Two Telling comments? The Answer Perhaps?

[CMcG]

... Anyway during the course of conversation, Sally said to Harry that she wished that Harry would wear the kilt more often when at home, like he used to. He would be dressed very much like Johnthebiker's picture in the "wearing the kilt in Scotland" thread. Then came the first bombshell! " I am not going to look like a tourist in my own country" replied Harry in a quite serious voice. Then came the second bombshell! "Oh come off it Harry you don't look anything like a tourist when wearing the kilt!" Reproached Sally gently......... and on went a very pleasant evening.

...

What do you think?

I agree with the thread title that these two comments are very telling. Thanks for posting this, @Jock Scot. The more I think about this, the more troubling I find it

A quick Google image search for "Scotland tourism" shows: castles, crags, glens, and, of course, kilts. From what I hear, the souvenir shops are loaded with "tartan tat." It's no wonder that tourists end up with a commercial, romantic, and kitschy view of Scots and Scotland. It isn't just being spoon fed to them, it's being rammed down their throats

This process of packaging and promoting Scottish heritage is a double-edged sword. Tourism and tartanry is good for business, but it also contributes to cultural cringe among resident Scots.

In an article about the Görale highlanders of the Podhale region of Poland, Tim Cooley* discusses the ritualized aspect of folklore festivals created out a combination of nation building and tourist trade. The parallels with Scotland are strong here when he analyzes the "riots of preservation vs. invention" where "performed tradition becomes the tradition; the representation becomes the actuality" (2006:73).

The hire industry is not innocent in all this either. We know that most kilt-wearing men in Scotland only do so for special events and that many of them rent their kit. The hire companies are just as wrapped up in a cultural power struggle of representation as the tourist trade, they just happen to market more to resident Scots.

I see this as serious stuff. The way that people choose to represent themselves to others through their clothing speaks volumes about their worldview, values, and beliefs. This is especially significant in the case of national and/or ethnic attire where the way one person dresses can reflect back on an entire group.

"Harry" doesn't want to be associated with the clueless, misguided tourists. Hopefully he doesn't want to be lumped in with the kilt hire crowd either, who are being sold an equally commercialized image. I can't blame him, really.

"Sally's" point rings all the more true, when she suggests that "Harry" doesn't "look anything like a tourist when wearing the kilt!" Take note of this all ye who wish to tread on the side of tradition and heritage. I suppose even those who like kilts for their pure sartorial value would be wise to avoid the tourist (or rental) look...

The negotiation of some of Cooley's oppositions like "preservation versus invention, spurious versus authentic" (2006:68) in any cultural practice is thoroughly fraught, as can be seen from **Hugh Trevor-Roper's (1983) article "The Invention of Tradition: The Highland Tradition of Scotland," where he interogates the impact on THCD of Rawlinson, Culloden, the regiments, Sir Walter Scott, George IV's 1822 visit, and the Sobieski-Stuarts. This is why our discussions on Xmarks surrounding these issues can—and should—be ongoing. In a pluralistic, transnational situation, we can hope for a dialectical result that gives us a greater understanding than any single position could allow.

But it would be a shame if Dark Overlords of Tartan Tat and Evil Kilt Rental Conglomerates were to dominate Highland attire and its meaning, wouldn't it?

Perhaps we Xmarkers have not only a vested interest in wearing the kilt well and in appropriate situations, but actually a duty to do so?

The most terrifying aspect of the anecdote Jock shared, however, is that "Harry" feels strongly enough about this that he is willing to disregard the wishes of his longtime girlfriend when she wants him to kilt up more often

Apologies for the academic bent of the above. I'm in the throes of writing my dissertation





*Cooley, Timothy J. 2006. "Folk Festival as Modern Ritual in the Polish Tatra Mountains." In Ethnomusicology: A Contemporary Reader, ed. Jennifer Post, 67–84. New York: Routledge.
**Trevor-Roper, Hugh. 1983. "The Invention of Tradition: The Highland Tradition of Scotland." In The Invention of Tradition, ed. Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger, 15–42. University of Cambridge.