Anonymous asked:
sartorialadventure answered:
Why? Lots of men throughout history have worn clothes that we would see today in our ridiculously rigid gender roles as women’s clothes: dresses, skirts, etc. I think it’s pretty crazy that in our culture, women can wear pants OR skirts, but men can ONLY wear pants!
^Guard at Edinburgh Castle, Scotland
^Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Athens, Greece
^14th-century military martyr, Byzantine
^ Cardinal Richelieu, 1636
^ Man’s kurta, India
^Ancient Romans of all classes
^Typical Ancient Roman soldier
^Ancient Egyptian men
^Ancient Greek men in chitons
^Aztec men
^Medieval Saxons
^Medieval Normans
^Academic gowns
I could keep going with examples, but I would probably never stop! I think it is safe to say that at LEAST half of all men throughout history have worn skirt-like clothing.
Skirts were the matter-of-fact wear of many of humanity’s most ancient civilizations, on both sides of the gender divide. …Many ancient costumes were based around the idea of the skirt, purely because they were easy to construct and created huge freedom of movement. Whether you were fighting, building, farming or engaging in some kind of religious ritual, skirts provided cheap and efficient use. Short skirts among soldiers from the height of the Roman Empire, noted an exhibition at the Met called “Braveheart: Men In Skirts,” were considered proof of virility, and allowed for swiftness while in combat. Two factors, theorists note, determined the use of pants by either gender: cold and the necessity for horse-riding. (source)
Western culture only really began forbidding men from wearing any skirt-like clothing in the 19th century, and even then (as we can see above) there have been lots of hold-outs, from the Victorian gender-neutral children’s robes that you mentioned to the Scottish kilt.
There is nothing weird or ridiculous about men wearing skirts. Normalize men’s skirt-wearing!
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