I went out today in a shorter than knee length skirt and long boots...

[flyingzebra]

...it's been a while since I've dressed like that since I've been caught in the drudgery that comes with having two children in two years and being a little bit too fond of chocolated, and I haven't felt confident to dress that way in a while.

Anyway...back to the subject...

It shocked me the way pretty much every man I came into contact with gave me that really exaggerated up and down look - from the tips of my toes, up as far as my tits, then back down again.

Today, I just wanted to look nice. Not flirty, I wasn't in a miniskirt and bare legs - just a shorter than knee length skirt and black tights with flat boots.

Yet I feel like I was asking to be looked at by men I don't know, when I wasn't. I just wanted to wear something that wasn't jeans or trousers.

Aaaaanyway. I guess I'm just wondering how any of my fellow feminists dress?

It's the boots that do it. There is something about high leather boots that drives most men to distraction - maybe its Barbarella. Maybe it's a porn motif [shrug]. I used to get occasionally stalked by this very respectable looking old school middle aged man (bowler hat, winter coat) outside Tottenham Court Road every morning telling me how much he liked my boots Gross.

I wouldn't bother. Tell 'em to eff off.

Agree it's the boota tondelayo.

I oject to being ogled for wearing boots when I'm just wearing them to keep my legs warm though.

Agree with pps that there's a big difference between glances and leers. Glancing isn't entirely voluntary anyway. To some extent our eyes are always going to be drawn to people who are good looking.

I find myself glancing at attractive men fairly often and don't mind if men look briefly at me. If they stare, ogle or comment on my appearance then I'd be angry but not otherwise. (Having said that, my usual response to being stared at is to wonder whether my skirt is tucked in my knickers, my shirt has popped open or I've accidentally put odd boots on...)

OP is obviously an attractive woman and I think that some level of male attention is going to be inevitable.

Wear what you like, i wear this sort of combo for work all the time. I like to look smart and stylish. I usually wear skinny jeans outside of work. I have good legs I don't want to cover them up.

It doesn't bother me when men look, if they stare for too long i just stare back at them. A scaffolder said "hello gorgeous" to me in summer, I thought that was nice.

The time I have been mindful of how attractive/sexy I might look is when i worked on a secure unit for adolescent males. It wouldn't have been fair or safe for the female staff to look sexy, the young men were incarcerated and had severe mental illness. I think this is just common sense.

I tend to wear what I feel like wearing, I wouldn't let the fact of leery men put me off.

In fact if women let the fact of leery men put them off doing things, their movements would be very restricted indeed.

OTOH I know that the one thing I loved when I was very pregnant was that I didn't get a second glance from men, it was very liberating. I felt a lot safer then as well, for some reason.

Well actually it's probably quite obvious why I felt safer at a point in my life when I didn't get leered at by men! Didn't twig that until I read my post back

Actually similarly to Minx the only times I have decided consciously to wear things that are definitely not revealing (fairly high necked clothes for example) was when I was working with teenagers. I expect grown up men to be able to cope with adult women's bodies in normal states of dress, but I don't expect teenage boys necessarily to have learnt that yet, and I would have felt very wrong if they had stared at my chest. (Although I would have blamed them, I just didn't want the situation to occur IYSWIM)

I've bought a very short denim skirt which I wear with thick black leggings and heavy, furry boots - partly because it is a comfortable combination, and partly because my legs are the best bit of me! I have had a couple of comments about it but that's because it's an unusual outfit for me and the comments are mainly from women friends rather than men. I wouldn't stop wearing something if I felt comfortable in it just because I had comments from random people.

I strongly believe that women should be able to wear what they like and be able to go safely and unharrassed - whether that's a bikini or a burkha.

To be entirely honest, I love wearing the cliched 'sexy' stuff. I don't mind getting looked at if I'm wearing a pair of 4 inch heels but I have noticed that there is something very funny about being on eye-level with men when they're not expecting it. Also it makes me furious that some people think that feminists must be unattractive women (and plenty of people do think so).

But I also thoroughly enjoy, in the same way, going out bare-legged in summer without shaving my legs - they're my legs dammit, if I want to leave them hairy for once I will! And I am dark-haired so it is quite obvious.