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Original poster

Unusual fashion

32 replies

dimaggio · 18/02/2011 21:27

This is something I have heard from my DD (13, goes to an all girls school in the West End). The story is both going to school and their lunch break she and her friends have seen a man actually wearing a skirt (def not a kilt but a jacket and knee-length skirt), usually around Byres Road, Observatory Road or the Botanic Gardens. They don't know if he was deliberately trying to let children see him or looking around like to say 'look at me' but my instinct is that he was. I didn't believe her at first, but her friend's mother said it was true.

Has anyone else heard such a thing? Don't know what to make of it. From what I can tell no-one has found it alarming, maybe highly amusing. Just sounds creepy to me.

I know there have been some dodgy threads on MN along these lines but this is a true story. Feel free to private message if you prefer.

OP posts:
mmsmum · 19/02/2011 17:40

Does he wear a turban? Reading your op made me think of a man who wears a turban and what looks like a skirt because he wears a jacket. I don't know what he's actually wearing underneath. But at 13 I think the girls would be able to tell if it was ethnic dress., although the man I'm thinking of does look a bit odd.

Remeber it is byres road and anything goes lol

If you and other parents are concerned tell the school and ask them to see for themselves and see what they think

AgentProvocateur · 19/02/2011 17:49

There's a distinctive man in a skirt and make up with green dyed hair who hangs around Starbucks in Buchanan st, and sometimes in the botanics. I think he may be mentally ill, but seems harmless and not at all creepy or pervy.

He makes no attempt to look like a woman - he's definitely a mannin a skirt.

Original poster
dimaggio · 19/02/2011 20:17

Thanks both of you. Just spoke to DD and neither of those sound the same. Apparently the skirt was navy with pleats all round (like a workwear or schoolwear skirt), once worn with black tights and another with blue kneesocks. Other than that he looked a typical Glasgow guy from other clothes and physical appearance.

You seem to think this is OK as long as there is no inappropriate behaviour of another description. You can't really report someone just for crossdressing in public can you?

OP posts:
Normantebbit · 19/02/2011 20:30

I've seen a cross dresser in a cafe and supermarket' in Byres Road once or twice. Older guy with a red coat. Totally harmless. I don't know why you would report it, it's a free country isn't it?

AitchTwoOh · 19/02/2011 20:39

i don't know for sure whether she is a cross-dresser or a transexual, but i would say that she is a transexual, who must live or work in the west end because she is here often.

i have, tbh, seen notre dame girls be very unkind to her, sniggering etc, so i would hope that your dd will not join in with that if that's her school. it must be an absolute curse to be born in the wrong body, the last thing you would need is ignorant little girls making a mockery of you just for trying to get on with your life.

as a matter of interest, by 'your instinct', do you mean your prejudice? because you really don't have anything to go on here, other than someone masculine wearing a skirt in an unashamed manner.

AitchTwoOh · 19/02/2011 20:40

if that's her school, that is, and we are talking about the same person. long or short hair?

Original poster
dimaggio · 19/02/2011 20:50

Well it was news to me at first but your replies suggest it is neither as rare or bizzarre as the girls are making out. Don't know about the hair, will ask. She thinks he looked a 'studenty' person (plausible in that area at least).

OP posts:
Original poster
dimaggio · 20/02/2011 20:26

DD can't really remember about the hair but she thinks short, ie not disguising as a woman in any way other than the skirt.

Yes it is ND school, not hard to figure out really. The 'sniggering' sadly wouldn't surprise me and it's something I want to broach with DD and her friends, but do we expect girls this age to be clued up on transsexuals etc? I wasn't until I saw your replies and did some research.

AitchTwoOh, can you remember where you saw this treatment from the girls, eg a particular shop/cafe? DD also mentioned Ruthven Street, just round the corner from Greggs.

OP posts:
AitchTwoOh · 20/02/2011 20:45

i would totally expect girls her age to be if not clued-up exactly, certainly to have heard of people with gender issues.

tbh it doesn't sound like the same person, and i have seen the nd girls bully their peers like they bullied this woman before (i've seen cat-calling a couple of times), and have had to phone the school about it before. they don't seem to realise that some of us are watching, i think.

AgentProvocateur · 20/02/2011 20:49

TBH, even if they weren't clued up about transsexuals etc, I'd expect them to know how to behave in public, including not sniggering at anyone because they were different.

I had an unpleasant experience last summer with a group of girls from ND. I was in the Botanics filming some scenes with a group of young people with Down's syndrome. Some ND girls decided to shout offensive names at them, starting quietly, then getting louder (in the style of Dick and Dom's "Bogies"). I then went on holiday and changed jobs when I came home, so I didn't ever get round to writing to the head to complain. I wish I had.

I know it will be only a minority of students who are like this (and I'm sure your daughter isn't one of them) but the girls are so identifiable that such incidents reflect badly on the school as a whole. Perhaps the school / parents need to do more work on accepting and respecting people's differences.

Noseypoke · 20/02/2011 20:51

Is there not a bloke who is quite regularly on Byres road wearing a dress, sometimes floral?

