I think kilts do help, since they don't get much of a "he must be LGBT" reaction. We reach and get acceptance from folks who would reject a dress and heels on a guy. If a casual observer mistakes you for a woman or trans, it doesn't help normalize skirts as menswear, anyway. But kilts carry their own baggage. I could write a few pages on that alone.moonshadow wrote: In my region I have seen men wearing kilts (utilikilts) casually. Not often, but not unheard of either.
While I have no issue with kilt wearers (to each his own right?), they are still socially accepted mens wear and aren't really invoking anything taboo, like *gasp* wear a off the peg "womens" skirt.
Part of my "mission" with public skirt wearing, is to illustrate that men can indeed express elements of femininity and be a "guy" while doing so. This is not accomplished with a kilt, the kilt sends a completely different message. It says, "I'm a man, I'm cool and hip, I'm wearing something different and unique, but don't worry, I'm still playing by the rules".
Like a bank robber who won't park in the fire lane... because that would be illegal after all...
But kilts are a small step in the right direction, and a fair number of people don't see any difference. Sometimes that's the folks who still see it as wrong with the full Scottish get up, sometimes it's the people insisting on calling your skirt from the ladies isle a kilt. And no matter who it's made for, or how traditional your outfit with it is, a kilt is a type of skirt.
Somewhere, there is a happy medium, where you look like a guy, people notice the skirt, but it isn't so jarring as to turn people away from the idea. It will be different for different people, times, and settings. It will change, especially if we are having some success.