masculinity is most assuredly NOT "performance art"
Oh, but it is! At least the expression thereof. Just as femininity is. Ask any self-reflective woman who has ever gotten dressed up for a "hot date" or a special event.
And there is nothing demeaning with acknowledging it. Many of you have said as much when you talk about the current definitions of masculinity being a social construct.
Carl also said,
There is precisely nothing other than socialisation that equates skirts with womanhood.
True enough, but we've all been subject to that socialization. So when we're drawn to wearing skirts, especially from an early age, it's from something deep inside us; no matter what the rationalization.
When we go out in public in a skirt or better yet, a dress, we're breaking the masculine norm. Perhaps an a$$ backwards and nonsensical norm, but a norm nonetheless and we're not conforming to it.
But since we're talking about the history of fashions, let's talk about the historical basis of many of the norms of male presentation. Where did so many of them come from? Warfare. And what's more masculine than that? Short hair? In the Middle Ages, sentries were prone to get so distracted by picking lice out of their hair, they missed the approaching enemies. Correction: short hair for the rank and file. Sometime around the 17th century someone figured out that knee britches and stockings made more sense for infantrymen on the move and in battle than tunics and tights. Around the beginning of the 19th century some military genius figured out that full length pants made more sense yet. Then in the First World War, when gas warfare came into vogue, so did gas masks. Soon thereafter the military minds realized that beards and mustaches prevented an effective fit on the gas masks. Hence the clean shaven look. Fortunately for all concerned, King Gillette (Honest, "King" was his first name.) had invented the safety razor and subsequently made a fortune supplying them to the Allied armies. (Interestingly, the man was a socialist and a pacifist. Go figure.)
Clearly, that last norm is regularly honored in the breach. But let's face it, for all practical purposes, it's something the ladies are biologically incapable of, hence it's exclusively male and therefore masculine and who, when it comes time to attract the ladies, doesn't want that badge?
And I'm living proof that at least in that case masculinity is something one can take off; I'd be hard pressed to count the number of beards I've grown and groomed and then removed altogether.