Why males "not allowed" to wear skirts in western

[amuszo]

I still find when I am wearing a skirt out on the street that I still get a comment like "You're not allowed to wear a skirt" or "men aren't allowed to wear a skirt". I find this rather silly as we are supposed to be living in a community with democratic ideas and rights e.g. freedom of choice, freedom of speech and freedom of religion. This type of comment reflects back to communistic countries and third world thinking that people should not have choices but to be told what to do or to wear. I also find it discriminative that as a male I am told how to behave with what society wants me to act which contradicts what democracy is what it's meant for. Sure women have had to fight to be accepted with the community when wearing pants but not one person has been able to come with a plausible reason WHY males can't wear skirts. The only answer I seem to receive is the same statement reinforcing their comment. Some just shrug their shoulders and say "I dunno". So much for equal rights and free choice when we are supposed to excercise democracy in a free country. What a pity....what a joke. [/b]

[Departed Member]

I still find when I am wearing a skirt out on the street that I still get a comment like "You're not allowed to wear a skirt" or "men aren't allowed to wear a skirt".

Why not stop, look carefully and deliberately all around, and say, "Well? Where does it say we can't?" Then look them firmly in the eye, and repeat, "Well?". Oh, and don't forget to emphasise the word, "we"!

[Peter v]

I still find when I am wearing a skirt out on the street that I still get a comment like "You're not allowed to wear a skirt" or "men aren't allowed to wear a skirt".

Why not stop, look carefully and deliberately all around, and say, "Well? Where does it say we can't?" Then look them firmly in the eye, and repeat, "Well?". Oh, and don't forget to emphasise the word, "we"!

My thoughts exactly. Who do they think they are to say that. Damn stupid if you ask me. People who say that aren't worth answering to, they wouldn't understand what you said, even if you spoke in sign language.

if they said "I wouldn't wear that," it would show that they were literate, and have some IQ.

Edit. Those people have probably been out in that beautiful Aussie sun far too long without a hat and have sun stroke.

[DavidsSkirts]

I find it strange that your profile says that you live in Melbourne - your experiences as you describe them, sounds more like something you might expect in some parts of Eastern Europe or southern Russia these days, or maybe some of the more backward corners of the USA or Middle East...

I do get some strange looks - for sure - when I wear a skirt out to places where there are plenty of people out and about, but I have yet to experience such outspoken objections as you have described in your entry here..

How many times have you experienced such objections ? and, what sort of place were you in at the time ?

Maybe those ratbags were mentally deranged, drugged, drunk or just plain stupid ??

[SkirtDude]

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[Bri]

Something I brought up with my gf in the car a day ago about crossdressing and possible gender change (I was looking at a pair of high tops that were pink and several other shades of neon and pastel). My gf then told me that she was worried that I might want a gender change. I was very surprised by this and asked her a bit later why she asked that. She didn't have much of a response, and that's when I brought up the idea that she was wearing jeans, and me wanting to wear a skirt is as much cross dressing as her in the jeans. Really strange thing is she knew about when women couldn't wear jeans and get away with it, and agreed with me on the cross dressing thing.

I think personally that discussing freedoms and such won't really get men very far. We're kicking a dead horse and thinking it's alive. Perhaps maybe more support is needed and possibly less funny comebacks. Maybe just some history to the ignorant on men wearing skirts and women wearing jeans. You have to know though that some people not matter how persuaded they are by you and how much "logical" sense you're making, won't make them want to wear a skirt or accept you anymore than they don't now.

Maybe the idea of, some people just don't like me, and I'm cool with that or, there's a few bad parts of town to go wearing a skirt. I just won't visit them and be safer and happier. Besides, why would anyone who's smarter, by choice want to hang around with obviously dumber people?

[SkirtDude]

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[Since1982]

I'm old, and remember conversations with my father about black and white people. He was a card carrying member of the KKK..and had weird beliefs. I once asked him why he believed blacks were inferior to whites and all he could say, over and over and over was...."Because we're better". I tried to use common sense on him, unsuccessfully, when I said, stand up a white, a black, a red, a tan, a yellow man side by side and skin them...how do you tell the difference then???? His answer was very simple..and stupid but completely unargueable(sp)? His answer was "Because we're better"...How do you continue an argument with a rock?

The "Men aren't supposed to wear skirts" sentence is just as stupid and unarguable(sp?) You just can't argue with a rock, on any subject.

[skirts4me]

I'll be as brief as I can and avoid, as much as possible, getting on my bandwagon.

Part of the problem we face, at least here in Australia, is that the "education" system has become so focussed on filling young minds with a-million-and-one useless pieces of information to regurgitate in exams at the end of their schooling, that we've bred a generation or more of people who cannot think for themselves. If someone says "men don't wear skirts" it very quickly becomes "men aren't ALLOWED to wear skirts" and the number of people who then question that thinking is forgettably small. It's not limited to the issue of skirts. Next time you find something that doesn't make sense, and querying it elicits a response of "it's policy," see if you can get a response other than "it just is" by asking "why?"

