts - not discouraging them or mocking them when they do. It also needs fashion designers to design wearable, masculine skirts for men - not lunatic and freakish creations which are only ever seen on the catwalks - and then for High Street retailers to market and sell them with a purpose (i.e. not as a gimmick).

Stu

[JohnH]

A maxi-dress addresses the problems of the skirt blowing up (the skirt is almost ankle length), warmth (I can wear socks up to the hem of the dress) and the issue of rotation. It is also more comfortable than even skirts in that it hangs down from the shoulders. If I wear a shorter formal dress in the winter time I wear p-hose in the common configuration which also addresses the warmth and modesty issues in case the skirt blows up.

I do have the pectorals and hips to be able to wear a standard dress without alterations which a lot of men don't have.

John

[crfriend]

"Forbidden fruit" is a good concept. You are quite right that I take wearing a skirt for granted, and until now never thought of wearing a skirt as being some sort of privilege. Particularly because I am compelled to wear a skirt for school, and that can be very tedious sometimes -- it's certainly doesn't feel like a privilege, and infact sometimes feels like a penalty for being female.

Compulsion has the power to make even usually-rational folks think -- and do -- some pretty strange things, and, when it comes to clothing, compulsory skirt-wearing in the school environment is one reason that's frequently used by women who abandon skirts once they "escape" into the adult world. In large part, it's a question of arguing one's own limitations, but nonetheless is used with remarkable frequency. Putting the shoe on the other foot, however, leads to another question: If guys were compelled, officially or not, to wear trousers during their school years, why don't more reject them once they become adults?

Whether you have an "official" uniform at school or not, the notion of "The Uniform" is very strong amongst teenagers; witness the prevalence of overt bullying of any individual who dares to be the slightest bit different than the herd around them. Having passed through the "educational gauntlet" many years ago, I can safely say that at no other point in my life have I been in a more confining and restrictive environment.

So this seems much less an issue of sex (that a male is wearing a skirt), but an issue of dressing unconventionally (a person is wearing something unusual for they group).

It goes deeper than that -- it's more about an individual who dares to be different and to be unapologetic about the fact. The difference can be in one's demeanour, one's thought processes, or even something as superficial as what one decides to clothe one's self in (clothes, recall, can be taken off at the end of the day or changed pretty much at will). In a very real sense, many folks never escape the restrictiveness of the schoolyard; to me this is tragic because it prevents them from seeing and experiencing the world in new and novel ways.

So for me to defend my brother wearing a sarong to school, I'd have to be able to explain it, and my brother would have to be able to explain it to me. So terms like "comfort" and "liberating" might be useful, though would it explain why only he was finding it so, and no one else? Maybe the answer would simply be "because he wants to".

With your last sentence you touch upon the crux of the issue: "Why not?" Here is where rationality usually fails when it comes to clothing; the rational mind can accept that "it's just cloth" but the irrational mind, with all its baggage, cannot, or finds it an unacceptably large hill to climb, and when that happens the only reaction left is the knee-jerk, "because it's wrong" (for varying values of "wrong", mind you). The mention that you recoil somewhat from the notion of having to "defend" your brother for a choice that is his and his alone points this up somewhat. I am not "laying blame" here, but rather making an observation that is intended to provoke thought; do you have a responsibility to defend somebody else's decisions and actions if they injure no-one?

I think people are very schizophrenic about eccentricities: they admire them in celebrities, but suspect them in regular folk -- as though the fact of being a celebrities automatically means your choices must be good and legitimate.

Celebrity is interesting, but when it comes to fashion sense take a look at the upcoming Academy Awards ("The Oscars") for an example. You'll see celebrities of all ilk; the womenfolk will be dressed in a dazzling array of flambouyant costume and the men will all be dressed like penguins on the way to a funeral. Is this rational?

[Since1982]

The first paragraph at the top of the main page starts with this: Skirt Cafe is an on-line community dedicated to exploring, promoting and advocating skirts and kilts as a fashion choice for men, formerly known as men in skirts.

