A few months after the aforementioned “double standards” occurrence, I had much more personal situation transpire.Continue Reading
The New York Times: “Skirts for Men?”
The social acceptability of men wearing skirts is by no means a nascent subject, but has has anything really changed since the Industrial Revolution? In 1984, the New York Times ran this piece regarding a Paris fashion show featuring men in skirts that was, according to French designer David Hechter, “the most important thing to happen in fashion in the past 20 years!” Hechter was one of the first designers to break fashion norms previously “when it was scandal for women to wear pants.” Rodney Martin puts a sharper point on it: “It makes me feel free. It’s a statement by which I can say I am free to do whatever I want. It does cause hostility on the streets, though. Sometimes I keep my coat closed over my skirt so no one will see it. And I do have to sit differently. But it’s not about being a woman.”Continue Reading
“The Nightshirt” – How I Met Your Mother
Pretty much everything that Marshall and Barney say about the nightshirt could be said about skirts too. How I Met Your Mother, Season 4, Episode 17 (2009).
A Brief History of Unisex Fashion
According to The Atlantic, “gender-neutral clothing is back in vogue, but the craze in many ways has mirrored broader social changes throughout the 20th century.”
More Double Standards
Some time back I came across this image and I later scolded myself for not saving it. Then as serendipity would have it, I found it again. Continue Reading
Clothing and Deuteronomy 22:5
Cognitively-challenged Christians are eager to invoke Deuteronomy 22:5—in judgment of women as well as of men—that “woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD.” Some denominations read this as requiring women to wear dresses (or, in the contrapositive, as prohibiting women from wearing pants). Likewise, Deuteronomy 22:5 has been invoked to condemn and deny skirts as menswear. This was certainly my experience when I “saw the light” and “converted” to skirts in 2016, but it has taken me three years to get around to publishing this formal rebuttal.Continue Reading
In a Man’s World
Bravo has a cutting new series titled In a Man’s World. Women from various walks of life receive full-body muscle suits, and craniofacial prosthetics to create a physique that is out of this world. The women also receive vocal and movement coaching and then simulate their regular selves….as a man. The circumstances and settings are a bit artificial (after all, some explanation has to be offered for the presence of video cameras) but some balance is achieved with additional hidden cameras. What I find most interesting about the series, though, is the coaches’ observations of the subtle differences between men and women. Esco Jouléy’s keen insight into body movement is fascinating and empowering for skirted men wishing to amplify their masculine aura.
Advocacy Apparel – Because Clothing Is Genderless
I am developing a site and business plan to sell skirt-advocacy apparel. Not just screen printed t-shirts, either. There will be some classy polo shirts and caps (and perhaps bumper stickers!) with catchy phrases and educational URLs. Stay tuned for more details. In the meantime, please suggest items and slogans in the comments below.
Tell your friends too!
Feedback = Market = Advocacy
Live the change that you want to see.
All Clothing Is Unisex
Double Standards
I was just recalling an incident from several months ago at a local club (this event was still a few months before the time an off-duty female cop reached under my skirt at this same club). I rocking an awesome 15″ Gap or Ralph Lauren chino skirt. I found myself speaking with a group of three or four females when one of them rather abruptly asks me, “what do you have on under your skirt?”Continue Reading
Why Men Still Don’t Casually Wear . . .
In the not too distant past, European aristocratic males wore both skirt-like garments as well as high heels. (In fact, women adopted high heels from European men and made them daintily and femininely narrower.) Over time, though, the European and American industrial revolutions made bifurcated pants and flat shoes more utilitarian for daily life. Women, however, who were relegated to lives of domesticity continued with the less practical fashion. But there has always been a double standardContinue Reading
Another Man’s Skirt Conversion
Readings On the History of Skirted Men
Little by little, journalists, sociologists, and artists are looking into the history of skirted men and sharing their findings:
- Bustle: The History of Men & Skirts
- 1883 Magazine: Men in Skirts
- NY Metropolitan Museum of Art: Bravehearts: Men in Skirts
- Victoria and Albert Museum: Men in skirts
Media Coverage of Skirted Men
Instances of men wearing skirts in non-traditional regions is nothing new, but now the world is starting to take notice. Continue Reading
A Guy’s Guide to Great Skirts
Words do not adequately describe a skirted man’s enhanced comfort in the sweltering summer months. While comfort is an enormous justification for donning a work-appropriate skirt, comfort is neither the sole benefit nor the sole justification, as I have pointed out in “Why I Wear Skirts” and other posts about men and skirts. Skirts need not be frilly, froufrou, or feminine, and skirts can indeed be very masculine if a person first understands the basic design characteristics and uses this knowledge to make some sensible selections.Continue Reading