Women in Kilts

[Galant]

It's something I've thought about from time to time since I've entered this kilted world and I was wondering what people here thought about it - women in kilts.

Kilts being a male garment does anyone here get a little annoyed when women start wearing them? Are there women here who wear them? Perhaps women who will not wear them?

What would be a traditional alternative for women, kilted skirts?

Just curious, although I have to admit I do get a bit annoyed and frustrated when it seems there is very, very little that women wont leave alone - like the boy scouts or mixed sports teams. Oh for something that would be boys' own...is there nothing sacred?!

Perhaps I'm just hypersensitive in a society that is more and more trying to remove the differences between the genders.

[bear]

Here in Canada, The Boy Scouts have been ordered by the courts to allow girls.
It's just another way to stop men from having our rituals. Men need to get away with the boys, to have a rites of passage, to let a boy know what it is to be a man, from a man's point of view.
There are co-ed gyms and women's gyms. I don't know of a men's only gym in Vancouver.
We used to have a private men's social club. Women sued for discrimination on the grounds that business was being done and they were excluded. They won and The Vancouver Club now allows women.
These are not random acts of discrimination that are being fought. They are part of a plan to remake men to the preferences of scared women. If men can't get together without women around to censure the behaviour they don't like, they will be changed into plain old males. Drones. Sperm producing machines.
Wearing the kilt is a start to reversing this trend. Living as a man, not just a male, and teaching our sons how to be men is the only way to truly fight it.

[Phil Wright]

So what is the definition According to the dictionary a kilt is for males only, so it must be a tartan skirt for women. However, the wrap around style is also interpreted as being a 'kilt'?
No wonder it gets confusing
Phil

[beerbecue]

Hear, hear!! Bear...... Well said...

[M. A. C. Newsome]

Men and women are physically different. (If that comes as a shock to anyone here, I'm sorry). In terms of wearing the kilt, women simply have larger hips than men, which means that the tapering that you traditionally see in a man's kilt would have to be very much more pronounced in a woman's.

Now, is there any reason why a woman can't wear a kilt? I suppose not, technically speaking. But it is a male garment, and that needs to be considered. The only women I can recall seeing in kilts (true kilts) are those in pipe bands, and typically the whole uniform is male -- the shirt, the jacket, the tie, the whole thing. So she's wearing it as a uniform.

Come to think of it, I can't say that I've ever seen a woman just wear a kilt as normal attire. Now there is a tendency to call any pleated, wrap around skirt a "kilt" but this is due to the superficial similarity between that style skirt and the man's garment. But in quality and construction, they simply are not kilts, but skirts.

What most women wear, who attend Scottish events and want to wear a tartan, is a "kilted skirt" which is made of a light weight tartan, has much more shallow pleats, is usually machine sewn, and closes opposite a man's kilt. It also can be worn any length, from full length to micro-mini.

Aye,
Matt

[Geoduck]

I've been kind of bitter for some time that women's traditional lacrosse uniforms include a 'kilt'. The terminology is incorrect, but the perception is still there. I'm sure those up in the northeast might be albe to expound on this, as the girls uniforms changed to shorts at my school before I started playing for the boys team.

[Tim Walker]

Formal organization may have to be set aside for the foreseeable future. Instead, networking for informal events.

Regarding comments on other threads-I would vote against dragging the kilts through the mud. Perhaps wear a loin cloth or sarong? Then shower and change into the kilts.

[Alan H]

The issue is somewhat difficult when you talk about a more traditional tartan, three-buckle closure kilt. The difference between that and a woman's kilt skirt is clear to most of us, but not to most other people. However, when you start making changes to the trad kilt like velcro closures, lighter weight fabric, less material and so on, it starts getting tough to tell the difference in any way except the cut and shaping.

Now, take a non-tartan kilt like Utility kilt or Freedom kilt and the differences between them and a skirt gets REALLY blurry, if you ask me. However, that doesn't bother me very much.

Honestly, while it's a really good question...or rather, the BIGGER question of "is there anything left in society that is inherently male?" is a good question... The "is it a skirt or a kilt?"" issue for me is irrelevant. It wasn't irrelevant until I started wearing one and was forced to really think about it. When I was **considering** wearing one, it was extremely relevant! Just go look at my posts on Xmarks of two months ago! The upshot is, I'll wear what I darned well please, and THAT independence of mind is what I consider to be male. What the shape of the piece of cloth that I wear around my loins is like seems to me somewhat irrelevant.

For that matter, women should have the same outlook. They should wear what THEY darned well please. It's not the CLOTHING that's being "taken from men" if you like to look at it that way. It's the independence of thought that's being removed. THAT is worth fighting for. Oh yeah....THAT is more than worth fighting for.

I'd say it this way. If the girls want to join the Boy Scouts, then how come the boys don't want to join the Girl Scouts? If women file suit to join a men's club, then how about a few men file suit to join the local women's club? You know...just on principle.

Anyway, this is just me, I know a whole lot of men don't feel this way at all.

[Tim Walker]

Could kilts become associated with male bonding, if worn as part of rituals?

[elkdoc]

Anyway, this is just me, I know a whole lot of men don't feel this way at all.

But they should...