Why are skirts associated with femininity and women?

Question

from what i understand there was a time where men and women wore one tube garments (from the beginning of creation and on until the industrial industry were men started wearing pants for the protection and the skirt getting in the way: but since women didn't work, kept the skirts. (just saying that's just the way it is doesn't work) and then there was the time on where women started wearing pants in addition to skirts, yet men are still charged to wearing just pants, what gives? (not to mention the comfort of a nice long peasant skirt with the seamless freedom in the middle) (not a sodomite btw)

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

Because gender roles are just a social construct. During the history, lots of men were wearing skirts, while lots of women were wearing pants.

Scottish men wear skirts (they are more comfortable for men's genitals): paradigmstretch.files.wordpress.com/.../...rge.jpg

In ancient Persia (pre-islamic), men were wearing skirts (it was considered that pants were too tight and harmful for men's potency - squeezing the testicles), while Persian women were wearing pants (they believed that pants were warming the vagina and uterus, making women more fertile): i.pinimg.com/.../...00b7403af85e765b77d2eb0c0e.png

Ancient Sumerian royalty (both men and women) were also wearing skirts called kaunakes, as a unisex clothes, they were often depicting their gods and goddesses in such clothes too: www.ajaonline.org/.../Evans_Fig01_large.gif

Ancient Egyptians were wearing their version of kilts called shendyt (Egyptian pharaohs believed that such clothes are showing their noble blood and divine origin): upload.wikimedia.org/.../2000px-Pharaoh.svg.png

Even medieval European rulers and noblemen were occasionally wearing skirts, because pants were uncomfortable for their private parts: upload.wikimedia.org/.../...Google_Art_Project.jpg

PS - there are lots of other types of male skirts like sarong or kikoy, veshti or mundu, lavalava, lappa, chiton and many others.

Therefore, so called "femininity" and "masculinity" are nonsense, clothes have no gender.

21feminist · Accepted Answer

Skirts are associated with femininity because back in the day women weren't usually seen wearing pants. They weren't expected to do much work and often they rode in carriages, so there wasn't much need to wear pants because they weren't riding horses. To date some men where skirts, and with a pair of pants, they look good (In my opinion anyway) so I think it's safe to say that skirts are just made to look good and it's impractical for a man to wear one especially if it flourishes, if the wind lifts it up it'll be something I'd just rather not see.
I could further evaluate but I have to watch the word count.

SumomoSummer1 · Accepted Answer

Well it's kind of like you said. Over time the men did away with the skirts and the women kept it. But nowadays there are so many different styles of skirts and most of the selling points are geared toward women. For example there are mini skirts, pencil skirts, petticoat skirts, etc. Mini skirts show off a women's legs, pencil skirts show off her curves, and the petticoat style is often used in on lot of bridal dresses. Although, there are exceptions, such as: Tiered skirts, Broomstick skirts, Godet skirts, etc, that aren't as femininely appealing. In which case a lot of these skirts have feminine patterns, ruffles, cinches, and slits to make them more appealing to women. Not only that media doesn't promote men wearing skirts. I have personally never seen a skirt advertised to me with a man wearing it. More than likely i wouldn't buy it if i did see that (for various reasons). So i guess you can blame it on the fashion industry. They took it and ran with it kind of making it seem like it's strictly for women.

SavannahGrace · Accepted Answer

Honestly I don't understand this either. I get that it is a societal norm they girls wear skirts and dresses but guys don't, but I can't fathom why. For the most part, they are so incredibly comfortable and are very versatile because they can be really casual or really dressy. Anatomically speaking, it would make more sense for men to wear them and not women, but I think it should be socially acceptable for both genders to wear a dress or skirt

LittleSally · Accepted Answer

Hahaha Because mostly only women wear skirts in the western world nowadays.
A loooong time ago - everyone wore skirts because they're simply easier to make... but since the tailoring evolved and practicality became more related to clothing - skirts and dresses are mostly reserved for women - and only on occasions where there won't be any more significant physical labor.
Obviously.

SnowyOwl · Accepted Answer

They are meant to dissimulate our curves. Thus being associated to female. Pants may be practical but are considered not very "modest" in some cultures. A skirt is like a table top: it hides anything beneath the table so that you can't see the shape. Of course, like any other thing, skirts degenerated over the years.

MlleCake · Accepted Answer

Well, that's pretty much how it came to be. Not sure why you asked if you already knew. Do you want to make a case for men wearing dresses and skirts? Do a MyTake.

Benedek38 · Answer

Lot of misinformation...

Few reasons for men being the one wearing the pants (no pun intended) historically:
1. Horse riding. The first pants found EVERYWHERE were for horsemen. Look it up. Horseriding became one of the most important ways to transfer goods and information, and to travel. They were the cars of the day. You can't ride a horse in skirt too easily. Imagine a garment that makes you unable to drive a car. You wouldn't wear if it you had to travel regularly, right?

2. Addition to the previous point: People didn't have a lot of clothes. If they could choose between one that WAS good for horse riding, and one that WASN'T - the choice was obvious.

3. Hygiene. As you might know, women bleed on a regular basis. It contains dead cells, bodily fluids, etc. - therefore it can lead to contamination. Women historically didn't have pads or tampons, they used cloths to dry up the menstrual blood. In pants, that would have been insanely hard to do. And since they didn't have a lot of clothes, and didn't bathe or wash their clothes often, a small pool of blood in their pants would have quickly lead to infections.

