Scottish outlook on kilted Americans?

[OC Richard]

...the tourist "playing at being a Scot" attitude that so many members here find so confusing and irritating. However from our point of view it is a perfectly natural observation.

One of the reasons I wouldn't consider taking a kilt on a holiday in Britain is precisely that attitude, and the fact that all that stuff takes up valuable space!

As I've shared before, the only time I did wear a kilt in Scotland was when performing with a Pipe Band, and while walking from our performance in George Square to the nearest Underground station I was accosted by an elderly lady who demanded "WHERE are you FROM??" and when I answered "Los Angeles" she harrumphed "I THOUGHT so!" and stomped off.

(Next time I'll have to change into mufti immediately after our band is done playing, lest I again get caught before I can make it to the underground station!)

[Phil]

As I've shared before, the only time I did wear a kilt in Scotland was when performing with a Pipe Band, and while walking from our performance in George Square to the nearest Underground station I was accosted by an elderly lady who demanded "WHERE are you FROM??" and when I answered "Los Angeles" she harrumphed "I THOUGHT so!" and stomped off.

Oh dearie me! Not another transatlantic wimp, intimidated by a Scottish matron. Where did you leave your goolies then? God help any kilted Californians in Glasgow if that's the best they can manage. I know Glaswegians can be a bit forthright but surely Californians are up to that! Next time come to Edinburgh for a more civilised experience.

[Nick the DSM]

Oh dearie me! Not another transatlantic wimp, intimidated by a Scottish matron. Where did you leave your goolies then? God help any kilted Californians in Glasgow if that's the best they can manage. I know Glaswegians can be a bit forthright but surely Californians are up to that! Next time come to Edinburgh for a more civilised experience.

Or next time, play mute and use sign language. They can't tell then!

[Peter Crowe]

Peter, I think you and other Scots living abroad have a unique perspective on these posts. In 9+ years in the USA I'm sure you have a pretty good take on what it is to be an american. It must be interesting seeing the celebration of Scotland at local events such as the Highland Games.

It is Bluescelt! There are so many elements to it and my opinions on these festivals/Highland Games has altered since I first attended the New Hampshire Games at Loon Mountain back in 2000 when I spent the summer here with my then fiancee/now wife who is from Manchester MA, but was studying for a PhD at Glasgow Uni on Scottish philosophical and theological influences on America's history during the colonial era.

My observation of this is that it brings all sorts of strands of Scottish culture together at one particular time and locus outside their original social context in Scotland, which by default creates an image of Brigadoonerie. It's not that any of these strands in and of themselves are bad or terrible just that they visually create a pastiche of what Scotland and it's culture are really like. That being said, they are fun and colourful events.

My only real bugbear is seeing grown men combining military and civilian kilt attire with British and Commonwealth rank insignia. I have seen an older gentleman wear a Black Watch Kilt with a military style shirt with tartan pocket patches. two Pips (Stars of the Order of the Bath) and a Crown on each epaulette (full Colonel's insignia) with a Gordon Highlanders Glengarry and medal ribbons affixed to the shirt. I very much doubt if he was ever a member of a Scottish regiment far less the Colonel of one.

All in all though, I enjoy it for a day or two once a year.

[sailortats]

Phil, I, for one, very much resent your calling one of my fellow Americans a "transatlantic wimp". I believe an apology is in order.

[Bluescelt]

Yes Peter, I've also seen some people at games that stretch self-expression to the extreme.

[Nick the DSM]

Phil, I, for one, very much resent your calling one of my fellow Americans a "transatlantic wimp". I believe an apology is in order.

I believe not.

It was sarcasm.

[CMcG]

OK, as we are trying to help mutual understanding I will try to answer your questions, but please don't shoot the messenger! Actually the "Food For Thought" answers can give more than a clue here.

...

I think I have covered your questions and if I have not no doubt you will ask!!

I went back to have a second helping of F4T and F4T2 before returning to this thread. There are still some things that I would like to explore, if I can manage to ask the questions without causing offence again. I don't see this as beating a dead horse, rather it is in exercise in deepening mutual understanding.

Why is it that some Scots think that only people residing in Scotland, who are citizens of the UK i.e. "Scots" should wear the kilt and that they should only do so within Scotland's borders? That might be an extreme outlook, but I get the impression that there are people who think like that, so can anyone tell me how the thought process or the feelings involved work?

Wanting to reserve the kilt for people of Scottish ethnicity makes sense to me because it is based on ties of blood, culture, or both: the kilt is sort of inherited, for lack of a better word. Heck, even wanting to reserve the kilt for Highlanders makes sense to me, for the same reasons!

Perhaps I have just been brainwashed into putting too much emphasis on linking the tartans in our kilts to family lineages and clans? Nonetheless, I have to say that I am glad for the Scots (especially those wonderful folks involved in the Highland attire industry) who actively promote kilt wearing among people like me, with tenuous Scottish heritage and foreign citizenship, or even among people with no connection to Scotland whatsoever

[ThistleDown]

Why is it that some Scots think that only people residing in Scotland, who are citizens of the UK i.e. "Scots" should wear the kilt and that they should only do so within Scotland's borders? That might be an extreme outlook, but I get the impression that there are people who think like that, so can anyone tell me how the thought process or the feelings involved work?

Wanting to reserve the kilt for people of Scottish ethnicity makes sense to me because it is based on ties of blood, culture, or both: the kilt is sort of inherited, for lack of a better word. Heck, even wanting to reserve the kilt for Highlanders makes sense to me, for the same reasons!

Just the two questions for now. I have homes in Scotland and Canada, live in both places and carry two passports; perhaps I hear your questions a little differently than some of our members. I definitely hear the answers several of us have given quite differently than do most of our American members.

The first: there are Scots who think that only Scots should wear the kilt. I've met a few like that but have never heard more than their beating at the same drum over and over. Not much logic in it.

The second: I also know some who not only don't wear Highland dress outside Scotland, but don't wear it outwith the Highlands. I can't say I agree with that self-restricting viewpoint, but I don't argue since it causes me no personal difficulty.

There are no Scots who have contributed to this thread thus far who want either of the foregoing and, I think, none who wish the kilt restricted to those of Scottish (or, more limiting, Highland) "ethnicity". You have heard several of us go on about the multiple ethnic origins that make up Scotland today. In the space of this thread we can't explain our culture and the workings of our society to you. Come and live among us to understand. If that option isn't available to you, then read closely every time we put pen to paper; try reading between the lines, don't leap to conclusions and for heaven's sake stop telling us who we are. Some of us are bemused by the desire of other cultures to assume aspects of ours they find desireable and then make every attempt to impose changes.

As for the kilt itself, it "belongs" to the Highlands of Scotland but is not owned by Highlanders or Scots. The vast majority of us are just fine if others wish to wear it. If they would like to know how to do that in the manner of Highland tradition, there are some of us who will pass on what we know. It's knowledge learned at the knee, as it were, and not something newly acquired as it is for most on this forum. Sometimes we can't even tell you why something is done as it is -- it just is and can't/won't be changed at will, and certainly not because somebody somewhere else in the world wishes it.

Does that help at all, Colin?

[Derek]

I very rarely join in threads like this. But I just needed to say that I have worn my Cilt/Kilt throughout the UK from John o Groats to Landsend and throughout Ireland many many times, and I have never experienced any problems like some of the posts on here. I might as well had jeans on .. soz some of you have had problems .. I dont understand it.
Iechyd Da
Derek