Why Do Some Take Such Offense...

[The Volusianator]

If you wear because you like the way it looks, that in garners you attention, or you are trying to make some modern statement - then it is a skirt. If you wear it because your ancestors fought, bled, and sometimes died in it and for it - it is a kilt.

Honestly, I don't think anything could be further from the truth. A garment won't change names because of one's ancestory. I get how religious some of you are in this, but a kilt is a kilt and a skirt is a skirt. I'm not Roman, but if I wear sandals are they called boots then?

[nagod]

i just take comments in the spirit its offered and respond in kind.

[Taygrd]

Then I wear a skirt.

I have to admit it looks pretty cool matching the motorcycle

[The Volusianator]

I have to admit it looks pretty cool matching the motorcycle

My kilt or my skirt?

[Taygrd]

My kilt or my skirt?

Okay you got me-both!

[Geoff Withnell]

If you wear because you like the way it looks, that in garners you attention, or you are trying to make some modern statement - then it is a skirt. If you wear it because your ancestors fought, bled, and sometimes died in it and for it - it is a kilt.

So the many folk on this forum who do not have Scottish ancesters are not wearing kilts!? That seems kinda harsh to me.

[biblemonkey]

I get bugged by those comments but most of the time it comes from women who honestly don't know better. Men almost always call it a kilt when they see me in it. To the women who misspeak I typically respond kindly and with patience as they speak from ignorance rather than malice and they are almost always complimentary rather than mean. I usually tell them it is a kilt and thank you.

If being teased by my less secure male friends and they say "nice skirt" I say "thanks, I like it".

[Nighthawk]

I had some moron sarcastically say to me "I support you!" I asked "Oh! You support cultural equality? How progressive!" He said "Cross dressing isn't cultural." I explained the kilt to him... and he said "I know what it is. It's a f**king skirt, and only fags and cross dressers would wear one." Should I tolerate that? Personally, I'm not one to put up with stupid people being stupid. Ignorance can be fixed with education. We're all ignorant in some way, and I have had numerous occasions when someone has said to me, in an honest and sincere way, "That's a beautiful skirt." I have corrected those people by telling them what it is and what means to me, and both they and I have had pleasant experiences from it. I just have never been one to put up with people attempting to publicly humiliate others. I would never dream of calling a man wearing African clothing a porch monkey. I simply expect the same courtesy. I grew up with a Scottish grandmother, and one reason I wear the kilt is because she loved them and believed that her culture was worth preserving. The kilt is a thing that is a distinct matter of pride to me and I do not appreciate people demeaning either me or it. And then of course, there's the fact that referring to it in a derisive way also demeans women, as if a skirt is in some way degrading or beneath me. It's insulting and inappropriate on numerous levels.

If you wear because you like the way it looks, that in garners you attention, or you are trying to make some modern statement - then it is a skirt. If you wear it because your ancestors fought, bled, and sometimes died in it and for it - it is a kilt.

A rose by any other name would still smell as sweet, as the Bard once said. My sister in law says that if it's outside of Scotland, it's a skirt. It doesn't magically change from one thing or another based on wearer or geographic location. By that logic, if I were to take a French poodle to Germany, it could transmute into a Doberman if I wanted. Or if I were a German walking a French poodle, I claim it to be a rotweiller. Explain that logic to me, 'cause I don't get it.

[Cygnus]

By the dictionary definition, a skirt is "a separate free-hanging outer garment [...] covering some or all of the body from the waist down" - the definition of a kilt is "a knee-length pleated skirt usually of tartan worn by men in Scotland and by Scottish regiments in the British armies" (emphasis added).

I have no problem with that - especially considering that the definition goes out of its way to say that the kilt is a man's skirt (at least in Scotland and the military - it's not clear what it's called out of that context).

Going by the dictionary definition would also make the great kilt a dress.

[biblemonkey]

I had some moron sarcastically say to me "I support you!" I asked "Oh! You support cultural equality? How progressive!" He said "Cross dressing isn't cultural." I explained the kilt to him... and he said "I know what it is. It's a f**king skirt, and only fags and cross dressers would wear one." Should I tolerate that? Personally, I'm not one to put up with stupid people being stupid. Ignorance can be fixed with education. We're all ignorant in some way, and I have had numerous occasions when someone has said to me, in an honest and sincere way, "That's a beautiful skirt." I have corrected those people by telling them what it is and what means to me, and both they and I have had pleasant experiences from it. I just have never been one to put up with people attempting to publicly humiliate others. I would never dream of calling a man wearing African clothing a porch monkey. I simply expect the same courtesy. I grew up with a Scottish grandmother, and one reason I wear the kilt is because she loved them and believed that her culture was worth preserving. The kilt is a thing that is a distinct matter of pride to me and I do not appreciate people demeaning either me or it. And then of course, there's the fact that referring to it in a derisive way also demeans women, as if a skirt is in some way degrading or beneath me. It's insulting and inappropriate on numerous levels.



A rose by any other name would still smell as sweet, as the Bard once said. My sister in law says that if it's outside of Scotland, it's a skirt. It doesn't magically change from one thing or another based on wearer or geographic location. By that logic, if I were to take a French poodle to Germany, it could transmute into a Doberman if I wanted. Or if I were a German walking a French poodle, I claim it to be a rotweiller. Explain that logic to me, 'cause I don't get it.

Hey Nighthawk,

If someone doesn't get what you mean and wants to play devil's advocate for the "skirt callers" then just let them. For you and I it is a cultural and special thing that our grandmothers appreciatte and admire and that is all we need. Let those who wish wear a "kilted skirt" I'll just stick with my plain old kilt. A woman wears a skirt a man wears a kilt just like a woman wears a blouse and a man wears a shirt.