From a nudist forum...

[Milfmog]

The following was posted today at a nudist forum, in response to one member (not me) saying that he often wore a sarong or skirt when nudity was not an option. One member called him a cross dresser, another sent the following reply...

Men,

I am not sure about the psychology of men wearing women's clothes, but there are certainly physiological and medical reasons for preferring skirts in the summer, in those situations where nudity is impractical.

The mammals evolved the ability to keep their bodies at the optimum temperature, but this was too high for the best sperm production, so those males whose testicles hung in a bag, and were cooler, had the best sperms. These mammals also evolved a mechanism for lowering the testicles away from the body in hot weather, and hauling them up in the cold, thus providing the ideal environment for baby sperms to grow up strong and healthy. The owners of scrotums had more offspring, and those with descended testicles were superseded. The leaders of fashion in Europe had the idea of completely enclosing the human scrotum in trousers, raising the temperature, causing unpleasant sweating and itching. This favours the suppurating infection by tinea fungus, which just love hot sweaty areas of the body, like scrotums and sweaty feet. And of course gives us poor sperms.

If Richard became a leader of fashion, and we all wore skirts or sarongs, commando style, in the summer, we would undo the harm of hundreds of years of captivity of our gonads. The gentle wafting of cooling breezes would reduce sweaty itchy balls and men would all be a lot healthier and comfortable, as well as suffering less infertility. Not as good as nudity, but still a great improvement. Why shouldn't we all enjoy the healthier clothing that women and Scotsmen wear? Perhaps the ladies would prefer us to have sweat free less odiferous scrotums as well.

Burn the boxers!
Pulverise the pants!
Tear up the trousers!
Free the gonads!

Just though I'd share the support.

Have fun,


Ian.

[Charlie]

A good, supportive reply. However, the opening sentence "I am not sure about the psychology of men wearing women's clothes," grated somewhat. We still have this lopsided idea that if men wear clothes of the opposite gender, there's something wrong, but it's OK for women to wear men's clothes. And since when have sarongs been women's clothing?

Charlie

[RichardA]

I always find that when I read letters like these we sometimes hide behind the "healthy options" and what I'm saying is
"I want to be different"
"I don't want to be main stream"
"I won't conform to your ideas of fashion"
The main reason I wear a kilt it because I like it, OK I'm Scottish decent and I have my own tartan, but I like to stand out in a crowd, I don't want to look like thousands of other men I would just like to be me, and by the way I wear underpants so I'm not naked if I want to be I go to the beach and I know some of you wouldn't admit it, but there must be a few that do it because it feels nice in a skirt, and is boarding on sexual, if that's the case it's fine by me as I'm not here to condemn anyone as we all need to feel free in what we do.

[Milfmog]

A good, supportive reply. However, the opening sentence "I am not sure about the psychology of men wearing women's clothes," grated somewhat. We still have this lopsided idea that if men wear clothes of the opposite gender, there's something wrong, but it's OK for women to wear men's clothes. And since when have sarongs been women's clothing?

Charlie

Bearing in mind that this reply followed the other comment, which accused the wearer of cross-dressing, I suspect that was the driver for the opening sentence.

Have fun,


Ian.

[crfriend]

Bearing in mind that this reply followed the other comment, which accused the wearer of cross-dressing, I suspect that was the driver for the opening sentence.

Sad though it may be, the average person is likely to perceive our quest to get skirted garments on men accepted in the mainstream as crossdressing -- the link is undeniably strong, and is most likely to manifest itself in times of misunderstanding or stress. This is the main driver that has led me to attempt to "de-sexualise" the garment in my stewardship of SkirtCafe. It's also one of the reasons why I tend to "step on" overt discussion of "what's under your skirt" -- the topic tends to skew public perception of "skirts for men" in less-than-favourable ways, and whether we like it or not, this is a very public forum that is open to the entire planet.

We've identified that a rather large disparity exists between what's acceptable for men and women to wear in a goodly chunk of so-called "Western Society", and we all rail against it. This is good, and this is healthy; what needs to happen next is to come up with really cogent relevant ideas that will appeal to the "public mind" that can change -- once and for all -- the public's notion of "crossdressing". Note that this may likely conflict with the "orthodox crossdressers'" view of things, so a fair amount of friction may be encountered. But, I believe that by removing the "sexual message" that skirts seem to carry, we'd be bettering our odds of getting such garments accepted on -- and by -- guys. An example: Gently lifting the front portion hem of a long or full skirt whilst ascending a flight of stairs is not a "feminine" thing, it's a skirt thing. Another: Gently sweeping the backside of a pleated garment underneath as one sits is not a "feminine" thing, it's what one does to (1) remain comfortable and (2) not mess up the pleats on one's garment when he sits down.

