Some people just don't know

[Anthony]

The father of my girl friends son came by the other evening to pick the boy up, I answer the door, we exchange greeting. He looked at my kilt, turned away, then looked back again so fast I thought his head would roll from his shoulders. After staring for a long moment I told him it's a kilt, he looked up smiled and said thats great its not what I thought it was.

He had heard the word "Kilt" and knew it to be Irish or Scottish or something like that, but had never seen one.

Which leads me to believe. At least some of the people that call a kilt a skirt, just don't know better.

[Magnus Sporrano]

I have been thinking that maybe it would be useful to have a 1 page PDF file to stick up on the outside of my cubical explaining what a kilt is for the people here that just don't know any better and might be afraid to ask.

[Anthony]

Magnus, thats a great idea.

[Robert Lamb]

I have been thinking that maybe it would be useful to have a 1 page PDF file to stick up on the outside of my cubical explaining what a kilt is for the people here that just don't know any better and might be afraid to ask.

Anthony::
Why not print up some business cards(small print of course) that you can hand out to the ignoranus persons who are ill informed about men's clothing.
Robert"the kilted" Lamb

[Highlander775]

I find it hard to believe that most people in the U.S. don't know what a kilt is or have never seen somebody wearing one.If one watches t.v. you have the Sierra Mist commercial that was shown during the Superbowl last year where the pipeband leader is looking for Wallace. On the History Channel R.Lee Ermy answered a viewer's question about the kilt being a legitimate military uniform while he was wearing one with his Marine Corp's.blouse.As a kid,I remember an episode of Bugs Bunny where he thought that he was saving a lady from being attacked by a monster who was really a bagpiper. :P There was also the Three Stooges episode that found them in Scotland.In the movie "The Last of the Mohicans" director Michael Mann(Miami Vice)had Scottish Highland Soldiers inserted into the story(not that there were many at Ft.William Henry,but because he thought that it looked cool 8) ).At the very least,people have a seen a parade on t.v. or in real life that has bagpipers.



"Bringing History To Life"

[Rigged]

Even if someone sees a kilt in a parade or on tv doesn't mean they know anything about the history or culture behind it. To many people it's just guys in plaid skirts marching in a parade.

And that's one of the issues I have with the "just wear it and everything will be fine" philosophy.

There's a huge amount of public education to be done and has to be done on the mass-culture level if we're ever going to get past kilt-wearing being an oddity.

Right now, we have no control over the message we're trying to put out. The best recent example I can give is the November 8th issue of People Magazine. There's a picture of an actor (I can't remember the guy's name) on page 14. He's shown with a good-looking female (they'd just gone for Chinese food).

The caption mentions that he's "making a fashion statement" wearing a kilt (it looks like a new black neo-trad Utilikilt), but asks if the bag he's holding is his purse.

We kilting folk don't have a media strategy, so we're at the mercy of the media, and they have none.

[GMan]

Education is definetly the key. Most people think that it is just part of a band uniform, a television show, or a commercial and do not know the history behind them. So seeing one in a different (daily) context gives them a reason to do a double take.

The longer I am kilted, the talking is becoming easier, and I can tell those who are sincere in wanting to know the reasons of why, to those who just want to show their ignorance.

[Rob Wright]

For most Americans kilts and bagpipes go together, they cannot concieve of the idea that people would actually wear them on a regular basis. Anything outside of their preconceived notion throws them through a loop and they start to think man in a skirt

We kilting folk don't have a media strategy, so we're at the mercy of the media, and they have none

And we always will be because we refuse to play into their preconcieved notions and therefor will not get aur due.

Rob Wright

[macwilkin]

Our Assistant Dean & I were talking today, and he told me that he heard a student talking to a group of his friends in the hallway yesterday. The first student said something to the effect of: "I'm going to get a kilt, because my heritage is Scottish." The Dean asked me if I had been making any "converts". :mrgreen:

Our St. Andrew's Society is helping a local school with their Scottish night in a couple of weeks, and I will be doing a presentation on "kilt wearing 101" as part of the program. The kids are really excited about it and are designing their own tartans as part of the lead-up to the program -- should be interesting to see what they come up with.

Cheers,

T.

[bubba]

A Spongebob Squarepants tartan?