Your Thoughts on Cross-dressing?

Discussion in Fashion & Apparel started by Denis Hard • Aug 15, 2014.

  1. Denis Hard

    Denis HardWell-Known Member

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    First there were jogging skirts for men and then skirts for men kind of went mainstream. Early in May French school boys decided to don skirts to school as a protest against discrimination against women.

    Earlier today I landed on a site which sells attire that's specifically meant for cross-dressing. They have in addition to skirts . . . dresses for men. I'm wondering if any of you would find a man wearing a dress odd-looking?
     
  2. forextraspecialstuff

    forextraspecialstuffActive Member

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    I am a woman and I don't find it appealing but that just means it's not for me or in my taste. I have male friends who are cross dressers and they really enjoy it and it adds to their quality of life and experiences. I think that it doesn't affect anyone so people who choose to engage in cross dressing should and those who don't care for it can stay away from it.
     
  3. maddie619

    maddie619New Member

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    Personally, I don't think it makes a difference but that doesn't really matter because those men are doing it for themselves and it doesn't matter what our opinion is. It's just like when a woman puts on makeup for a night on the town, a man could be doing the same thing when he puts on a skirt. Crossdressing is probably just something that that man does to feel good about himself. If they aren't doing any harm then I don't think it matters. Fashion is how a lot of people express themselves and their identity, cross dressing is just how they express themselves.
     
  4. DrRipley

    DrRipleyExpert

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    It does look odd, but I don't mind it. Odd is only so because it's new, it doesn't necessarily mean it's bad. Fashion is and always have been evolving and now is not that different. I'm sure that if you look at the history of men's and women's fashion you'd discover a few things here and there that we would now consider odd such as men wearing tights etc, and back then it would have been natural and even encouraged.
     
  5. Jim2

    Jim2New Member

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    A man wearing a skirt is not necessarily cross-dressing

    Though the title of this topic says it is about cross-dressing, it immediately talks about the new trend of men wearing skirts. But this trend is not about men trying to look like women; it is about men finding that skirts are more comfortable than pants. In what way is such a man "cross-dressing"? Perhaps you think that skirts are just obviously women's clothing. But that is to ignore the fact that more than half the men in the world wear skirts or skirt-like garments. And the Romans wore skirts. They considered men who wore trousers to be effeminate. Just because people in the West have come to view a skirt as a woman's garment exclusively does not make it so. We in the West have been conditioned from birth to think a skirt is a woman's garment, but it just isn't so. Skirts provide an airy, loose covering for the area below a person's waist. At least under some conditions, such a garment would be obviously more comfortable than pants for any human being.
     
  6. insertkittyface

    insertkittyfaceActive Member

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    I personally don't find it attractive, but to each their own. I truly don't care what anyone else wears. I was wearing guys pants for the longest time, and I still wear guys t-shirts on a regular basis, but I guess it's considering less "weird" for a girl to wear guys clothes then vice versa.
     
  7. Denis Hard

    Denis HardWell-Known Member

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    Men wearing attire that's people believe is women's generally get discriminated against for some reason. So much as I wouldn't care how a man dressed [especially if they chose to wear a mini-skirt] the people they meet on the street may not be impressed with that kind of thing [you'll see it all over youtube that day]. Even friends may not want to be associated with that mini-skirt wearing man. It's just societal attitudes I suppose.

    Women can dress like men but men can't dress like women.
     
  8. 003

    003Well-Known Member

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    I don't think that cross-dressing is at all a good idea especially if one is not a transgender. Clothes are somehow identification of gender. They are designed for the structure of the body, and not designed to be discriminating in a bad way. They are designed according to gender-specific anatomy. So if you are amenable with your gender-anatomy, then I think it would be best to stay the same to which we are accustomed of wearing.
     
  9. Jim2

    Jim2New Member

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    Please tell me what there is in the nature of a sarong or kilt (which is a kind of skirt) that makes it designed not for the structure of a male body. Obviously, they are just as appropriate for a male body as a female one. Over half the men in the world wear skirts or skirt-like garments. The reason men in the West can not wear skirts has nothing to do with the structure of the male body. It has to do with Western societal attitudes that have been shaped over the last couple of hundred years to think of skirts as effeminate. Before the 19th century, even men in Western countries wore skirts. And the Romans considered men who wore trousers to be effeminate. It is all a question of conditioning.

