It's those closest to you who can be the biggest stumbling block.

[auld argonian]

Should anyone tell me that they would rather I did not wear a kilt, or anything else, to visit them or see them or attend one of their functions, well I would interpret that as them not wishing to have me visit them. As being unable to accept me as I am. To me there are no shades of grey here, either you accept me as I am or not at all.

Mark

...well, to expand a bit on the relationship with these particular friends...I've noticed a very interesting effect going on. They are well aware that I wear the kilt to other events...some of these events are connected with other aspects of my life and involve a lot of folks who run in, shall we say, somewhat different social circles...so I'm wearing a kilt to the opening of a new wing of a museum but I'm wearing jeans to their barbeque. There appears to be a bit of jealousy creeping into their reactions to this...it's like they now assume that I'm dressing down to come to their events. I try to be a nice guy but do I enjoy this wee bit of needling that seems to have evolved here. I'm getting them to reconsider their attitude and I don't have to do or say a blessed thing.

As a professional photographer, I've made a halfway decent living out of shades of grey. Don't know if I can apply good old Ansel Adams' (another AA!) Zone System to life but I can say that mine would be a lot less interesting without the shades of grey. I could think of nothing more boring than sitting around with a whole bunch of people who thought identically to me and I'd be out a lot of great relationships that have made me laugh and broken my heart If I ruled out the shades of grey.

Maybe I look at the kilt as a sort of Rorschach Test and find the way that everyone reacts to it to be interesting.


Best

AA

[Derek Conley]

I have to say that while I understand what you are saying here and totally respect your point of view on the matter, personally, "I don't give a damn", to quote that famous line.

Haha! Bravo!

[McFarkus]

I agree that the tartan kilt with the addition of the sporran clearly marks the garment as something apart from normal clothes. Those that don't know it's a kilt are more likely to ask rather than assume it's a skirt.

[###KILTEDKIWI###]

Now, this may be because they know me a whole lot better than J. Random Stranger on the street, so still I wonder at the general attitude. But it is disheartening. Especially at all the other stories of people's general approval. I had two people say to me this morning that it was a good choice for the weather...

Mate,

I feel that is because of where we live also. it is the same in NZ, and as we both know, the differences between our 2 countries are not alot, well apart from the fact that you have crawly things that will kill you and ewe's lot stole all of the sun and have ten times the populace.. any way sidetracking...

People in our ANZAC communities associate themselves as either, Australian, or as a New Zealander, not an aussie or kiwi of Scots, Irish, English etc decent. the majority of the european's here have never looked into their own ancestory, and would have no idea where in the world they come from, they just accept, that as an example their last name is say Mcleod (an easily identifible Scottish name), this to them is just a name just as smith, brown etc, and they would of grown up with people with similar names, macrae, macdonald, macgregor, irvine, sinclair, murray (as extreme examples) etc etc.
Personally, i feel that after the 2 wars, Aus' and NZ, were wanting to stamp their mark on the world, and didnt want to be seen as a dominion of the UK, and have done quite a lot of damage to disassociate themselves from their own roots, sadly.

so for them to accept you wearing the kilt, it would be a big stretch if they have no clue about their own origin.

[staticsan]

People in our ANZAC communities associate themselves as either, Australian, or as a New Zealander, not an aussie or kiwi of Scots, Irish, English etc decent. the majority of the european's here have never looked into their own ancestory, and would have no idea where in the world they come from, they just accept, that as an example their last name is say Mcleod (an easily identifible Scottish name), this to them is just a name just as smith, brown etc, and they would of grown up with people with similar names, macrae, macdonald, macgregor, irvine, sinclair, murray (as extreme examples) etc etc.
Personally, i feel that after the 2 wars, Aus' and NZ, were wanting to stamp their mark on the world, and didnt want to be seen as a dominion of the UK, and have done quite a lot of damage to disassociate themselves from their own roots, sadly.

so for them to accept you wearing the kilt, it would be a big stretch if they have no clue about their own origin.

Thats an insight I hadn't really explored before. Whilst Australians can be proud of their heritage, it is a sensitive social issue to enclave oneself in it and refuse to be a part of the wider Australian society. This sort of thinking might be what is really behind my mother's comment of "Australians don't wear kilts"...

The US doesn't really have that problem, I perceive.

Wade.

[###KILTEDKIWI###]

Thats an insight I hadn't really explored before. Whilst Australians can be proud of their heritage, it is a sensitive social issue to enclave oneself in it and refuse to be a part of the wider Australian society. This sort of thinking might be what is really behind my mother's comment of "Australians don't wear kilts"...

its like being asked by someone with the last name of Mackenzie why your wearing a kilt and they dont even know where they come from...happens to me all the time.

i dont have to tell you about our aussie / kiwi bloke culture I'm sure, rugby (union and league) / AFL, beers and cars - fords / holdens, thats about the limit of it for some of them...but wear something that is part of your tradition and heritage, its what a weirdo.
says the ford singlet wearing guy with the mullet and a can of VB firmly perched on an "esky" (thats a chilly bin for us normals)...