Over time, obviously practices become norms, and thus now we tend to think women should wear skirts. Or at least that is the stereotype.
I don't think anyone has a problem in the first world with women wearing pants though, so complaining about this is pretty much pointless.

Investigator · Answer

I don't wear a skirt for the simple fact that you can't store anything in or on it. In order for skirts to flow as easily as they do (which might be why only women wear them, because they project an image of fragility and childlike innocence, due to how delicate they come across), they have to be thin and lightweight. This is also why predominantly women buy purses, because they can't store anything on their skirts or they would be lopsided.

In my opinion, clothing should be both fashionable and functional, and skirts fulfill only one of those criteria. They provide essentially no protection or carrying capacity and are therefore almost exclusively a fashion statement.

johnmspaghetti · Answer

The oldest known pants ever found was from somewhere between 1300BC and 1000BC in China. Vikings commonly used breeches from at least 9th century.

How it spread around is unclear, but skirts or kilts or togas or monsuke or juban or other "tube-like garments"... They aren't that practical the colder the climate gets. Balls have a very small range of temperatures they can regulate themselves between, and hopefully older cultures would've realized that they weren't making babies with colder balls.

And once fashion was invented, men's skirts were doomed. Tube-like garments would only require so much stitching, and would've been viewed as lazy craftsmanship comparitively.

That's my thoughts anyway

yoozername · Answer

As feminism grows, femininity disappears. Women think they look good tattooed up to fuck, or looking like a bodybuilder flexing biceps and abs. You can only tell she's a girl, by looking at her face... and walking down the street you can't tell 100% thanks to these dudes who are gender confused. If boys aren't raised by their father, they end up feminised by their mother. How can a woman teach a boy how to be a man, if she has no idea of what means to be one. Look around you... billions of single mothers. Millions of young millennial men who dress like fags.

achezc · Answer

Actually, a lot of things women use or does were at the begging for men, skirts were used to be wear by men, high heels as well… and even make up, how they started using them? Because of trends… men in royalty used to wear those things, then the common people started using them… and so on, I'm happy nowadays we (men) don't wear any of those things but they do (women)

madhatters4 · Answer

because they are and for a long while have been associated with female fashion. you are right that in various times in history men wore skirts or something similar but outside the kilt for the last half of a millennium or so dresses have been almost entirely a fashion of women

Catholicgirl22 · Answer

Don't the Scots and other Celtic people's still wear kilts. The Turks spin in dresses too. I prefer to wear skirts myself.

FMJ_Guy · Answer

Confusing for some, that don't know that, in their culture!
I challenge you to tell a Scottish Highlander, that his Kilt, is a 'Skirt'!!
I never understood this, because women have just a smooth, kind of curve, perfect for pants, but guys have more, and isn't that more suited to casually 'free-balling' with something 'manly' like a 'Kilt', with room to move, and not get crushed?

smt133 · Answer

I think Oscar Wilde (one of the most famous people in his time) got put in jail for being gay.

After that, most men started acting and dressing more masculine to make sure they didn't come across as gay.

Not sure how true that all is, but I am sure I read it somewhere.

steelbunny · Answer

Because now they are worn by women and it has been that way for over a century?

MsShahad · Answer

This ideology is so western. They wear the "Thob" in the middle east, which is basically a white dress. Also, I think that men wear something similar to a skirt in India.

hahahmm · Answer

You can wear a skirt as a male. You just tell everyone it’s a kilt & nobody will care. It’s not the skirt that is feminine. It’s a combination of modifications like wearing makeup, having a feminine hair style, feminine shoes, hand bag & so on.

Anonymous · Answer

Depends on what country and culture you're in, I suppose. Kilts are basically skirts but Scottish men wear them. There's also various traditional wear in Asian cultures where men wear something that resembles a skirt. I'm pretty sure in Native American culture there is probably some kind of traditional wear that looks like a skirt as well.

... So basically, there are still guys out there who wear skirts.

nadinatali · Answer

Because when you wear skirt you must be very careful how you sit, you can't do half of things, in some way you are helpless and useless and that is way society think of us.

Asad1ONE1 · Answer

Nearly every form of clothing is bisexual (suits both sexes). But if a man dons an exclusively female garment (and there are many types of them), we have a problem.

What's an exclusively male garment that a female will be mocked in? Not many, if any, I guess. Lol.

Beauty revolves more so among women 😢.

coolguy919 · Answer

The answer was pretty much in the question. Men started wearing pants, because they were the ones working. As humans, we like things that help us tell the difference between men and women. So in our culture, skirts became one of those things. Not to mention it's much more flattering on women.

Anonymous · Answer

Well the Scots are stopped. And given the world of genderless fluidity of pointlessly we now live in, wear a tiara and nipple tassels and if someone complains yell “transgender” (it’s a safety word against everything) and yoh’ll Be gravy.

whyisitso · Answer

I think it is this simple: Women are the birthgivers. We have wide hips. The skirts allow us to make them look even wider and our waist smaller. On men they look kinda odd in that way too.

5ara8ear · Answer

Girls would wear them scandelously after dresses came out of style. Girls weren't allowed to show their legs beforehand and that's what made them such a big deal.

cipherdude · Answer

Well men wore skirts as well. If you really think about it, back in stone age times or longer, men wore 'dresses' to bed. It was pyjamas but it was shaped like a long dress. It was normal. Men wore dress shaped armour skirt things. Again a skirt but short, Roman soldiers especially. Men in India and Nigeria wear a kind of dress. It's over pants but looks very much like a dress. So

Why are skirts associated with femininity and women?

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