Reviewing Google’s search data I was surprised to see queries about how to wear a skirt (the suggested subtext being “. . .as a male”). I have seen this and similar queries on Quora were a variation asks whether a parent should allow a boy to wear skirts “like a girl.” The answer to both is astoundingly simple:
- wear skirts confidently
- wear skirts like yourself, not like anyone else.
For those boys and men who liberate themselves from the prison of external opinion, the principle and the principal exercise seem to be deconstructing the sociocultural dogma. If one’s aim is to disassociate the signifier from the signified, then the question should not be how to wear skirts (according to external opinions) nor whether a male should wear skirts (like other people), bur rather how that male should wear any article of clothing to express his intent. If the male wishes to communicate femininity, then yes he may wear skirts “like a girl”; if the male wishes to communicate masculinity, then he should wear skirts like himself (because there is no one to imitate).