A Change in the Wind

Look at the fag with the cool car,”  a preteen said just loudly enough for me to hear as I got out of my Miata at the local Foodlion.  What struck me was not the name calling,  although this was the first time I was called a fag (to my face anyway), but rather bad experiences (name calling, being laughed at) were happening more often.  I wore a kilt everyday for two years (the only exceptions being funerals or business meetings, few and far in between that necessitated a suit).  In those two years I got odd looks and double-takes, but more often encouragement:  "Nice kilt." "Good for you.”  “Where can I get one?”  “I love the kilt.”  These are the words I heard, and the positive vibe of the speech was echoed in the body language and gestures of the speakers.


So why the hostile environment now.  Before considering it more rigorously I'll speculate:  Call it the Obama backlash; the resugence of comncervency in the face of fear...of a black president....a man wearing a kilt.... of the socialist take-over of America. Things were different, and the timing seemed pretty clear.
  
So how did kilt wearing start?  (how's that for a non-sequeter?)  My wife and I were renting a cabin in Vermont for the summer.  I don’t remember how kilts came up, but my wife said she thought they were sexy, I’d always been pulled toward the fringes of fashion (I spent a deacde of wonderous freedom living as a rock musician, a drummer.  As Hendrix said, “Mr. white collar conservative business man; you can’t dress like me”).  I’d always pussed the nevelope, but let’s face it; long hair, even eye liner isn’t so far afetched.  OK, maybe the eye liner (a style I miss) can only be pulled off by a rock musician like Keith Richards, but I bet marketing agents eventually find a way to tap the male market.  Anyway, when we returned from Vermont my first kilt arrived--a classic McGregor tartan.  My high school friend, who was best man at my wedding was there.  I put it on, and his only question:  “Why would you wear that?”  I forget how I responded.


I had been reading the literature.  Thanks to the web there is now available literature on everything.  Kilt wearing men’s speech shopwed definite thematic patterns.  One invarient was, “people don’t really care what you wear.  They’re not really interested in you [just themselves].”  


The first time I wore my kilt out, I went for a wlak with TC (my wife) and our dog (Diggity).  We had not gone two hundred yards when a friend pulled up:  He’s a fireman, real man type.  We talked.  He didn’t mention the kilt.  He saw it, of course, but the observation appeared to be right:  He didn’t really care.