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.

@YetAnotherSpartacus

Easily dealt with by black underpants

Or not sitting with their legs apart.

Perhaps. But black underpants would be safer.

Anyway, if men shouldn't look up women's skirts, then women shouldn't look up men's. . . .

Anyway, if men shouldn't look up women's skirts, then women shouldn't look up men's

Agree, and with upskirting being illegal with as much as a 2yr prison term, women should think twice before lifting up a man’s kilt.

Yeees so most agree it's a strong norm in England.

And not to do with practicality, spindly legs or any of the other things raised!

The point that men do have skirt/ dress type garments as standard wear around the world shows its cultural as well.

Oh and Kurt Cobain I mean the point is they can if they want but for some reason it's seen as massively subversive.

The reason for that can be seen on stag nights. Wearing things meant for women is outrageous and funny. Because what man would want to do that.

Women can wear even suits brogues and have short hair and while unusual it's not subversive in the same way at all, not as frowned upon.

Scots men don't wear underwear by tradition.

At a work event in Scotland an English bloke put his hand up a colleagues kilt and want expecting what he encountered.

No it's not on. Why would it be.

Kimikos
'Didn't David Beckham rock the sarong look one heatwave in the early 00s? Pity more men didn't adopt. Maybe next heatwave David can get out the old sarong and be photoed looking cool, see if a younger generation would go for it.'

Beckham could wear a sack and look terrific! In fact he could wear nothing at all... best not go there.

Maybe we could have a 'Go to work in a skirt' day for everyone, on the lines of this:

improveverywhere.com/missions/the-no-pants-subway-ride/

Beckham got the piss ripped massively for that though. Esp with blokes. They police each other so hard.

And back to looking good ... Sigh.

I mean loads of men wear loads of stuff that doesn't look good!

So why this keeps coming up I have no idea.

My mechanic sometimes wears a skirt and eyeliner, oh and paints his nails. I was a bit baffled the first time I turned up to get my car and he slid out from under it legs first in a purple velvet miniskirt, but I'm used to it now.

He's a very good mechanic and always talks to me about my car, instead of aiming his words at my (male) DP who can't even fucking drive This is more noteworthy to me than the miniskirt and eyeliner tbh. Several local garages have lost my custom due to being unable to comprehend that I'm both the sole driver and the sole owner of the vehicle!

Men in many cultures wear skirts and look very manly in them. A church full of hulking great Samoan rugby players for example.

@NiceGerbil

Re practicality if men don't wear them due to impracticality why are dress/ skirt type garments perfectly standard for men in other parts of the world?

Enjoying some of the responses to examples of men wearing skirt/ dress garments in public eye-
Oh that was for the stage
Yeah but they looked ridiculous!
Etc

Very strange!

Is a dress/ skirt on a man not a dress/ skirt on a man is it is seen as looking silly/ on the stage/ not Laura Ashley?!

In large part because what you are calling a skirt - basically a length of fabric wrapped around, or a robe type garment, involves less advanced/complicated sewing techniques.

Also climate plays a role.

Where there isn't the technology or time to create effective trousers, you don't see them. Where is is very hot or humid, more constricting clothes are not comfortable, or in some climates cloth will rot, or you get fungus etc, you will see looser garments (or none at all.)

In a cooler climate like much of Europe, trousers are a kind of advancement on hose or leg wrappings, which people wear anyway for warmth. As sewing technology advances you have trousers but for a long time they were more useful for men than women. And they overlapped with tunics significantly.

Where it's a cultural norm for men to wear skirt/ dress type garments it's because they're not at a developmental/economic/etc level to be able to get them easily and for reasonable cost?

Or because it's very hot/ humid and trousers are a risk for fungal infections?

Just checking I've understood.

Clothes often reflect climate, yes. Where clothing will rot quickly, such as in a jungle, you tend to see the traditional clothes being fairly minimal, for example.

There is also historical development in clothing technology. Trousers are more complicated than a robe or something like a sarong, as are shaped garments. Early trousers were really just leggins attached seperatly to a sort of garter around the waist for example. Trousers like we have today require things like zipper or buttons, which are rather late developments, and even fabrics make a difference in what you can produce too. If you are living at a subsistence level it will also make a difference to how much time you can spend on making clothing.

You can't understand why a particular culture has the clothing it does without looking at the climate. It's not chance that the British isles produced kilts made of yards of wool and waistcoats, and that they don't wear those things in the south of France, the Amazon jungle, or the Kalahari desert.

You don't count a garment with a trouser shape as a pair of trousers unless it has a zip or button?

As it goes in China and India these garments go back to well a long long time ago. They were worn by both men and women at different points!