I don't know that the old perceptions can be changed, I just hope that they can be.

Have fun

Seconded!

[Since1982]

Charlie wrote: And since when have sarongs been women's clothing?

Since the beginning of the wearing of sarongs in the Pacific rim countries. Both men and women wear sarongs, the woman's sarong is longer and wraps from armpits to knees and sometimes mid-calves. Sarongs are not "men's clothing and their also not women's clothing" They are simply "human clothing"..for men, women and children. In my visits to Tonga, Majuro, Hawaii and Fiji sarongs were worn by women and men, as well as sulu, kain and tupenu for men. In Tonga the Tupenu is a men's only garment, in Fiji the Sulu is, and in Hawaii the Kain is, but in all those places where sarongs are worn, both men and women wear them. All of these garments are basically sarongs/skirts.

tupenu.gif

Picture of Tongan men in Tupenu.

[Skirt Chaser]

A nudist concerned over another wearing skirts strikes me as typical human behavior, finger pointing just like they may receive themselves. "I'm trying to be accepted as normal but your weirdness is making it difficult for me" is probably the underlying resentment. If that is the reason behind the comment, my guess is that most people react to naturists or skirted men the same way- interested, not caring one bit or flummoxed by both.

[Stu]

There are two major differences between skirt wearing and nudism.

Firstly, I have never ever heard of anyone being actually offended by the sight of a man in a skirt. People may assume you are a bit odd, or eccentric, or even a crossdresser or gay, but they are never offended or outraged.

Secondly, nudity is still associated with intimacy (like in the family) and sex, and it has a particular function in the lives of even the most ardent non-nudist. Even I get naked to shower! There is a serious taboo about non-familial nudity for that reason.

Because of the combination of the risk of causing serious offence and the strict taboo on exposing the sex organs, nudists are accommodated by having places set aside for them where they can go and be among other nudists and offend no-one. I am not comfortable around naked people and I don't want my kids to see naked people so I avoid these places. I would like to be able to continue avoiding nudity when in public.

Stu

[JRMILLER]

Stu,
First off, I am not a nudist and I don't have a desire to give it a try. Further, for 90% of the population, I prefer seeing them with the clothes on!

To be offended at something is a personal reaction. One can choose to be offended or not. Funny thing is, the more we see something the more accustomed to it we get. Eventually, if exposed enough, it becomes common place.

I am willing to bet that if it were the norm for all people to walk around nude all the time, then this would become commonplace and expected. If one of those people were to suddenly start wearing some sort of colorful garment, then this would be new and extraordinary. Might even offend a few people.

Same goes for men in skirts, if most guys wore skirts, then this would become the norm and commonplace. However, some guys strutting down the street in pants would undoubtedly offend some people....

It's a personal choice....

[Stu]

John

Men not wearing skirts has been nothing more than a fashion taboo, and fashion is something that changes with the weather! Nudity is something beyond that - it is actually offensive in our culture and something which many people don't want their children to see. Being nude is certainly not the same as wearing last season's colours!

You say that to be offended at something is a personal reaction. Of course it is. Are you saying that we should disregard people's 'personal reactions' to anything and everything? Is it OK to use obscene language in a loud voice, and when children are present? Is it acceptable to display graphic pornography on billboards? Or maybe it's fine to use racist terms against black people or Jews? After all, if anyone is offended then it's because they choose to be offended, right? Or should we take some account of at least some of the cultural norms and taboos when it comes to how we regulate the public environment, so that as many people as possible can be comfortable in that environment. Of course people can get used to seeing things - they can pretty much get used to seeing anything, including pornographic billboards, but that doesn't mean they should have to.

I admit that I dislike nudity: I find it grossly offensive, I don't want it in my environment and I am willing to take reasonable steps to avoid seeing it and to prevent my children from seeing it. That's my "personal choice" and, in that respect, I am far from unique. But I have never heard of anyone finding men wearing skirts to be grossly offensive - odd, maybe, comical even, but never grossly offensive. You see, public nudity and MIS share the characteristic of breaching taboos - but the reactions they inspire are of different orders of magnitude.

Stu