skirtcafe.org

I wore my utilikilt to a daylong outdoor rockfest yesterday. I got many compliments and had my picture taken several times. I only had one bad comment from a big skinhead who looked me up and down and said "nice dress". I informed him it was a kilt and he said "whatever". He laughed, I laughed, and that was it.

rick401r wrote: <snip>
I only had one bad comment from a big skinhead who looked me up
and down and said "nice dress". I informed him it was a kilt and he
said "whatever". He laughed, I laughed, and that was it.

Another fine example of the un-educated

Uncle Al

Or..educated and hard headed. Some of the brightest people I've met were the most judgemental about everything. The most unfriendly skirt jokes or unkind comments I get at Bingo are always from well dressed, well coiffed, moneyed looking folks over 40. Most young girls that come with their parents to Bingo, (young being 18-23) under 18 not allowed there, are upbeat about my skirts, I get a lot of "Nice skirt, Sir!" or "That looks as if it was made for you". Or my favorite comment, "I wish I could get my boyfriend/husband into one of those"...I tell them to keep trying, and to make it a point to tell him it's the new fashion and if he tried one, he'd never go back to just pants. I've actually seen fruit of that suggestion at the Key West Moose Bingo. Twice girls I suggested that to showed up with their skirted young man in tow, one in a Navy Blue A-line skirt and one in a black Utilikilt.

Since1982 wrote:Or..educated and hard headed. Some of the brightest people I've met were the most judgemental about everything....

FWIW, the only negative comment I ever got about my "reunion kilt" (kilt made from the same fabric that the uniforms for my 25th reunion were made out of), which I've worn lots of places, was from a fellow alumnus about my age.

\begin{political analysis}
My own take is that the real issue is power and privilege. It's the people who've fought their way to the top of their particular dunghill that are going to feel most threatened by someone who doesn't seem to care about being on the top of the hill. And wearing a skirt, or even "just" a kilt, is a visible statement that you're not a slave to conventional values.

My college (Princeton) is definitely about giving a leg up to those who want to climb to the top of the biggest dunghills in the USA, maybe the world, even if not all of us feel like taking advantage of that aspect, and I ran into quite a few dunghill-climbers when I went there, not to mention at some alumni events. (Fortunately, those sorts don't seem to show up at Reunions very often.)
\end{political analysis}

But not everyone who goes or went to an Ivy League school is into that -- I've also seen (youngish) guys in tie-died skirts there, and most of the people, especially the younger ones, cheer when they see my kilt. There's one guy in the University Marching Band who marches in something midway between a kilt and a skirt made out of the band uniform fabric.

I guess it hard to say whether the comment "nice dress" is negative, without being present and hearing the tone of his voice or seeing the expression on his face. I would have thanked him for his compliment and smiled.

nicothoe wrote:I guess it hard to say whether the comment "nice dress" is negative, without being present and hearing the tone of his voice or seeing the expression on his face. I would have thanked him for his compliment and smiled.

Yes, it was hard to say if his crack about the "nice dress" was negative since it was coming from a rather large, stern looking fellow with a shaved head in leather and covered in tattoos, but we both had a laugh about it and went on our way.

nicothoe wrote:I would have thanked him for his compliment and smiled.

That's exactly how I reply to any compliment, whether I think it was intended that way or not . On the one occasion that I thought I was getting a sarcastic remark and started to rise to the bait, my wife told me she thought I was out of order and that the remark had been sincerely meant. On reflection, I decided she was probably right (she usually is) so now I try to respond to every remark as positive and, as a bonus, that has done my self-confidence a power of good.

Have fun,


Ian.

Perfect answer! When you gracefully accept even the sarcastic "compliments" you are letting that person know you are perfectly happy and confident in your skirt. There is not much more they can say, except ask "why" you are wearing it. Keeping things polite and civil can be a powerful weapon.

Now if you are wearing a kilt and someone calls it a skirt, I would not go on the defensive by immediately explaining that it is a kilt. Accepting the fact that a kilt is just a type of skirt, I would thank them for the compliment, then tell them about the item of clothing, regardless of what it is.