skirtcafe.org

Well, thank you Carl for keeping skirtcafe ad free. It's probably the only internet site left in the world that is like that.

As for television, I still can't believe they actually charge a fee for subscription TV. Granted, I currently have cable, but it's mostly for the girls. I rarely watch it. Even so, they have been watching more and more NetFlix lately. Subscription TV is nothing but Honey Boo-Boo filth, and constant repeats of American Pickers.

But when we move, all that is going to change. We'll be back in the dark ages again. There is only one broadband provider where I live, and it's through Shentel Cable. Go to their website and input the packages for postal code 24266. The cheapest plan is $50 per month for 5gig download and a 200gig cap. To get internet comparable to what I have now through Comcast, I would have to pay $200 per month- and that's just for the internet only! NOPE! Currently I pay (taxes, fees, equipment included) a total of $122 for basic cable, 75meg (1TB cap) internet and a phone.

And before anyone says we'll never make it, let me remind you- when we lived in Damascus, we had no internet and no television service for two years, and we reluctantly got it back, we were actually doing quite fine without it.

Of interest is the fact that my curiosity in male skirt wearing got it's start while I was "unplugged" from society. With no pop culture, news programs, and social networking to brainwash me, I was left to simply live the small town life and eventually I noticed the hikers as they made their way through town in their floral dresses and hiking kilts. The rest is history.

Not to worry though, I'll still occasionally post, it just won't be as often. I may chime in on a few interesting topics when I tether my phone once a week to pay bills. Flickr uploads will be reserved for when I'm on some public wifi.

Grok wrote:I have virtually given up on television....

99% of the television my wife and I watch is recorded using the DVR and fast forward through commercials and anything else we don't want to watch. I don't listen to radio in my vehicles for the same reason, can't stand all the ads. I do listen to Pandora while at work or sometimes while sitting at the computer doing important computing stuff , and my wife's car has Sirius radio.

Nice story. For me and I think for the most of us, there was no support. And I was in puberty and that's not the time you're so confident. Certainly not for me. I love that kind of open minded parents. You want the best of your child. And of course you supports them who they are. If you show you loves your child. You will get it back. It is so important that you say to your child: You are good who you are.

It seems to me that few boys could hope for that kind of support.

Actually, I can imagine parents worrying about their child being bullied at school. Discouraging their child for that reason.

By most reports, if the parents tell the principal that their son is going to sear skirts to school, and then asks them to be on the lookout for teasing or bullying, it seems those things are minimized. It also helps if the teacher has a day's notice to tell the class that Johnny or whoever is going to be wearing skirts and that it's OK and that they shouldn't bully or tease him.

Of course, the whole, "I'm OK with it but I'm afraid other unknown persons might not be," is often a sham for not admitting one's own opposition. "No, because I'm afraid some customers might not like it," is another variant.

Caultron wrote:Of course, the whole, "I'm OK with it but I'm afraid other unknown persons might not be," is often a sham for not admitting one's own opposition. "No, because I'm afraid some customers might not like it," is another variant.

Yep... been there done that... and that's how we wind up socially policing one another to conform to rules and "laws" that don't exist.

This seems all well and good but something is just not sitting right with me over the entire thing. I don't think that a 5 year old is that decisive on what he wants to wear. I wish it was but I just don't think it is so I think the mother wanted a girl and is doing her best to make him one. at 5 how would he know about this stuff unless it was presented to him I think mommy bought all this nice stuff and told him how cute it looks and that mommy really likes this stuff .

Look at the picture with him walking bare foot on the bricks with the long skirt tell me one five year old that says mommy please put a barrette in my hair .

I hope I am wrong but I really think this is more a case of mommy wants me in skirts than I want me in skirts.

And yet it's being reported more and more.

Now, some of that is undoubtedly because it's so unusual that the news picks it up. I suspect the actual number of boys wearing skirts to grade school in the US is under 100.