That seems to have changed somewhat. From Men in skirts and kilts as a fashion choice for men. To Men or boys (if you prefer, but the founders also called us men, not boys) in skirts, sarongs, dresses, robes or whatever they feel OK in. I've not seen a member in a kilt since the last picture of Cessna150 was posted some time ago, he, SkirtedViking's avatar picture and one of the John's here seem to be our only kilt wearers left. There may be a few more that own them but seldom talk about them since the site seems to be going in the other direction. Which is OK and also promoted by the current management.

I only added this because had the writer come asking 3-5 years ago she'd probably have gotten a completely different outlook.

[crfriend]

[The forum's focus] seems to have changed somewhat. From Men in skirts and kilts as a fashion choice for men. To Men or boys (if you prefer, but the founders also called us men, not boys) in skirts, sarongs, dresses, robes or whatever they feel OK in. I've not seen a member in a kilt since the last picture of Cessna150 was posted some time ago, he, SkirtedViking's avatar picture and one of the John's here seem to be our only kilt wearers left. There may be a few more that own them but seldom talk about them since the site seems to be going in the other direction. Which is OK and also promoted by the current management.

As the current "Master Barista", and part of a long and growing line of curators, I would like to point out that the intended focus of this forum has not changed recently, nor is there any intent whatseover at the moment to change it in the future. The intent and mission of the forum remains squarely "dedicated to exploring, promoting and advocating skirts and kilts as a fashion choice for men" -- nothing more and nothing less. "Current management" is not attempting to "steer" the forum in any direction other than to try to keep it more or less in line with its mission statement.

That we are currently seeing more posts from the skirt-wearers points up that the guys who wear kilts are just being quiet at the moment. Their input and participation remain wholly welcome and said participation makes the forum a richer and more vibrant community. Would silencing discussion of skirts whilst we wait for the kilt discussions to pick up again be of any discernable benefit to anyone? I posit not, and I fervently hope that the comment was not a veilled attempt at "steering through censorship".

I only added this because had the writer come asking 3-5 years ago she'd probably have gotten a completely different outlook.

Yes, our young writer likely would have gotten a different impression. Would the impression have been a "better" one or a "worse" one? From whose perspective? Times, recall, have changed while we've all been here; would it be better to stop change in its tracks and keep everything to the status-quo in perpetuity? If so, kiss your kilts and skirts as a public option goodbye save for the places that they're already part of the status-quo.

[mugman]

Tis I, Mugman - no, I haven't died (yet) - just sleeping. I even had to click on the 'forgotten password' method to get back in, it's been that long. And I'm now 63 and three quarters.
But only here to support the recent call for a kilt wearer to speak up. I have two dozen kilts, according to the last count, which probably confirms beyond doubt my preferences over t*o*s*rs or p*n*s.
My only reasons for this choice, for the benefit of our youngish enquirer of this thread's avenue of thought (if kilts are indeed part of the question - I don't think they are though), is because I am not, and have never been, anyone's shop window merchandising model for male traditional clothing. I think that's fair enough an argument. I do wear skirts too, and also for the same reasoning.
I've read over the last many months on various forums about health issues being possibly a sound reason for change from bifurcation, and whilst this might be particularly true in extreme legitimate cases through administered health advice, I very much doubt that human furtherance functionality significantly suffers through men wearing pants. If that were the case I'm sure we wouldn't be here by now. I prefer to stick to the more understandable '...why on earth shouldn't I?' line of argument and leave it simply as that. I haven't yet been grilled over my choices, but then maybe I know more people with respect for other's whims than some.
Anyway, nothing much else to report over the last couple of years. I did get a couple of loud whistles from some women in one of my concert audiences last year when I scampered onto stage for the second half in a Royal Stewart kilt! For me, that's what it's all about. Being happy.
My skirt wearing tends to be at home more than out as I prefer shorter ones which might scare a few local horses! The relief of them over jeans (and even kilts I might add) is not possible for me to put into words. So I won't even try. Kneelength types get to go out occasionally, but if I'm doing that I might as well go kilted. It's very much a case of mood.