Why wear a skirt?

[hiker]

Personally I wish wearing a skirt wasn't being different, but as normal as wearing jeans. Life would be a lot more comfortable then.

I think the world would be a better place if skirt wearing were as normal for men as women, and it would make skirt wearing more comfortable -- but it is not and I'm beginning to think that we are as likely to achieve world peace as have men wearing skirts on a daily basis. Because of this I think that men in skirts is one form of social nonconformance and protest.

[staticsan]

I initially wore skirts partly out of curiosity, partly out of a wish to explore some femininity. This was also possible because I was living on my own at the time. Satisfying my curiosity revealed the physical advantages of skirt. Naturally. However, I acquired a fiancee and she was vehemently against skirt-wearing, citing religious reasons (!). So it died.

Spool forward about 3 years. I'm now separated and back living with my parents until I can find a place of my own again. Partly out of rebellion, partly out of re-finding myself, I'm back in skirts, mostly to sleep in, but I've also started buying kilts. Comfort is a *big* factor, as is being different (that's the rebellion factor again).

I'm generally an introverted person normally, which doesn't often square with attention-seeking behaviour like wearing a kilt (or skirt). But it does make sense if you look on it as a kind of rebellion, or a way to say "I'm me and I don't need your approval". And I have to say there is definitely a feminine side of me that rejoices every time I don an unbifurcated garment...

Wade.

[Saturna]

I just want fashion equality. It doesn't make sense for a male to wear a bra because there is no practical need for such a thing.. But there is no reason why wearing a non-burficated garment should be perceived as the huge deal it is.

I don't want to make a statement with anything I wear, although I do like to express myself as the individual that I am. I don't want the mere fact that the thing I'm wearing on my lower half isn't split in two to be an issue. I want to paint myself with the full range of garment types available. To say I cannot wear a skirt is like telling a painter that certain colors are off-limits. The fact that fabric draped upon the body is any kind of issue at all makes human culture as a whole appear to me as a giant mad hatter's tea party. There are so many other things worth thinking and caring about in life. What a person wears should never be any kind of issue whatsoever in my reasoning. I think it's preposterous that a man wearing a skirt can be subject to name-calling, intimidation, be immediately labeled as gay or being some kind of sexual deviant, etc. Society is so ridiculously obsessed with sexuality that they attribute any non-standard attire as having some kind of sexual connotation.
I'm sick of it all, really.

I believe very strongly in individualism - people expressing themselves as the unique individuals that they are. I encourage it. I don't want to walk outside and see everyone wearing the same thing.. But I suppose in a world dominated by media and television affecting the mass consciousness so strongly, it is to be expected that many people dress the same because they in fact are so similar in thought and deed.

[RichardA]

A bit off topic, I do a lot of cycling and shave my legs (as well as other parts) yesterday I had my cycling Lycra shorts which are very short and went in to a shop and I over heard to ladies saying
"that man had shaven legs"
"no"
"yes he's a cyclist and they shave their legs"
so see what I mean if your different, people will talk, yet it is an every day thing for a women to do it, so why can't we.

[MtnBiker]

When I was a much more serious cyclist, I shaved my legs. I loved the feel, the look, and so did my wife. I always found it interesting that the leg shaving was totally acceptable as long as it was clear that I was a cyclist. Almost as though society had to have a reason to accept it, or that I had to have an 'excuse' to do something (so ludicrously harmless) that I wanted to do.

[ChristopherJ]

I believe very strongly in individualism - people expressing themselves as the unique individuals that they are. I encourage it. I don't want to walk outside and see everyone wearing the same thing.

I agree with those sentiments 100%. In fact, I agree with all that Saturna says in post #18 - but he puts it better than I could. Like him, I want the clothes that I wear to express myself in a small way - my whole self. So I wear all sorts of clothes - trousers, jeans, skirts, shorts . . . whatever. Some of my clothes are brightly coloured, some black or denim. Because this is me. I am complicated - like all individuals are. I'm not some grey creature caged up within the social conventions of the day. I will never be that.

I've said it before - and I'll say it again . . . this is not just a skirt - it's an ADVENTURE!! :cheer:

[Since1982]

Well said, but I personally, am not near that deep into reasons. For me, since I've been out of the skirt closet for 2 years now, (wearing skirts full time or whenever I feel like it) I simply feel it's a clothing choice for any given day. In the town I live in and the city I'm moving to (Las Vegas), a man in a skirt is as accepted as a woman in a skirt is. Maybe even more so. I don't wear a skirt to express my "feminine" side, just my "comfortable" side. I wear trousers for events where a skirt isn't practical and a skirt when it is. A skirt to me is far more comfortable and healthy than trousers so I wear one. In the last 2 years I've progressed from dull, bland, dark, insignificant colored skirts to patterned and brightly colored ones. I like how I look, my friends do too. I've lost about 100 pounds in the last 2 years and have kept it off. I'm 65 and if anyone here cared about what I wore I'd probably consider the source and ignore them anyway.:cheer: :cheer: :ninjajig: :bouncy: :whiteflag