moonshadow wrote:
Around here, there isn't a "big" city for hundreds of miles, closest one being Knoxville TN, Asheville NC, and Roanoke VA, however the latter two, having populations of still under 100k may not qualify as "big" cities all the same. But anyway, around here in Appalachia, aka "God's coal country" the predominant religion seems to be southern baptist and Pentecostal, and with that comes LOTS of women who exclusively wear skirts every day, year round. The deeper you get into the mountains, the more skirts you see. Likewise, the more coal coveralls, and bibbed overalls you see on the guys. And to date.... one man who wears a skirt (me).
The skirts range from hideous potato sacks to some pretty interesting styles. What you DON'T see very often is mini's. Every now and then you may see one on a really young 20-something woman. Never on young children, and never on older ladies. What's interesting is women in mini's around here and get just as many snares and dirty looks as I do when I wear a skirt. Only difference is they get their dirty looks from the older women, whereas I get mine from older men.
Interesting the difference that religion and climate makes. My nearest shopping centre is a mining town (silver, lead & zinc) 200kms (120 miles) away with a population about 16,000. The majority of women and girls wear jeans or shorts but a lot still wear short skirts, may be because of the warm weather.
I now do all my business over there in a mini skirt with very little reaction.
I noticed that the young waitress in the cafe was also wearing a denim mini skirt but it was a bit longer than what I was wearing, which means I was probably pushing the envelope in length as well as just wearing a skirt. I do think that one gets away with such a thing when it is over 40C.
It is not a very religious area as it was the place that many initiatives of union activity were born, such as the 8 hour day, and was generally very left wing, which it still is because as the mining declined a big art movement grew.
In fact it was where "Pricilla queen of the desert" was filmed and there is now a regular event called the "Broken Heel Festival", which doesn't help men wearing skirts but does assist in people getting used to "different".