[Sarongman]

I have to agree with skirts4me that the conventional education system is just a sausage machine churning out compliant consumers. Maybe the only hope is the few graduates from the Steiner system, of which I have much admiration.

Don't think for yourself, that might be just too hard. Let the aorta fix it--You know "Aorta do sumfin about it" . I am just as frustrated with the sheeple AKA kiddults as anyone ( of us wierdos who actually think, and then damned well worry!) Then again, there was a progamme on the ABC called "Grumpy Old Men" I had to agree and laugh with them but, alas, they were all my vintage

[Colin]

If in my job I am challenged on whether something technical can be done, I always have to produce a standard, regulation or code of practice and which paragraph of the same applies.
Surely those who say we can't wear certain garments should be asked to produce the documentary proof.
They can't - ha-ha.

[Charlie]

I found this thread: http://www.in-my-opinion.org/debate-top ... html#53241
and after reading it, felt compelled to join the board and post this reply.
There's a poll, but you have to be logged in to vote.
As Ziggy says, sitting in the cafe talking amongst ourselves isn't going to get the message out, so lets seek out other boards where skirts are being discussed.

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Well, I still don't get why men themselves would want to wear a skirt. I mean, I get why fashion designers would want to sell the idea to men, that they could wear real cool looking skirts, but why wear those things at all?

Try:
- Comfort (especially if you're sat in a car).
- Freedom of choice.
- An alternative to trousers.
- Dissatisfaction with the limited choice in clothing that men have. Much of men's clothing is drab, unimaginative and downright boring.

I wear skirts, modern kilts - see http://www.kilts.org and sarongs, keeping trousers mainly for work. I relax more, and am happier and much more comfortable in an unbifurcated garment (bifurcate = split in two).

So, broaden your outlook, accept that all men (and women) are different and live and let live. If you are female and don't like skirts - fine, that's your privilege.

If you are male, try a skirt. It won't turn you into a woman or make you gay. Once the 'isn't this naughty' feeling (remember, you've been told since birth that skirts are forbidden fruit) has worn off, you'll be amazed at how comfortable they are, and understand why many women abandon trousers in the summer in favour of lightweight, cool, comfortable skirts. And when you're sweating in trousers this summer, envy the girls in their skirts, and despise the this narrow-minded society that dictates how men should dress.

Come on guys, don't knock it before you've tried it.

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Charlie

[Peter v]

One thing stands out to me, and that is that it seems that most people don't look at the PERSON inside the body, but just look at the shell, and comment uninterestingly. They "see" a person there before them, but don't look at him, no further than the visual image. But there is more to a person than a visual image, like a foto. No wonder, probably because there are so many wierdo's out there, I can partially understand the distant attitude some people take.

When people start looking at the person themselves, they don't see the body or the clothes ( if any) but have contact with the inner person, the real person in that body. Then they sure shouldn't say any of those dumb and nasty things that some do say to skirt wearing men.

Peter v.

[Colin]

Well done Charlie.
I think that people that know me are much more likely to accept a kilt than strangers, as they already know the person inside. I wore my denim UnionKilt to Church again yesterday morning and felt very accepted. Some people asked whether it was a special occasion, so I had chance to explain the reality of it being comfortable and of course "why not?".

[Bri]

I told my gf that there's always going to be a nonspoken population (this is partially from sociology and statistics) that will agree with what you're thinking. Most of them don't have it in them to say what they're thinking, and that's where the "be bold" idea comes from. Don't just stand there or sit there and think it and do nothing, do something!

This reminds me of a female coworker I had (before I quit my job for another one) when I asked several things of her. She's one of those kiddadults who is around 19 and can't think for herself. She wears the fashion of high school even though she really doesn't belong in it because of her weight. I could go on describing her, but I really think you get the idea.

She's someone that really never questions why people do anything, and just expects things to happen they way they have, and thinks it's very strange if you do something different.

When I asked my gf about why she thought I wanted a sex change, she really didn't have much of a real answer, more of just the standard look of "are you really going to wear that today?" Sort of look with her eyes. I tried to tell her that wearing a skirt in no way effects me negatively. One, she actually thinks I look sexier and better than her in one. Sees no negative change in me when I put one on and walk around the house, and generally forgets that I'm wearing one after about 10min.

Of course her parents are very religious and conservative, and would really mind a lot if they caught me wearing one around the house. What's kind of cool is that I'm moving one state away to Colorado in a couple weeks where people in a general term just seem to have more brain power than here. The only problem that I have when I move there is the family that I kind of know. I'm inevitably going to see them, and one of the sisters has a kid and husband is a "cowboy" which means he drives a truck and does the cowboy thing too, and is raising his "son" to be a "son" and I'm going to have to educate him (not the son) that there are certain things a man should do and be able to do in this day and age that you're not teaching him. One of the things is to treat people like people, nomatter who they are.

One way to do this is pick out a couple of things that aren't perfect with him and ask him how he would feel if people looked at him as less, just because of them. Then tell him that some people do things differently, or way differently, but that doesn't make them any less of a person.