National Skirt Day

[chilpaul]

https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/skirt-day/

This year it's on March 10th, why not celebrate it this year?

Chil

[STEVIE]

Hi Chil,
Me, I'll be wearing one anyway.
Thanks for reminding us, but we shouldn't need a "special" day unless you need the moral support that is.
In which case, enjoy!
Steve.

[ScotL]

https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/skirt-day/

This year it's on March 10th, why not celebrate it this year?

Chil

And I quote from their page” How to celebrate National Skirt Day
Pretty simple, as you might imagine! Male or female, dig into your wardrobe (or your partner’s!) and find a skirt to wear, and go about your day adorned in it.“

[Barleymower]

I was initially quite excited but the found out that it is one of many such days like national flip flop day and national hippo day.
None the less I have contact 20 secondary schools in my area and asked them to join in National Skirt Day
Here is what I said:

To the Head of XXXXX School,

I am writing to all the schools in the area to raise awareness of International Skirts Day in on the 10th March.
https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/skirt-day/

I wanted to draw all the school's attention to international skirts day. The day is a great chance for everyone to come together for the day, wear a skirt and have fun. Please encourage all your students (Girls and Boys) to come to school in a skirt and celebrate the day together. This nominated day is not on a par with International Woman / Men’s Day but it could be if enough people recognise the opportunity presenting itself.

I am the father of three children who all attend schools in the area. My youngest son expressed an interest in skirts and my daughter has said they are non-binary. My children told me about themselves thinking I would be cross with them for not conforming with traditional gender values. I was not in the least cross and I fully support my children and their exploration of their own genders. I even tried a skirt myself. I found the garment to be very comfortable and super freeing. I am a fan.

I think that many men could be afraid to wear a skirt, because it would call their masculinity into question. But I think that being secure in yourself and trying new things is a healthy form of masculinity. My personal belief is that a gender binary is much too simplistic to capture the complexity of real people, and I am not scared to be associated with the "feminine."

This is also a way to experience empathy. No pockets! Or riding a bike or sitting without showing tomorrows laundry. This idea is not making fun of the feminine. So I'm trying to do this in a respectful way. If you are old like me, you might remember David Beckham in a sarong, everyone was shocked. It's 2023 we are better than that now. If you really believe that men and women are equal, then it should be ok to do this, to be associated with the feminine. I know I am.

There is a lot of bad feeling around gender differences at the moment. I think if we can bring the genders closer together there will be less aggression and more cooperation between men and women. If the skirt becomes common place between both sexes, then there can only be positive outcomes.

Please support International Skirts Day and encourage everyone to wear a skirt on Friday March 10th.

[Uncle Al]

For me, "National Skirt Day" will be just another day in a skirt

Uncle Al

[Midas]

I’ll wear a dress, as usual.

[Myopic Bookworm]

None the less I have contact 20 secondary schools in my area and asked them to join in National Skirt Day
Here is what I said:
(snip)
Please support International Skirts Day and encourage everyone to wear a skirt on Friday March 10th.

Nice letter. Thanks for sharing.

[Barleymower]

None the less I have contact 20 secondary schools in my area and asked them to join in National Skirt Day
Here is what I said:
(snip)
Please support International Skirts Day and encourage everyone to wear a skirt on Friday March 10th.

Nice letter. Thanks for sharing.

MB it's cobbled from my own thoughts, Dylan Cawthorne (tedx) and a bit of Uncle Al's wise words.
I haven't had any replies and I'm not expecting any. My family think it's a dead end.
I said it doesn't matter. If one or two people think twice, it will be worth it.
I'll send to the primary schools next.

[ScotL]

I’ve recently become emboldened wearing a kilt whilst flying. Turns out I fly on National Skirt Day. Only issue I’m having is on both previous trips, I returned home late where the airport was dead. Now I return at the height of traffic on a Friday night.

Wish I had more time to plan for this. Making “man wearing a skirt on national skirt day” could be a good topic to fundraiser for something. People always appreciate doing something “offbeat” if it’s for a “good cause” more than if it’s activism.

[FLbreezy]

Now I return at the height of traffic on a Friday night.

In my experience, the busier the place, the more invisible you can feel, FWIW. If you're in an empty departure lounge and wearing something different then people are more likely to focus their attention on you.

