Commentary on masculinity, and kilts vs. skirts

I write this on one of the Kilt Forums on FB a while ago. This seems like a good place to also share it.

On Kilts, Skirts and Dresses:

I find the mental gymnastics some guys go through to justify our choice to wear skirts in public while they are still being hampered by the concept of gendered clothing enough to rule out a DRESS to be an interesting (and troubling) phenomenon.

Eddie Izzard was once quoted about her fashion sense (before she came out as Trans) as saying something like “Women wear whatever they want, so do I.” That’s BRILLIANT.

These daily kilted guys are HALFWWAY to actual liberation…but it’s still deeply ingrained in their heads: ‘womens’ clothing is shameful. A Dress or a Skirt is ‘Feminine’ in their minds. To be associated with anything ‘feminine’ endangers their fragile notion of what it means to be a ‘man.’ Skirts are ‘feminine’ too, but NOT ‘Kilts.’

“Oh no! Those are purely masculine! BRAVEHEART! (Though the real William Wallace was dead 300 years before anyone in Scotland wore anything resembling a kilt!) Kilts ≠ Skirts! Kilts cannae be skirts because they were the clothing of Highland Warriors not their weakling women!” (LOL)

By definition, this crap thinking is toxic masculinity and it’s mostly keeping MEN back from fully enjoying life because they’re all so worried that everyone else may think they are ‘woman-like.’

Don’t get me wrong…I suffer from this to some extent as well. While I’m not much worried that I’ll be considered ‘woman-like’ or feminine… I don’t wear skirts or dresses daily in public, mostly because I don’t want the hassle of having to defend (let’s face it, ultimately physically) my choice from other men who would somehow feel threatened by what I’M wearing. The only difference is that I’ll always be honest and call a skirt a skirt and not pretend that there is ANY real difference at all between a kilt and a skirt or a dress…beyond the semantics. (Proving that the entire notion of ‘these clothes are for THOSE people, not US’ is entirely BS.)

Brilliant and funny!