Men's Dress Reform Party

General discussion of skirt and kilt-based fashion for men, and stuff that goes with skirts and kilts.
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FLbreezy
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Men's Dress Reform Party

Post by FLbreezy »

I came across an image and reference on Reddit today: https://old.reddit.com/r/TheWayWeWere/c ... king_down/ and learned about the Men's Dress Reform Party which was around during the interwar period of the 1930's.

Some interesting bits from the associated Wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men%27s_D ... form_Party
John Carl Flügel, a psychologist and member of the MDRP, claimed since the end of the 18th century men had been ignoring the colorful, elaborate, and varied forms of "masculine ornamentation." He called this time the Great Masculine Renunciation. "Man," Flügel claimed, had "abandoned his claim to be considered beautiful. He henceforth aimed at only being useful."
The MDRP sought to improve the health and hygiene of men by changing their dress, as they saw the typical male styles and materials growing more restrictive and harmful, while women's clothing was increasingly becoming more "emancipating". Their goals included "freeing the neck" by wearing the "Byron collar" which was an open-front collar, and gaining approval of the kilt as everyday wear for men. They also preferred blouses instead of shirts, sandals over shoes, and shorts or breeches to trousers.
I was already familiar with some of the sunlight, nudist, and Freikörperkultur societies of this era, but had not heard of this one before.
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Re: Men's Dress Reform Party

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Related post here: viewtopic.php?p=229273
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crfriend
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Re: Men's Dress Reform Party

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FLbreezy wrote: Thu Sep 01, 2022 6:32 pm
John Carl Flügel, a psychologist and member of the MDRP, claimed since the end of the 18th century men had been ignoring the colorful, elaborate, and varied forms of "masculine ornamentation." He called this time the Great Masculine Renunciation. "Man," Flügel claimed, had "abandoned his claim to be considered beautiful. He henceforth aimed at only being useful."
What an astonishing quote -- and one I'd forgotten about, even though it was alluded to in the CNN article.

"... only being 'useful'." How sad is that? I believe we can be both "useful" and beautiful -- the best of both worlds. Will that ever come to be? Who knows. But I want to be a part of making it so.
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Re: Men's Dress Reform Party

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Coder wrote: Thu Sep 01, 2022 6:45 pm Related post here: viewtopic.php?p=229273
Aha! How did I miss that? Thanks.
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Re: Men's Dress Reform Party

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FLbreezy wrote: Thu Sep 01, 2022 7:19 pm
Coder wrote: Thu Sep 01, 2022 6:45 pm Related post here: viewtopic.php?p=229273
Aha! How did I miss that? Thanks.
No worries! I thought the previous thread was relevant - and frankly I felt the discussion should have gone on longer.
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Re: Men's Dress Reform Party

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crfriend wrote: Thu Sep 01, 2022 7:09 pm "... only being 'useful'." How sad is that? I believe we can be both "useful" and beautiful -- the best of both worlds. Will that ever come to be? Who knows. But I want to be a part of making it so.
It reminds me of a sort of trope among men I see popping up on Reddit quite often, the gist being that men remember every compliment that they've ever gotten from a woman, mainly because they are so rare...sometimes years pass between them. Mostly we're complimented on some aspect of our utility, once in a blue moon we're complimented on our appearance. In the past year or so since I've branched out in my clothing options (boring though they may be compared to some here), I've definitely been complimented more often.
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gender free universe
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Re: Men's Dress Reform Party

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Fluegel refers to developments in fashion that began with the French Revolution. This also goes with this:

The French Republic emerged with a male, bourgeois rule, just as it already existed in the Netherlands, Switzerland, and United Kingdom.
The sans-culottes were the pants of the working class. The revolting Jacobins wore them. So, they became a symbol of the new rule. They stood for utility in contrast to the courtly skirt, which was the hated symbol of representative and absolute aristocratic power. With the new rule of the citizens, it became a symbol of hegemonic decadence. From now on a skirt was no longer worthy of a bourgeois man. Hence pants were the only legitimate attire for adult men. In its simple execution, they emphasized the claim to exclusively male rationality and competence.
The psychologist John Carl Fluegel explained in his „Psychology of Clothing" in 1930 that the voluntary renunciation of outwardly emphasized beauty should refer to inner qualities of man which are to be valued more highly.57/58 Women were excluded from wearing pants because they ”are lacking any own identity“. ”Their authentic essence,“ as the philosopher and pioneer of modern democracy, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, explained: ”is the meaninglessness of their appearances. It is nothing but theatre.“ Women should exercise “the gentle rule of the heart at home, while men care for the res publica, the cause of all. Without man, by whom the woman is determined, the woman is nothing." Thus, the pants became a “natural" symbol of a patriarchal claim to leadership.
All manorial symbols of the old patriarchal order were given new connotations following the new rules of the now bourgeois pa-triarchy. The segregation based on social rank was relaxed but replaced by stricter segregation of the sexes. As a result, all old male fashion privileges became female.
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