Wish I had more time to plan for this. Making “man wearing a skirt on national skirt day” could be a good topic to fundraiser for something. People always appreciate doing something “offbeat” if it’s for a “good cause” more than if it’s activism.

I got an email from SkirtSports.com about a 5K run on March 8th for Women's Day and they wanted women to participate virtually and tag them with photos. I kinda wanted to reply back with something about having MIS participating too and they should try to be more inclusive.

[Barleymower]

Now I return at the height of traffic on a Friday night.

In my experience, the busier the place, the more invisible you can feel, FWIW. If you're in an empty departure lounge and wearing something different then people are more likely to focus their attention on you.

Wish I had more time to plan for this. Making “man wearing a skirt on national skirt day” could be a good topic to fundraiser for something. People always appreciate doing something “offbeat” if it’s for a “good cause” more than if it’s activism.

I got an email from SkirtSports.com about a 5K run on March 8th for Women's Day and they wanted women to participate virtually and tag them with photos. I kinda wanted to reply back with something about having MIS participating too and they should try to be more inclusive.

I think acceptance needs to start with the kids. So I have sent a letter to the schools asking them to join National Skirts Day.
So far I have sent the letter to 20 secondary schools 14 Primary Schools in my area (see my post above for the letter).
I have not had any replies but its early yet.

[FLbreezy]

I think acceptance needs to start with the kids. So I have sent a letter to the schools asking them to join National Skirts Day.
So far I have sent the letter to 20 secondary schools 14 Primary Schools in my area (see my post above for the letter).
I have not had any replies but its early yet.

No school in my state would touch that project with a 10 foot pole right now, sadly. The fascists are running amok, it seems.

[rivegauche]

If I was running a school I would allow all pupils to wear a skirt at any time but encouraging it for even a single day runs the risk of triggering the brown sort of storm.

Having led the way in freedom of expression, Scotland faces going backwards given the choice we have for our new First Minister. Nicola Sturgeon, the current First Minister of Scotland, was a very strong advocate of the right to declare your own gender, then decreed that a convicted rapist who now identifies as a woman should be sent to a men's prison. Even the rapist's own mother said he (her pronoun) was faking it, but he was merely exercising the right the Scottish Government wanted for everyone. Then Sturgeon resigned. The favourite to replace her is an adherent of the Free Church, who has said she would have voted against gay marriage if she had been an MSP at the time. The only other realistic candidate - a Moslem - has been accused (probably unjustifiably) of dodging the vote on gay marriage. Strangely, the Free Church lady's political career has not gone into a tailspin, and she has attracted compliments for having principles in a line of work that is not know for having many. An article on yesterday's Times quoted a child wondering why religious homophobia was somehow better then atheist homophobia. The same article also addressed drag queens reading to children, and suggested that if men wanted to abuse children, they would dress up not as women but as middle class men.

I live in a fairly religious area, where the Free Church is still a major influence. I still feel able to wear a skirt or dress - or dress as a woman - in public without fear. But for how long? I get fed up of religious fundamentalists inflicting their views on the rest of us, especially when they have ignored the bits of their religion they themselves find a nuisance, like having battlements on their homes (a few verses down from the stuff about gendered clothing in Deuteronomy).

One of the few things they seem to do better in the US than here is that they ban worship from education. Or at least that's the law. In the UK the various religions are right at the heart of education and some dreadful indoctrination goes on (I speak as a survivor of this). I fear that clothing and gender will forever be subject to interference from the fundamentalists but we could start to put this right by banning religion from schools - if parents want this for their children plenty external options are available outside school hours.

[Barleymower]

If I was running a school I would allow all pupils to wear a skirt at any time but encouraging it for even a single day runs the risk of triggering the brown sort of storm.


Having led the way in freedom of expression, Scotland faces going backwards given the choice we have for our new First Minister. Nicola Sturgeon, the current First Minister of Scotland, was a very strong advocate of the right to declare your own gender, then decreed that a convicted rapist who now identifies as a woman should be sent to a men's prison. Even the rapist's own mother said he (her pronoun) was faking it, but he was merely exercising the right the Scottish Government wanted for everyone. Then Sturgeon resigned. The favourite to replace her is an adherent of the Free Church, who has said she would have voted against gay marriage if she had been an MSP at the time. The only other realistic candidate - a Moslem - has been accused (probably unjustifiably) of dodging the vote on gay marriage. Strangely, the Free Church lady's political career has not gone into a tailspin, and she has attracted compliments for having principles in a line of work that is not know for having many. An article on yesterday's Times quoted a child wondering why religious homophobia was somehow better then atheist homophobia. The same article also addressed drag queens reading to children, and suggested that if men wanted to abuse children, they would dress up not as women but as middle class men.

