Men in skirts - why don't more men wear skirts?

[CervixSampler]

At the risk of a bun fight this is a genuine question.
I was at a rock festival yesterday and there were a few men in skirts rocking the whole steampunk look. One guy was in a red tartan kilt but I didn't get a good look at the rest of his outfit-he was quite different to the others dressed in steampunk. I think it was a denim jacket. These men looked amazing and it got me thinking as to why when women now wear trousers (as opposed to historically predominantly being in dresses and skirts), that men don't wear skirts to the same extent. Is it socialisation? Blatant sexism? Practicalities? Lack of availability outside of cosplay type retailers? I prefer trousers/jeans because I hate my legs, I'd end up with it caught in my knickers, thigh rub, the whole tights/stockings/socks/footwear issue and my tendency to sit legs akimbo. I love dresses but sadly we aren't compatible.

My ds is 6 and chose to wear a flower crown. There were plenty of men also wearing these. A Slayer T-shirt and a flower crown combo is an unusual look on a man but no one batted an eye. Maybe festivals are some kind of alternative universe in general where people are more likely to flout restrictive norms for clothing? Whatever it is I found it fantastic.

I'm just watching How To Train Your Dragon for the millionth time and I've only just noticed that a few of the male characters wear skirts or in the case of Fishlegs a kind of shift dress.

I can see myself going down a history of clothing rabbit hole with this but yesterday really piqued my interest and got me wondering why it's acceptable for women to wear trousers but not for men to wear skirts/dresses.

When I went to fort William loads of strapping men in kilts.

Really good for walking/ mud etc. Trouser bottoms get wet. Kilt long socks boots v practical.

Loads of Scottish blokes at work parties in kilts.

It's a tradition and a cultural norm.

It's nothing more than that why they don't wear garments like that in England.

And yes they look v nice as well.

'And if he was wearing knee-length leather shorts?'

I've also seen men in these lederhosen style shorts walking in the mountains in Austria.

Again- more practical than trousers for that.

Clothes are massively different around the world. For men and for women.

I don’t know. There was a guy in the craft store the other day wearing a skirt. Real manly, man kind of guy. Beard, tattoos, piercings and a canvas skirt with tons of pockets. He definitely wasn’t my type, but I have to say he looked good. The skirt really suited him. There is something really attractive about someone choosing an unusual piece of clothing and just owning it as their own.

Axel rose
Nicky wire
Bowie

Have all rocked skirts/ dresses

Because most men in the uk (outside of very specific cultural wear) are aware that wearing a skirt would possibly open them up to ridicule. Most people don’t want to be picked on, and want to fit in with their peers.

And having grown up in Scotland, kilts aren’t every day wear in most places. You might see men in kilts at weddings or very occasionally other events but it’s certainly not like Brahead shopping centre is rammed with men on kilts.

As someone above said, they aren't available in shops.
Maybe specialist, steampunk stores, but not high street shops.
So if they wanted to wear them they would have to seek them out, and it would be limited to a particular style.
DH often says he wishes he could wear one in summer when it's super hot.
I never get it when people say they are impractical. I wear jeans a lot of the time. They are totally impractical - not comfy, limit movement. Skirts are much freer, but I very rarely wear one.

Scots men wear skirts. Muslim men wear skirts/tunic dress style.
Some do.
Personally as a woman, shorts and trousers are more comfortable

@NiceGerbil

Axel rose Nicky wire Bowie

Have all rocked skirts/ dresses

Bowie only wore a dress as part of his act, not in his own life. Don't know about the other two but men wearing skirts/dresses are not that unusual in entertainment.

It's because there's still a huge amount of shame in men dressing/acting like women, because in all aspects of life we're seen as inferior to men. There is no shame at all in women wanting to be more like men, because they're awesome 🙄 It's a bit different for the lgbt community, because they're already marginalised and seen as inferior anyway.

In practice though, there is a dad at school who wears a denim utility type kilt sometimes and no one actually bats an eyelid. Similarly I know straight men who paint their nails, wear (subtle) makeup, shave their armpits etc - no one really gives a shit what other people do these days, so long as they're not hurting anyone else 🤷‍♀️

@Kanaloa

And having grown up in Scotland, kilts aren’t every day wear in most places. You might see men in kilts at weddings or very occasionally other events but it’s certainly not like Brahead shopping centre is rammed with men on kilts.

I know- kilts are special occasion wear and rugby matches at Murrayfield. A man wearing a kilt as everyday wear wouldn't raise eyebrows but it rarely happens.

@NiceGerbil

Axel rose Nicky wire Bowie

Have all rocked skirts/ dresses

Bowie's outfits were stage outfits and weren't dresses.

