Unanimity

[Stu]

On Monday, I had a phonetics class to teach - to explain to 38, 1st year students the differences between dentals and alveolars, plosives and affricates. While setting up my PowerPoint, I accidentally clicked on some pics I saved on PP showing our 2008 holiday, and me on the beach in a purple sarong and floppy hat. No-one said anything, which surprised me.

"Do you like the sarong?" I asked?

A few muttered "yeah", indifferently.

"Have any of the gents here worn a sarong?" To my surprise, two or three raised their hands.

"Out of interest, and this is an interest of mine, what do you think of the idea of men wearing skirts and stuff?" I asked.

People generally shrugged, some nodded half-heartedly and a few looked vacant.

"OK, how many of you think men shouldn't ever wear skirts? Hands up." No hands went up.

"And how many think it's fine for men to wear skirts?" Slowly, hands started going up and, to my astonishment, every single hand had gone up. Every one!

"Wow! That surprises me!" I exclaimed. There were some general comments like "Don't see why they shouldn't if they want to" and "Well, girls wear jeans and stuff" and "What people wear is up to them".

Lastly, I directed a question to the females present, who were in the majority:

"How many of you ladies would be OK if your boyfriend or husband wore a skirt?"

Again, nothing negative - just comments like, "I don't really care what he wears so long as he looks good" and "I suppose it depended what he looked like, you know, if he had nice legs", and "maybe in summer but who wears skirts in this weather?" One said something like, "Yeah, I think that he'd look cool". One young woman mentioned that her ex-boyfriend was a Goth and he wore skirts but he has since gone into the army so she thinks he can't wear them now and another said something about a guy in Gothenburg who wears a Scottish one.

Then we got onto the phonetics.

I should point out that this class consists of about 80% Swedes and 20% from other countries. Most are in their twenties - they are not kids - and they are very vociferous - they speak their minds. It made me think that, for the upcoming generation, it's a non-issue. You want to wear skirts? So wear 'em. Who cares? If that's the attitude they have, then this is the first generation for a very long time who have no mental preconceptions about skirts being feminine garments nor obstacles to experimenting with male skirt-wearing, so long as they look OK. I found this strangely encouraging.

Stu

[Since1982]

Stu said: plosives and affricates

Let's see now, plosives are what you have before you blow anything up making them EXplosives. And Affricates are people from Africa, RIGHT??? hehehee

By the way, Stu, down here in Florida, lots of so-called "normal" men wear sarongs over their swim trunks going to and coming from the beach. There are shops that sell them all up and down the boardwalk at most seaside resort towns like Fort Lauderdale, Miami Beach and all through the Keys where I live. Might have something to do with how accepted I am wearing a skirt here.

[nicothoe]

Sounds all very promising. However, I have found that it is often easy to believe in something when it is all just theory, but in practice, not so much. So while some women may say they are okay with their guy walking about in a skirt, it is difficult to guess how they would react should that actually happen.

As far as nice legs as concerned, my girlfriend's housemate often comments on my legs when I am in a skirt, which is always nice to hear. I also like being able to curl up on the sofa and be able to tuck my feet completely under the skirt; or when stretching, reveal a little bit more leg than usual.

[Bryan]

I do think that 9/10ths of the problem with men wearing a skirt is fear. If all men that wanted to, or fancied wearing a skirt, went out on one day in the confidence that others would also wear one, the problem would be resolved.

Bryan

[Bob]

I've come to believe that most people just don't want to think about these issues too much. There's a lot of libertarian indifference out there. For those in the minority who DO notice what you're wearing, they still have a short attention span. They just want a simple 10-second description of what you "are." Keep it simple, and within 30 seconds, they'll figure you're cool and they've turned their attention to the latest baseball scores.