I live in a fairly religious area, where the Free Church is still a major influence. I still feel able to wear a skirt or dress - or dress as a woman - in public without fear. But for how long? I get fed up of religious fundamentalists inflicting their views on the rest of us, especially when they have ignored the bits of their religion they themselves find a nuisance, like having battlements on their homes (a few verses down from the stuff about gendered clothing in Deuteronomy).

One of the few things they seem to do better in the US than here is that they ban worship from education. Or at least that's the law. In the UK the various religions are right at the heart of education and some dreadful indoctrination goes on (I speak as a survivor of this). I fear that clothing and gender will forever be subject to interference from the fundamentalists but we could start to put this right by banning religion from schools - if parents want this for their children plenty external options are available outside school hours.

I have not had any replies. I'm not expecting any.

If I'm totally honest, I would have been overjoyed if the schools, the whole world could recognise that men and women are the same. What women like, men like and vice versa . It has been proven over and over with women involved traditional mens pursuits. There are no barriers for women. People just can't get over the fact that it cuts both both ways.

I know the schools will look at my letter and recoil with the horror. Chaos. Protests. Sexualisation of children. I wanted the schools to know there is at least one man out there who is not afraid to be associated with femininity. It's just a skirt.

As for Nicola Sturgeon. I felt that her views and plan for self identification were deliberately derailed and she resigned as a result. How can she hold office without the support of her party and Scotland?

I agree with you about the clothing freedom we have. I am free here to wear whatever I want but rather than those freedoms expanding I'm rather worried they might contract. My crystal ball says otherwise though. I think the LGBT quest has momentum and the only way is forwards despite the religious zealots and the right wing fascists. MIS will be swept along with the movement and more men will eventually take up the skirt in one of its forms.

Nicola was a casualty in the battle but she has fought bravely and did her bit for the cause. Go Nicola!

I am now looking forward to Peterborough it will be the first time I will be together with other MIS load and out there.

[rode_kater]

Having led the way in freedom of expression, Scotland faces going backwards given the choice we have for our new First Minister. Nicola Sturgeon, the current First Minister of Scotland, was a very strong advocate of the right to declare your own gender, then decreed that a convicted rapist who now identifies as a woman should be sent to a men's prison. Even the rapist's own mother said he (her pronoun) was faking it, but he was merely exercising the right the Scottish Government wanted for everyone.

This issue irritates me. Yes, you should have the right to change the letter in your passport, fine. But what on earth does this have to do with which prison you get sent to? If the law said that the letter in your passport is the sole determinant of which prison you go to, then that law is wrong. (And if it wasn't then you have to wonder if it was done deliberately to make a scene.) If there was any doubt, they could have just isolated the prisoner completely.

Reminds me of the comment about why school dorms are sex-segregated. It doesn't prevent sex, but it does prevent pregnancies.

One of the few things they seem to do better in the US than here is that they ban worship from education. Or at least that's the law. In the UK the various religions are right at the heart of education and some dreadful indoctrination goes on (I speak as a survivor of this). I fear that clothing and gender will forever be subject to interference from the fundamentalists but we could start to put this right by banning religion from schools - if parents want this for their children plenty external options are available outside school hours.

In NL after the constitutional change of 1917 which, amongst many other things, introduced PR and made universal suffrage possible also introduced the constitutional right of allowing schools denominated by religion. This was the trade off to get the religious parties on board. However, here we've taken the French approach and basically beaten the churches into submission. They wouldn't dare trying to do anything unconstitutional.

That worked for quite a while, but now we have mosques starting schools under the same rules. Some of them are skirting the boundaries and we're wondering whether these constitutional protections for religious schools are still relevant in this day and age.

My point is, what you need to strong protections for freedom of expression and a state willing to enforce them. Even if that means the religions need to give ground. Judging what I know of the US, I somehow doubt this will happen. The UK the church & state are intertwined, so it doesn't seem likely either.