There certainly was when I lived in the West End but that was a long time ago and he was harmless and just went about his daily life, although he did take a lot of stick from kids and other narrow minded people.

I'm a bit Shock that you are assuming he is some kind of pervert just because he is wearing a skirt.

Original poster
dimaggio · 20/02/2011 21:05

I think we ought to be careful discussing specific schools on a public forum, but stories like these make me very unhappy as a parent and can assure you it is only a minority. Some schools will have a much higher percentage of narrow mindedness so maybe ours is actually better, not to trivialise the incidents. (the Down's group one is particularly hurtful, you really should have reported it as kids have to learn manners)

OP posts:
midnightexpress · 20/02/2011 21:11

What aitch and noseypoke said.

So what if there is a transsexual 'actually wearing a skirt'? Why on earth should that be alarming?

Sheesh. Hard to believe it's 2011 sometimes.

Original poster
dimaggio · 20/02/2011 21:19

I am not saying it is alarming in itself, but it depends what their motives are. If they get sexual kicks out of crossdressing then that is an issue in public especially near schools. If they are transsexual, then no connection at all. Hard to tell though.

OP posts:
AitchTwoOh · 20/02/2011 21:21

i'm not sure why we have to be careful discussing nd on here. it has a proud history and lots of ex-girls who would be horrified at some of the behaviour i've seen. thing is, even if i had seen the same from hillhead (actually i have seen worse) or hyndland (nope, they seem like nice kids), that uniform makes them sooooo identifiable.

tbh, and i mean this in a non-combative manner, i could draw a line from your 'this person must be a paedophile, based on gut feeling' to girls sniggering and being badly behaved towards this person. you must see that children are entitled to jump to the same conclusions as their parents, but without the social graces to conceal them?

trixymalixy · 20/02/2011 21:24

Sorry, don't really get the logic in your last post. Neither cross dressing or being transsexual makes them a danger to anyone.

trixymalixy · 20/02/2011 21:26

Unless they are actually a rapist or a paedophile, but cross dressing or being a transsexual don't automatically make someone either of those.

Original poster
dimaggio · 22/02/2011 20:57

Sheesh that is pretty vile trixymalixy. I have not at any point said any of these people are perverts, paedos or anything like that. It was simply a question if anyone had seen this before in that area. I haven't, but clearly some of you have, and clearly some of our girls have behaved in a far more unacceptable way.

OP posts:
midnightexpress · 23/02/2011 09:41

Well, to be fair to trixy, your OP didn't sound as if you were just asking a question:

'They don't know if he was deliberately trying to let children see him or looking around like to say 'look at me' but my instinct is that he was.'

'From what I can tell no-one has found it alarming, maybe highly amusing. Just sounds creepy to me.'

Both of those comments sound to me as if you think there was something dubious about this man's intentions.

midnightexpress · 23/02/2011 09:43

All of which to echo what aitch said: if the girls are behaving badly, the parents need to think carefully about the messages that they are transmitting to their DC, whether intentionally or not, about how to treat other people.

Amy68 · 23/02/2011 10:27

I don't live in Glasgow but there was a similar case in our own village not so long ago. On at least one occassion the man was arrested and charged with breach of the peace for crossdressing in public (grey pleated skirt apparently), hanging near a primary school at leaving time, hiding in bushes, all of which upset parents waiting to pick up their kids.

Its not dissimilar to the case of Peter Trigger, found after googling (sad I know)

www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/local/cross_dresser_given_warnings_over_schoolgirl_outfit_1_942932

AgentProvocateur · 23/02/2011 14:46

Look, this is getting ridiculous. There is no law against crossdressing, in public or in private. Plenty of people do it, and it's not that unusual - certainly in a city, like Glagow.

Crossdressing does not make someone a pervert or a paedophile or a creep.

Amy68, that man was not charged with a breach of the peace for crossdressing. He was charged with breaching an ASBO, which is different.

There's a huge difference between someone dressing up in the school uniform and hanging about outside a primary school every day (although I would still argue that it's not a crime) and someone going about their business in a skirt on a busy shopping street.

What happened to live and let live?

JennyPiccolo · 17/05/2011 19:01

Haha, i think i know one of the guys discussed here. I'll be sure to pass on a link so he can laugh at the rampant idiocy afoot here.

glesgal · 27/05/2011 23:39

Oh I never intended to imply such 'idiocy'. (I am dimaggio but that account went haywire and my emails were ignored by MN). DD tells me they still see this man and the girls are better behaved (so she says and I hope so). He has even started getting on the tube in a skirt with them at about 4.45 when dozens of ND girls are travelling home and little more than a giggle about him.

Then again, I heard of a case (don't know if any discussed on here) where a man was arrested for breach of the peace because a women out for a walk with the dog and two girls successfully claimed a man in a skirt running behind her while they ran home put her 'in a state of fear and alarm'. Let this be a warning to your friend.

giraffesCantZumba · 28/05/2011 00:00

Theres a guy who around Milngavie would dress in a skirt and, beard, boobs and balding. Got done for flashing someone.