    To see just how easily attitudes can be shaped by forces having nothing to do with anything intrinsic to human nature, consider the way we identify pink with girls. A hundred years ago, it was not so. It was identified mainly with being manly. The diversity of opinion that held it was ok for girls was very much in the minority. In the 1940s a group of companies that sold clothing for children banded together to try and create a standard. They decided to try and mold public perception to think of pink as for girls and blue as for boys. Just see the book by Jo Paoletti called "Pink and Blue". So much for clothes having gender.

    By the way, wearing a skirt is not cross-dressing as skirts, as I hope I've shown, are not essentially a garment just for women.
     
  10. May102014

    May102014Active Member

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    Well, it depends. I mean if it's apart of tradition like those skirts worn in some countries in Europe like Scotland - I forgot the name of the skirts - then it's find. However, to see men wearing women's dresses all around me will be kind of weird. I mean if that's your thing, then live your life. I'm not someone to intrude on other's personal choices in terms of fashion. I'm just saying that if I were around a room filled with men in women's clothing, yeah, that will be a little odd-looking to me.
     
  11. Mochaisis

    MochaisisNew Member

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    Well, I guess it really depends on how a person sees themselves. I don't feel comfortable judging other people based on how they dress, and I remember wearing boys jeans and shirts in the early 90's (I was a product of the Kris Kross era). Technically, the way I dressed then was cross-dressing, although I didn't identify as a male. I was just following fashion trends. For some people, though, cross-dressing gives them freedom to be who they really believe they are. Regardless of whether I agree with the way a person dresses or not, I believe that everyone has the right to express themselves in a manner that makes them feel free. In this case, I am not talking about kilts, burkas, or saris, as I find those garments to be traditional wear for both men and women. Therefore, I cannot consider this cross-dressing.
     
  12. sidney

    sidneyWell-Known Member

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    I really am ok with cross-dressing males, since they don't really step on anyone's toes and that's what makes them happy, so live and let live. I'm sure most conservative and moralistic people will have a problem with that, but for me, since I have an open mind, it's ok for people to dress in whatever they want to dress themselves. It's really none of my business.
     
  13. Mayvin

    MayvinActive Member

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    I think the only men I've seem wearing a skirt where it was considered acceptable were men in Scotland or drag queens who are pretending to be women of course. I think if I saw a man just casually was walking down the street in a skirt headed off to work or something that would look really odd and he would be for sure ridiculed. It is telling that its acceptable for women to wear pants and have short hair (which can be considered more masculine) but if a straight man wears makeup or a skirt its not.
     
  14. Parker

    ParkerWell-Known Member

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    A few months ago, there were a couple of men wearing skirts at my place of worship. It was weird. I did a double take. I find it unusual and a bit weird, but to each his or her own. My place of worship is very non traditional. There are all types of people there so the men didn't get too much heat from it beyond some startled glances.

    I don't think men in skirts are mainstream though. Men with bags or manbags are pretty mainstream especially where I live in California. I remember when men wearing earrings was risque. Times have changed.
     
  15. sarz

    sarzActive Member

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    Each to their own and all that. But personally I don't like it. I do think it looks odd and personally I just don't find it attractive. I like my men to be just that men. I don't even like the whole skinny jean, tank top and comb over look. So a skirt or a dress is definitely a step to far. Contrary to popular belief this is not because I don't have an open mind and I am definitely not conservative. Just not down with that.
     
  16. Servace

    ServaceActive Member

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    I do not judge at all. I like to cosplay as guy versions of girl characters though.
     
  17. chiofthenorns

    chiofthenornsActive Member

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    It doesn't really bother me. Gender stereotypes should be eradicated. Everyone should be free to wear whatever they want.
     
  18. DancingLady

    DancingLadyActive Member

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    I don't like it, but as long as the person is covered, I won't say anything about it. It seems like a really odd thing to me why a man would want to dress like a woman unless he is wanting to live out a female role, or change genders at some point. It is not something I think most people would be comfortable around, even if they want o be. I have a lot of sympathy for people who are confused about who they are and who they want to be, but it's still really hard for me to be around them and be natural, at least until I get used to how they look.
     
  19. xTinx

    xTinxWell-Known Member

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    I stand by advocacy and maintain: to each his own. Clothes do not define who you are. They're just there to make you feel better about yourself and boost your confidence. At the end of the day, they're just accoutrements to the persona you want to project to the rest of the world. I have no problems with cross-dressing whatsoever as long as it's kept decent and classy. Flashing private parts is not a matter I take lightly, though, particularly when there are little children in the vicinity.
     
  20. Strykstar

    StrykstarActive Member

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    I'm not bothered by cross-dressing at all, I think men have just as much right to wear skirts as women do to wear pants.
    They don't come with tags saying "men" or "women", so dress what you enjoy the most and it's nobody's business but yours.