But some of these young children probably just haven't learned the societal norms for what boys and girls are" supposed" to wear, and they see people in dresses and trousers, and they decide they like the dresses better. Like picking a favorite color or animal.

Are the mothers over-serving and doting? In at least some cases, probably yes. But that seems to be a trend among millennials.

Are mothers dressing boys in girl's things because they really wanted a girl? I'm sure that happens in some cases too. The world is a varied place.

The boys of my boss had both a dress of K3. A girls band from Belgium. And they liked to wear it. Now they are older and they do boys things. Maybe because other boys do. I don't know.

WesleyN wrote:The boys of my boss had both a dress of K3. A girls band from Belgium. And they liked to wear it. Now they are older and they do boys things. Maybe because other boys do. I don't know.

The bolding in the above is mine. Children -- and teenagers (teenagers especially) -- for all they may want to appear rebellious are fanatic conformists for the most part and will ostracise anyone who dares to deviate one iota from the norm, and few creatures in nature are nastier than children. This is one of the reasons that skirt-wearing on the younger set of males will either never happen, or will happen in an instant and all of them will be doing it.

It takes most folks years, or even decades, to escape this mentality -- and some never do.

oldsalt1 wrote:This seems all well and good but something is just not sitting right with me over the entire thing. I don't think that a 5 year old is that decisive on what he wants to wear. I wish it was but I just don't think it is so I think the mother wanted a girl and is doing her best to make him one. at 5 how would he know about this stuff unless it was presented to him I think mommy bought all this nice stuff and told him how cute it looks and that mommy really likes this stuff .

Look at the picture with him walking bare foot on the bricks with the long skirt tell me one five year old that says mommy please put a barrette in my hair .

I hope I am wrong but I really think this is more a case of mommy wants me in skirts than I want me in skirts.

Every case is unique. I can speak from my life.

When I was 6 or 7 I wanted a tutu in the worst way.
Eventually I got up enough nerve to ask my mom. And was shot down.
I never did get that tutu, but when I did get old enough to drive. I did go skirt shopping.
I often wonder how my life might have been if my mom had said " ok what color?"
The most flustrating part out of all this is having to hide a part of my personality from first my mom, and now my wife. Why can't we be comfortable with The people we are closest too?

Mishawakakilt

Perhaps it's a little of both oldsalt. Chances are he was the first to have the curiosity, however the mother, rather than scold him for it, encouraged it, and it looks like both are having a ball experimenting.

Aside from that, of course I'd say the mother is an influence. That's what parents are. It's really no different than a child being raised under any other custom. It's really no different than my grandmother getting on me for wearing my gowns when I was a toddler. It's two sides of the same coin. Besides, it's not like he's wearing rags. The kid looks sharp as hell!

If he grows out it it, he grows out of it. It's no different than us "growing out of it" (wearing trousers).

crfriend wrote:Children -- and teenagers (teenagers especially) -- for all they may want to appear rebellious are fanatic conformists for the most part and will ostracise anyone who dares to deviate one iota from the norm, and few creatures in nature are nastier than children.

Indeed, I get a lot of nasty laughs and fingers pointed when I encounter a pack of teenagers. Interestingly never when they're alone, only in a herd.

And that's what they are... a herd. One jumps, they all jump.

moonshadow wrote:
Indeed, I get a lot of nasty laughs and fingers pointed when I encounter a pack of teenagers. Interestingly never when they're alone, only in a herd.

And that's what they are... a herd. One jumps, they all jump.

Too true - too true!

mishawakaskirt wrote:...The most flustrating part out of all this is having to hide a part of my personality from first my mom, and now my wife. Why can't we be comfortable with The people we are closest too?

Keep working on that, regardless of how slow any progress has to be. The important part is never to quit.

And keep thinking about whether your own fear of opposition is greater than any actual opposition there might be.

All of your points are valid and possible. its just that one picture with a Barrette in his hair that makes me lean towards this is what mom wanted.