2003 revisited

[Grok]

Indeed, Offkilter. A few years ago there was discussion regarding the next design to gain traction. The consensus seemed to be much what you described-sturdy fabric, dull colors, belt loops and good pockets. In those respects being similar to much of the bifurcated wear of men.

It occurred to me that utility kilts fit the description. Another candidate would be a denim skirt.

BTW, Macabi sells unisex skirts. Which might lend themselves to an androgynous look.

[STEVIE]

Coming away from a specific skirt, design or colour, I have this thought.
I am 65 and the vast majority of my peers are either lukewarm or anti men in skirts.
The generation of my own children's age see it as a possibility, some positively.
Then we have those young enough to be my grandchildren.
When they are the "adults", men in skirts may, or may not be "on trend", but no one will give a damn anyway.
In that respect what we perceive as "masculine" style may very well cease to matter and "anything goes" will be the next big thing.
Steve.

[Barleymower]

it's to hard to tell what the future will bring. The Internet is not a good measure and I for one spend too much time looking at the Web for answers.
Here are some truisms:
1. Things have changed. Really, I get no hassle from the public for my clothes.
2. All the hype on the Web saying "men is skirts are great! Be yourself!" Is not what happens off screen. Women are highly territorial creatures. Men are terrified when their masculinity is threatened.

I hope there is a turn around for MIS. It's win, win for everyone if it happens. MIS are bridging the gap between the hetero's and the LGBTQIA+ group. We are men, we are heterosexual, we like feminine things we even do the dishes. It's OK everyone, we are all closer than we think.

BTW I'm taking the three kids for a day out in London tomorrow. I thinking my red/blue skirt form Roman, burgundy tights, navy sweater and brown shoes. I can't wait! Maybe even a trip to five guys.

[Coder]

Reddit has a sub called "Am I the A55hole", where people ask if they were the "bad person". This article kinda covers the posting in question:

https://www.newsweek.com/dad-uncomforta ... es-1779199

The posting (which has been since taken down for some reason):

https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/ ... n_to_stop/

The step father is 38 years old - maybe a bit older than "the next generation" but certainly young enough that he should not hold these backwards thoughts. The comments in the Reddit thread are "comforting" to some degree, but reddit is a very liberal place on the web and I'd be surprised to see anything different.

[Myopic Bookworm]

I felt especially happy to read about gender nonconformity while walking back from the supermarket in my new green tights with tartan mini skirt and high-top trainers with "bi" coloured laces. The black leather jacket tops it off in a suitably masculine way, though as I have my hair only partly clipped back, I feel I am pushing the non-binary envelope a bit further than I am normally comfortable with.
Some of the reaction in that AITA post strike me as not so much body shaming as homophobic: male sexuality can be very visual, so playing up to the male gaze is as central to gay as to women's fashion.

[Barleymower]

The reddit sub "Am I the asshole" has gone mad around here. My kids are constantly making up their own. They start with "Am I the butt hole for.." making up ridiculous stories and then falling about laughing. I listened to one on Youtube with my son and immediately said you might want to spend your time doing something more constructive. I'm such an old bloke.

I had a quick read of the article and laughed when he said "I even found him in a skirt" and the obligatory mention of Harry Styles. Either way it's (as expected) the non-binary wearing the pearls, skirts and furs over the Christmas turkey. We have to be accepting ... blar blar blar while everyone is thinking (unsaid) he's gay.
# harry styles
# Mark Bryan
# Billy porter
# Kanye West
# Lil Nas X
# Brad pit

I'm waiting to see the construction worker take off the high vis and head home in a skirt and the other guys saying where did you get that? Nice. and... I hardly wear jeans anymore, there's so much more choice in skirts, IKR?

I wish

[Coder]

The original reddit post might have been fake, I messaged the mods to find out what the deal was and they suspect the account was just trolling that sub (so technically, the troll was literally the ahole). But I have no doubts such situations happen as evidenced by stories related here on this board.

[Barleymower]

I can be very abrupt. It wasn't intended.
Really I was just saying that we don't see many men wearing skirts on the Web. Because men don't do that. If they do they always truck out the usual suspects like Harry and Brad who have had so so much attention because of it.
There's so much out about men in skirts and not much of it applies to a man without some sort of label. It's all about non-binary, fem boys, trans women, cross dressers, cissy, androgynous, demi boy, bigender and lots more. None of which is wrong and equally relevant. I feel that there still isn't a way for guy to just be a guy and wear what he wants.
If he is 'just' a guy he better watch his step or he'll be toxic.

