What makes a skirt manly v feminine

[hoborob]

Why not? It's a good look.

[Happy-N-Skirts]

It looks great. That is the style I like. If you wear it in public you will not stand out and be noticed. I suggest you try it just to see. You will be pleasantly surprised by how comfortable you wii be and wonder why more men aren't wearing skirts.

[beachlion]

I'm not ready for it. Like I said, I switched from pants and shorts into skirts for comfort and I want to stick to that.

[Grok]

I'm not ready for it. Like I said, I switched from pants and shorts into skirts for comfort and I want to stick to that.

"Comfort" sounds like a good reason for switching!

[Grok]

Kilts get a pass in this regard as they're universally recognised as menswear thanks to the (hard-headed, thankfully) Scots contingent. But kilted skirts abound, and sometimes it takes a watchful eye to properly know the differences. ?

I was surprised to find that X-Marks has a thread entitled A Madras Kilt for Summer. I thought that a discussion of Utilikilts was as far from the topic of traditional kilts as the moderators would tolerate.

[Grok]

Was thinking at it from the way women first started to wear pants, with distinctively feminine characteristics, always with a side zip instead of a front fly, always frilly and with flower patterns on them, then eventually once society was comfortable with it they adapted all the masculine features such that now a pair of jeans today would be almost identical regardless of gender.

Actually, during the 19th century there were Bloomers. Initially, there was a period of experimentation. Later, eventually, a version became accepted as athletic wear for women. I believe that Bloomers were deemed particularly suited for that new fangled invention-the bicycle.

Bloomers were part of a long evolution.

[Sinned]

beachlion, I and many others wear a skirt because of comfort but we do like to debate the other issues that come with wearing a skirt. As in dresses, hosiery etc. BTW the dress you are wearing looks great and would be ok for outdoor wear. It's certainly not too far out.

[Gordon]

I say it's all social conditioning. Every bit of it. And each one of us is pushing those social boundaries in his own way. I really don't care for anyone else's definitions of feminine or masculine because how I feel inside when I wear certain things determines if I'm happy with it or not.

[Grok]

Indeed, Gordon. How many people view a skirt as feminine simply because its a skirt? Which would include, by definition, the less flamboyant skirts worn by some members.

Rationally, it doesn't make sense that a man is obligated to wear two pipes.

[beachlion]

beachlion, I and many others wear a skirt because of comfort but we do like to debate the other issues that come with wearing a skirt. As in dresses, hosiery etc. BTW the dress you are wearing looks great and would be ok for outdoor wear. It's certainly not too far out.

I enjoy reading the discussions about what fits a certain body or which clothes and/or colors go together or not. I just can't add a useful part to those discussions. Besides, I'm by far not as eloquent in English as I'm in Dutch. That comes from my technical education where your reading material at best is a manual of a Diesel engine.

When you grow up with the notion that blue=boy and pink=girl then it takes some time to readjust to the male/female designation. I'm glad my anti-discrimination attitude was some help in this.

[Grok]

There is the issue of Cognitive Dissonance. There was a thread about that.

[Jim]

This looks like another move in the direction of broadening socially acceptable clothing choices for men: lacey shorts. http://nbc4i.com/2017/06/02/lacey-short ... is-summer/

[Big and Bashful]

Don't know about making skirts more manly, but now that my influence has got my Boss to buy a kilt for his dog walking, after discovering that a kilt belt is too heavy and stiff for the hiking he has just ordered a set of webbing braces to help support it, now a kilt and braces, that's got to be a sight! and not even slightly fem!

[Daryl]

My thinking is that the primary difference between feminine and masculine attire is the message it sends. Feminine clothing says "come hither" while masculine clothing says "I'm ready for action". If clothing is pretty and sensuous looking; if it makes you want to touch it (including being in it); it's feminine. If clothing looks like something to wear if you want to be prepared for action in some way, it's masculine.

But what's unmasculine about occasionally wanting to portray a "come hither" look to someone close to you -- or even someone you'd like to attract? If the clothes we garb ourselves in are to be "ready for action" (and one can be perfectly ready for "action" in a skirt) then why don't we just shut the forum down and label the thing, "It's jeans and khakis guys. That's it. Game over."

Recall, also, that it is only in humans where the fancy one is the female; in all other species, the flashy one is the male. Why should we be any different? I know, not every guy wants to be the peacock at the party, but what's wrong with the guys who do? If we are to deny ourselves nice things, what are we going to allow others to deny to us?

It's not about who is "fancy", and even if it were it's arguable than a non-human would declare human males "fancier" just because of our hair and our propensity for wrapping ourselves in demonstrations of power and wealth. Men wear trucks with roll bars and extra lights the way women wear dresses and pearls. The former could be called "fancier" but the latter is definitely "prettier". Men do things with their facial hair where women do things with makeup. Which is "fancier"?

I am only commenting on the source of our aesthetic categories of masculine and feminine -- answerring the question of this thread. I am not arguing for it as a judgement or a rule to follow, or a "should" or "should not" or anything of that sort. I am saying that the categories are not entirely social and arbitrary, though manifestations of them often are.

I think the measure of feminine vs. masculine I have offered would withstand almost any test you cared to apply, across all cultures. For example, present two pieces of cloth, one printed with flowers and smelling of flowery perfume, and one plain and dark, or with a linear boxy pattern, and smelling of dirt, then ask people at random which one is masculine and which one is feminine. The results are predictable. Look at Indian wedding wear, for example. Men get to wear some very pretty and sensuous designs and colours, but the women's designs and colours are even prettier and more sensuous.

We may want to believe that masculine and feminine are entirely unreal arbitrary social definitions, because we don't want to be limited by them, but in doing so we aren't acknowledging the actual source of our limitations: the socially-policed idea that people should live up to their assigned m/f archetypes. We are in fact tacitly affirming the legitimacy of that social policing. (insert animated gif of Sisyphus)

[Daryl]

This looks like another move in the direction of broadening socially acceptable clothing choices for men: lacey shorts. http://nbc4i.com/2017/06/02/lacey-short ... is-summer/

Whoah!

That reminds me of the lacey top worn by the deaf athlete in The Fifth Element. Quite a few men's costumes in that film made me jealous, in fact.

I'd buy one of those oufits if they were dresses. One-piecers just aren't comfortable where it matters most...