Also ancient Greece I think it was.

I think you're saying those aren't trousers because of zip/ button?

And skirt/ dress like garments are worn by men only when their society is not developed enough to have invented zips and buttons. Or when it's humid like the jungle. But when men have the opportunity zipped/ buttoned trousers are their preferred choice for practical reasons.

I think I got the gist anyway!

Because women want to be seen as equivalent to men and men don't want to be seen as equivalent to women.
Because it's not yet socially acceptable. But give it a few more years and we will hopefully get there.

Skirts are much more comfortable than trousers, though I appreciate they're impractical in some situations, so I do feel a bit sorry for men that it's not socially acceptable to wear them.

Well the this is more comfy etc thing is to me a strange argument.

Depends on your build, what you do in daily life, whether you are wearing things that are flexible or not, what you can afford etc

Loads of women come on these sorts of threads and say skirts/ trousers are more comfy full stop. Some people find different things comfy. Or different things at different times.

There's no reason whatsoever for skirt/ dress type garments not to be worn by culturally English men apart from. Strongly imposed social norms. Because of the first point- hierarchy.

Women only wear trousers because they want to assert a feminist point?

Another very strong and very strange assertion!

Other cultures had trousers earlier, and not always made the same way as in Europe. And really, they were seen in Europe too in some areas early on, but not necessarily related to what happened later. You can't really generalize across cultures, they had their own clothing development based on their own situation, and things come and go over time too.

You don't need buttons or zips, but if you want the kinds of trousers we think of, all one piece, you need some way to hold them up, and before buttons and elastics and such people used various kinds of ties and toggles.

In Europe in the middle ages a lot of clothing was laced together, and trousers were often in separate parts. So you laced the legs onto the part around your waist. It took some time and bother. People didn't tend to have a lot of spare sets of clothes, either, to switch between as they wished.

It's much the same reason small kids and infants usually wore skirts, too. If you've ever tried to squat to have a wee in the woods in a pair of fitted jeans, it's easy to find yourself in a very awkward position flat on your ass. The advantages of trousers seem rather less under those circumstances.

I live on one of the hundreds of populated Pacific Islands. Skirts are common attire for men (not everywhere in the islands, but most places). They look gorgeous too.

@MiddlesexGirl

Because women want to be seen as equivalent to men and men don't want to be seen as equivalent to women. Because it's not yet socially acceptable. But give it a few more years and we will hopefully get there.

Skirts are much more comfortable than trousers, though I appreciate they're impractical in some situations, so I do feel a bit sorry for men that it's not socially acceptable to wear them.

Skirts are much more comfortable than trousers Are they? I find the complete opposite. I find it annoying having material flapping around my legs when I'm walking.It's nothing to do with being seen as 'equivalent' to men, because I wear women's trousers, often leggings, which men don't wear either. I don't feel sorry for men either, because I don't believe they secretly want to wear skirts.

Imagine the freedom their balls would have in a skirt. It would be like going braless. Au natural. Free Willy!!!

@MiddlesexGirl

Because women want to be seen as equivalent to men and men don't want to be seen as equivalent to women. Because it's not yet socially acceptable. But give it a few more years and we will hopefully get there.

Skirts are much more comfortable than trousers, though I appreciate they're impractical in some situations, so I do feel a bit sorry for men that it's not socially acceptable to wear them.

No, skirts are more comfortable for you. Don't make sweeping statements.

For me they allow my fat thighs to rub together and chafe horribly. I never wear dresses or skirts these days. Many of my friends are the same - those with fat thighs and those without. We find trousers and shorts more comfortable.

I imagine the same is true for some men too.

I don't feel sorry for men either, because I don't believe they secretly want to wear skirts.

As I said near the start of the thread, the taboo is so strong that it isn't even an option. Being an actual man, I suspect that a lot of us, when sweltering in a suit or even just shirt and trousers in the heat of summer, have looked at women floating around in thin dresses and thought they must be on to something. All I can say is that, personally, were it not for that taboo, I probably would wear skirts some of the time, but I'm not brave enough to face ridicule and/or be thought of as gay when I'm not. I suspect there are more of us than you think.

Men of course will also be subject to the scrutiny from certain feminists that they are only doing so for a sexual thrill.

No, skirts are more comfortable for you. Don't make sweeping statements

Oh ha ha, you must have missed the sweeping statements going the other and the countless sweeping statements on every other thread on this subject.

@KimikosNightmare

Men of course will also be subject to the scrutiny from certain feminists that they are only doing so for a sexual thrill.

Yep

Woman wears man's clothes = fashion statement

Man wears woman's clothes = pervert