2009-05-02

About men in skirts

 This is a response to an interesting post by Sage. I wrote it many moons ago and forgot about it.

 In short Sage states that, due to sexism, women's occupations, hobbies and wardrobe are considered inferior, ironically imposing limitations in what men can wear.

 As examples she mentions her current husband, who used to wear a long skirt long ago, she though he looked hot. And her son, who liked to imitate his older sister --including wearing dresses-- when he was about 4 years old.

 That's fine and all but these are extremely rare exceptions I think.

 While it's true that sexism, limits men options, in regard to what they can do for a living (male hair dressers, baby sitters or nurses can be bullied for their choice of job), I don't think skirts have that much to do with sexism and a lot to do with female sexuality.

 If you remember, there was a very popular study that claimed that women aren't particularly aroused by men looks. This has profound effects. Simply put, you never find women hunting around for men in miniskirts to jump their bones. If they did, you could bet we would be wearing skirts, high heels, make up, you name it. But no, men wearing skirts are far more likely to attract other men before attracting women. As a sexual reproductive tactic, cross-dressing doesn't work for men, so cross-dressing is naturally selected out by female sexual preferences, more than any male prejudices.

 This is the reason there are more male nurses every year, and more and more male baby sitters, but hardly any men in skirts, there is no push for it.

 The truth is that male and female dressing code serves completely different roles. Feminine dressing aims to attract the gazes. Nowhere is this more obvious than in a formal events where the worst a woman can do is have the same dress than another woman. In contrast men practically wear uniforms, they are also sending a visual message, but it is one of status and rank, they are relatively simple an unremarkable whereas women dresses are elaborate and colorful.

 Now, one could insist that this only applies to flashy skirts and does not explain why men avoid simple long skirts, but its the same story all over, simply by wearing a long skirt a man advertises that he is not interesting in attracting females, so if you want to see men in skirts you have to get girls to like it first, evolution will take care of the rest.

 This was post was written for you and for a friend who actually loves cross-dressing so she is already doing her part. Cheers.

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