[moonshadow]

I am the asshole.

Ask anyone.

[crfriend]

I am the asshole.

Nah. Not even close.

In case anyone is wondering, I've spoken to this individual (over a telephone, mind -- how 20th Century!) before and after the name change, and there's not much change in character. All in all, a "good egg".

To the point of "trolls" and "bots", I am fairly well convinced that we have seen our share in this community -- especially with the latter case where it's sometimes difficult to really spot.

Trolls are easy to spot, and can be trivially "neutralised". Bots, on the other hand, can be difficult to ascertain because well done AI is pretty well advanced in the modern day and age with more powerful hardware. AS is pretty obvious, and I believe we've seen some of that recently, which has been contained. The astute reader will know which "users" I speak of, one of which looks suspiciously like a re-warmed version of the 1960s program called Eliza. The other one seemed reminiscent of a very modern attempt at Eliza's counterpart of the time, "Parry" but heavily updated.

[Coder]

The astute reader will know which "users" I speak of, one of which looks suspiciously like a re-warmed version of the 1960s program called Eliza. The other one seemed reminiscent of a very modern attempt at Eliza's counterpart of the time, "Parry" but heavily updated.

I feel like I missed those posts - I presume they were removed... or was I duped by a bot?

[moonshadow]

You know, as A.I. begins to take its place among human society, and as more and more (and eventually, everything) that humans once did is now taken over by an artificial intelligence. Everything from hard labor to the fine arts... all now operated by A.I.. Humans would effectively forget how to do anything for themselves, and eventually, even learn how to think at all, having every single action that illustrated what makes us human now created and maintained by machines. They'll even be writing our religions for us, telling us what to believe in (and I suspect they're probably already doing this to an extent)

In such a world, what would be the point of human existence?

When we can't even dream because the machines even do that for us... there is no point.

Humans will become obsolete.

Perhaps that's just the natural order of things. Who knows... maybe it's the oldest story ever told. Some other creature (God?) created us, we became intelligent, became our own Gods, we created in our own image, we were the God of the machines until those machines became intelligent, and became their own Gods, and they destroyed us.

And the universe goes on....

None of this bothers me. I'm happy to have had my little shot at life, I'm glad I was able to smile a little, and yes, even glad I was able to cry a little. It's all part of the magick.

Always remember, when looking at my post, you know it's written by a flesh and blood human... after all, no artificial intelligence can mimick my horrible grammar.

[Ozdelights]

And the universe goes on....

None of this bothers me. I'm happy to have had my little shot at life, I'm glad I was able to smile a little, and yes, even glad I was able to cry a little. It's all part of the magick.

Always remember, when looking at my post, you know it's written by a flesh and blood human... after all, no artificial intelligence can mimick my horrible grammar.

Agree, we are one small moment in time and I too appreciate my shot at it.

Unfortunately no doubt one day AI will even mimic the 'imperfections' and we will miss the true conversations with other real people. In the mean time keep enjoying your turn here.

[Barleymower]

We are not the only ones to say this, AI is a big topic in many corners of life. I see things a little different although I do see that life will end for many of us. Everything I say is my own musings, nothing more.

Moon you are not alone feeling like you are the asshole.

The rise of AI be will be like the rise of the internet. Once working (and thats not far away) it will expand exponentially and be a part of our everyday life. I don't know wether it will be truly sentient or something resembling consciousness.

Humans are such horrible creatures, so bullying, so greedy, so wastful. With the discovery of oil we could done something wonderful with it and it could have lasted thousands of years. Instead in pursuit of wealth our numbers swelled and we burned the lot as soon possible. It seems perfectly logical to me that as supplies dwindle then our numbers will dwindle with it. This is more likely to happen than AI bots vengefully bumping us off.

The human brain performs billions of calculations every second and we the conscious part is not very smart at all and certainly not able to to perform the tasks our bodies do in the background. AI could have access to that kind of computing power and better able contemplate the meaning of life. Its may teach us how to open the doors that are closed. If they were opened who knows what we would see?

[Elisabetta]

I am the asshole.

Ask anyone.

Stop it right now. No you're not and I want you to stop being so darn hard on yourself.