Sarong or So Wrong?

[CDNSushi]

And really, that's what this comes down to. Clothing is an identifier of who you are. It always has been. And while there is no particular "rule" against it, wearing the clothing of another culture that one has no ties to is, as Jock Scot might say, "just not done" in most circles.

I think that's probably what a lot of it comes down to... But that being the case, why have SOME elements of cultural identification become commonplace outside their paradigm of origin and others not? Why jeans but not Russian fur hats? Why thong-style sandals (or flip-flops) but not kimono?

But that's not quite the same as walking around speaking with a fake Italian accent, saying "Ciao" to everyone I know, and riding a Vespa while wearing a long scarf. (OK, OK, I know that's a pretty laughable stereotype, but you get my point.) People would likely look at me funny and ask if I'm part Italian or if I lived there. Not that there's any rule against it, but it's just "not done" amongst normal people.

Well, we can break that one down a little bit though. As you said: "fake Italian accent" is just that. Fake. Whereas everything else about the scenario you described, riding around on a Vespa, wearing a long scarf and saying "Ciao" are not fake, and in my mind, perfectly acceptable.

But that's quite different than doing as the Romans do when one has never been to Rome, doesn't know any Romans, and just arbitrarily decided to act like a Roman because it's fun.

And so we come full circle. And that is precisely what Jock Scott talks about when he looks at those of us who choose to wear kilts and wonders, "***." I would imagine that a good number of kilt-wearers on this forum have never visited Scotland... Which, while being perfectly acceptable in my books, is strange to some, and even blasphemous to others... Except that I don't believe we are playing at being Scots any more than I am playing at being Italian by driving a Vespa, wearing a long scarf, and saying Ciao... Now if I suddenly adopted an Glaswegian accent "just coz..." then I think that crosses the line between appreciating what a culture has to offer and being a poseur.

I would never engage in, nor condone, the type of berating that some people do over these things. But surely you understand why people might hesitate to adopt the dress of a culture that they have no ties to, simply out of a sense of common social grace?

Yup. But again, what baffles me more than anything is the selectivity of it... Why some aspects of cultural adoption are acceptable and commonplace and others are not. For instance, sarongs have most CERTAINLY been adopted as common attire outside of Southeast Asia.... for WOMEN. But not so much for men. Why not? I still think western society has this pervasive, morbid FEAR of all things feminine or that are associated with femininity. A subset of that is homophobia, but I think it transcends that. Certainly there are many more issues at play here, but as we are talking specifically about sarongs here in the context of a kilt-wearers' forum, which is a subset of a broad spectrum of male unbifurcated garments, I think it's relevant and fair to think about this issue and the impact that many traditional views on gender and sexual preference have not only on one's own wardrobe, but perception of others in public. This, more than anything I think infects the acceptability of wearing certain items, far more than the culture of origin.