There are a couple of obviously staged magazine photoshoots of him wearing a dress- and even then it's more of a coat/ gown type affair than a Laura Ashley flower print.

I was talking to DS15 about this yesterday.

To an extent jt is a social taboo but i do think there is an actual anatomixal reason:

Weeing in public before toilets were common!
Having to access and change menstrual protection.

Both mean trousers are impractical.
If you are a man wearing a long skirt youd have to lift the whole thing up to pee, if you are a woman you crouch down and can pee without exposing yourself.

Watch the film The Piano for graphic illustration, as well as Kate Winslet method acting the hell out of her woolen skirt in Ammonite.

Also check out Mick Jagger wearing a specially designed white Ossie Clarke dress at the original seminal Hyde Park Stones gig

@Missproportionate

Also check out Mick Jagger wearing a specially designed white Ossie Clarke dress at the original seminal Hyde Park Stones gig

A one off which he wore over trousers.

Ohhh, you couldn't use a urinal half as easily in a skirt, that didn't occur to me before. Pre pandemic I very rarely wore skirts as I cycle to work. Also tights are infernally itchy and uncomfortable.

I'm a woman and don't wear skirts.

it’s certainly not like Brahead shopping centre is rammed with men on kilts

Probably because kilts are expensive. I had a great uncle who wore a kilt as his 'casual' clothes, I can't remember ever seeing him in anything else. As he was a judge he wore trousers at work. As a student in Glasgow many moons ago there was a minority of men who seemed to live in DMs, kilts and big chunky fishermen jumpers. Kilts are actually more practical than trousers in many situations, the lack of men wearing skirts is purely fashion, nothing else.

We need more men like the fabulous Billy Porter. And Harry Styles! He makes feminine clothes look ultra cool and sexy.

KimokosNightmare
This is true, and tbh, people at the time didn't think he 'rocked it'. We thought he looked like a bit of a wally, and it set his career back as well, because no one would book him on TV for as a result.

@SheABitSpicyToday

We need more men like the fabulous Billy Porter. And Harry Styles! He makes feminine clothes look ultra cool and sexy.

Why? Men on the whole just don't want to wear skirts/dresses. If they did then there would be 'masculinised' versions of these garments. Designers have tried in the past, and there was just no interest. Society isn't any the worse for it. I think people on this forum overestimate the popularity of skirts/dresses amongst women, let alone men. Where I live, you only really see women wearing dresses in hot summer weather. The rest of the time it's trousers or leggings. Men tend to wear those loose longer length shorts in hot weather, I guess they're comfortable enough.

A few years ago Swedish train drivers started wearing skirts in a hot summer because they weren't allowed shorts and I was surprised at how good they looked in them.

If you want dresses with pockets look on outdoor/travel shops. Cotswold, mountain warehouse and many others do a good range as well as practical travel skirts.

^ forgot to mention the Orthodox Jewish ladies wear skirts all year round.^

It's just social custom. For the most part, it's the social custom for men to wear trousers rather than skirts, dresses, robes, sarongs, or what have you. There are a few exceptions, such as kilts in certain settings, but that's about it.

As a result, not a lot of dresses and skirts are available in styles designed for men's bodies. And when they do wear such things that don't fit their body, or which require things like padding,the aesthetic effect tends to be either a sense of gender bending, just looking effeminate, uncanny valley, or a hot mess. Most people aren't looking to make statements like that nor do they have a significant commitment to disrupting clothing norms.

Most men also don't feel the need to push the envelope in terms of spending a bunch of time trying to find dresses or skirts that do fit them. In the same way that most people don't go out of their way find clothes that are normally worn in another culture but not their own.

When you get to places like music festivals, basically you have a population with more than the average number of people who do want to push an envelope and spend time thinking about their clothing in that context. It's not just that more of those men are naturally drawn to skirts. If men normally worse skirts they'd be making some other statement.

I do think there are good historical reasons too as mentioned above.

In a lot of cultures where men and women dressed very similarly, you see that there were limits on construction and fabrics available for clothing. So something like a robe is pretty simple to make.

But trousers are more complicated and also in the past not easy or quick to get in and out of, as the legs were attached to the belt with laces when you dressed. Even taking a wee was tricky for men during some periods and involved some unlacing, but for women who might need to go more often and had to squat, who had to accommodate the changing body during pregnancy, had to manage menstruation, they'd have been completely and utterly impractical.

Buttons, hooks, zippers, stretch fabrics, tucks, plus the time to spend for regular people making clothing all make clothing options for different body types and needs much more flexible than they were in the past.