A Man in a dress- how would you feel?

Because men’s interests are always prioritised above women’s, a whole industry has developed in supplying sexualised female clothing to appeal to men.There’s no real male equivalent, apart from a few male striptease groups.

And just who's made those industries a success? Women. Are you suggesting women are slaves to men's whims? They don't know their own minds? They have no individual agency? You seem to be suggesting women don't enjoy or feel the need to express their own sexuality. That they only engage in sex at the pleasure of men.

What a bizarrely delusional sexist take….for a 'feminist' forum.

You’re right - it’s you that’s become more conservative and less open-minded. It’s not that a whole group of people have all become more exhibitionist!

Women like wearing dresses. Why shouldn't men?

The first women to wear trousers were mocked and shunned. I would like to think society has moved on in the intervening years but from this thread it seems not.

Re paragraphs 2 and 3. This is exactly my experience.

In theory I would agree. But in the real world, some kinds of clothing are strongly associated with one sex or the other.

Because men’s interests are always prioritised above women’s, a whole industry has developed in supplying sexualised female clothing to appeal to men.There’s no real male equivalent, apart from a few male striptease groups.

So I would now presume the man was displaying his sex fetish. And I don’t like men feeling free to do that in public, because that opens the way to normalising other sexually transgressive behaviour, steadily increasing in severity.

And I’ve had enough of men feeling free to touch/ comment on/ rape/ threaten/ attack or otherwise abuse women.

I had a former colleague who used to wear a skirt out dancing 25 years ago and no one batted an eyelid.

Funnily enough since the recent trans debate I think I’ve become more conservative about such things. Now it seems to be bound up with a type of exhibitionism and identity politics that I abhor.

Oh well if you ASSUME the statistics back up your opinion and one other person’s experience case, case closed!

You're being highly disingenuous.

But that's saying more about you than anything else.

I highly doubt it.

Many men used to get abuse for being "men in skirts" when they were wearing the usual male attire for their culture, although the same critics were fine with Scottish men in kilts-as long as it was for a wedding. It's only relatively recently been accepted for women to wear trousers in some settings. This century, another woman advised me not to wear trousers for an interview!
Everyone should wear what they want. There are times when a mini skirt and high heels wouldn't be a sensible outfit, and it's never the most comfortable, but it's up to each person what they wear, not for me to judge unless it's a safety issue in my workplace.

Thirty years ago I had a very close friend whose husband usually wore a dress or a skirt or occasionally wore tight-fitting leggings. He was very irritable and aggressive, and often snapped at my friend in public about some trivial matter. So I didn’t like him, but his clothing didn’t bother me at all.

If anything, I liked men cross-dressing, because I innocently thought it was helping to break down sex stereotypes. I was amused that his ‘feminine’ side didn’t extend to feminine gentleness or kindness!

These days, after years of misogyny from the trans industry, I would feel very different. I would suspect all cross-dressing men of being potential voyeurs or exhibitionists who would trespass in women’s spaces.

Couldn't agree more.

Anecdotal instances don't qualify as data that you can draw any meaningful conclusions on. The idea that a lot of women's actions & motivations aren't sexually driven smells like internalised misogyny.

I don't know. I can only assume his "statistics" are drawn from people he knows. But I personally don't think it's a wayward notion. A lot of men's actions and motivations are sexually driven. Including wearing women's clothes which is hardly a new or shocking revelation.

Legally a man can wear a dress and some do there is zero stopping them.

No men can’t do whatever they want
clearly they can’t just wear a dresses because they like the feel of them
patriarchy does put expectations on them too

and if they want to wear a dress why not?

I will also pity a man who is a victim of assault. Or is in a car crash. Or has an allergic reaction to nuts. My pity allocation is not restricted to one sex only

I'd definitely regard it as a sexual fetish and I'd seek a divorce.

who the fuck pity’s men? they can pretty much do whatever they want when ever they want.
wear a dress do as they please but don’t expect me to not spot mental ill health.

And does Grayson have any evidence of this other than attempting to normalise himself?

Why should there be male appropriate clothing that excludes ( some styles of ) dresses?

why should we put artificial sex restrictions on people ? Surely the only things where sex should matter are things where sex actually matters

anything else is stereotypes and gender caging

If he didn't want to be called a woman and if he didn't want to invade women's spaces/sports/first prize for literature or whatever then in theory I'd be fine with it. But I still couldn't help but think it was a fetish. Grayson Perry noted in interview that 80% of men in dresses are doing so for arousal, including him. So given that I don't trust men any further than I can throw them when it comes to purely innocent motivation, that would be my instinct.

@brownbootsandhats why? Why is it a pity that males can’t wear dresses?
There are many versions of male appropriate loose dress like options?
Why the pity that they are ostracized for wearing certain types of dress style associated with women?

Well it might be a pity but that is where we are at present. A man putting on a dress is a statement. If a man just wanted to wear something that feels different there are robes and kilts which are definitely for men.