How does what "they" think affect what you wear?

[RayMc]

OK, here goes... by far the worst comment I've ever gotten was at my campground after returning from the Highland Games in Northampton, MA.
"So, where are the rest of the village people?" If I had drunk one more Tenet's I would have dropped him on his back. Ah well, such is life when kilted I suppose.

As many have said, I do always seem to be very polite and well behaved while kilted, it is truly an unconscious occurence.

The other day I took my teenage daughter on an errand about 4 towns away. On the return trip we stopped by a rather crowded roadside ice cream stand. The only reaction I saw was tennage boy look at his girlfriend and give her the international shoulder shrug sign for "beats me why this guy is dressed that way"

[kc8ufv]

Kids amuse me the most. A friend's 4-year-old girl was just baffled I was wearing a dress... "But you're a guy!" Her mom and I had fun explaining the difference between a kilt and a dress.

Kids say the darndest things. This past weekend, I went to the Saline Celtic Festival. I'd approximate about 1/3 of the guys there were in a kilt (mostly tartan) I was in my UK original, and this approx 5yo girl walks up to me and asks why I'm wearing a skirt. I explained I was wearing a kilt, as were many other guys there. She quickly ran back, and I heard her mom explain the same, and that kilts are clothing guys wear.

[R.S.L. Kiltwearer]

I live in a area in SLC, UT that has a lot of Polynesians wearing there lava lava and or there sarong. so you would think it would not shock people to see a man in a kilt.... but it does.
i mostly get the ignorant comments from upperclass white high school or JR high boy's, who will always turn tail and run when you turn back to them
and every now and then one of the Polynesian kids will make comment about it being a skirt. that one just baffle's me

[Bill]

Hello All!

This has been quite an interesting thread and I've enjoyed the various comments.

I'm a long time kiltie and since my retirement I am kilted more often than not.

My wife and I have helped take care of a young lad since he was born eight years ago at the end of this month. Our "nephew's" mom and Dad have been apart since shortly after he came into this world and he shunts back and forth between the two. Now his dad is a bona fide redneck in the worst sense of the term and has told the boy that "all I needed was a bra" and refers to the kilts I wear as those silly skirts. "Dad" calls anything outside what he concieves as manly as something only a "fag" (my apologies it's his term not mine) categorizing even soccer players as such.

Normaly this stuff I ignore taking into consideration the source of the slur but it bothers me mightly that he is trying to teach the boy the bigotry and intolerance he ascribes to. I try to be a good model for our "nephew" but I'm drawing blood biting my tongue over this. My kilted bretheren I'm open to suggestions on this one.

In our town of about 20,000 I've only had mild occasional jibes and tons of compliments when I wear the kilt, and the little old ladies at Church love it and so do the young ones! LOL! My wife recently told a neighbor up the street "we've been married 37 years and he all man!" The neighbor's boyfriend commented "I think it's cool!" which earned him the "look". I'm still laughing at that one. I see I've forgotten to interject the nieghbor's crack about my kilt wearing. It was "I wouldn't let a man of mine go about looking like that. Why do you let him it's so wierd!."

Well I'll hush up now and go back to listening for awile.

Slainte' M'Hath
Bill
"Trousers are a western absurbity." Arthur C. Clark SF author and scientist

[Dale Seago]

No doubt others will have different solutions, but I'd contrive to somehow get into the lad's Dad's hands a copy of the English-language version of the proclamation announcing the repeal of the act proscribing Highland dress.

Particularly the part about the non-kilted attire of "the Lowlander", including of course those even further south, as "unmanly".

In other words, the kilted Highlanders regarded those like the lad's redneck dad as "fags".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dress_Act_1746

But then, I'm often fond of stirring up trouble with bigots. I especially enjoy the fact that they have to deal -- when they're dealing with me anyway -- with arguments on their actual merits.

As expressed in my "tag line" on a couple of other forums,

“I think it's easier to see others as simply human beings like yourself, without being frightened/intolerant of them and their differences (religious, cultural, sexual, whatever), when you know you can cripple or kill them before they have a clue what just happened. It enables you to be more sensitive, closer to being able to embrace all of humanity.”

[Bugbear]

Oh dear... Could we just snuggle instead?

[kc8ufv]

Oh dear... Could we just snuggle instead?

That's a terrific idea. Let's all just snuggle.

[weepeskythistle]

Plus very few people are brave enough to mess with a 6' 2" 250 lbs. man in a kilt.

Very few perhaps but some are brave enough. (:

[James Hood]

In this opinion, the saddest aspect of critics of a kilted man (or for that matter, the dress of anyone "different" than them), is how afraid they are in their own pathetic nano-world, they "must" strike out at another to rationalize that fear, at least for that moment.

[Guinness>water]

It is very interesting to see peoples reaction to me wearing a kilt. Its all good or all bad, no in between. Some men come up and say "Thats awesome, thanks for wearing it" or I get "Pinche Joto"(translation: F'ing Homo) from our Mexican immigrants.

Even with the very strong of a personality that I have, it does still affect me. The harassment makes me question if I feel like putting up with it that particular day. I wish kilted men were such a normal sight that it went completely unnoticed. That would be fine with me.

I feel more manly when I wear a kilt and I love that I am able to represent my ancestry. I also enjoy the opportunity to explain what tartan I am wearing and where my name comes from. People wanting picture doesnt bother me too bad, as long as they ask and do it in a respectful manner. However, people (usually kids) walking behind me making funny faces and trying not to get caught taking the picture does bother me. There are plus'es and minuses, its up to us to weigh weather its worth the trouble or not.