wolf whistle

[Alan H]

Last week I was out with the Luminous Joan, doing something around town. We were walking down the street, and passed a storefront that was being seriously remodeled. As we passed, and were two steps beyond the storefront I heard it...the wolf whistle. One of the workers...there were six or eight guys in there doing sheetrock and painting...had wolf whistled at me.

I'm not quite sure why that annoys me, but it does, so I stopped, turned around and walked back with intent to have some words with whomever it was. After two or three seconds of silence, just before I actually got to the open, double-wide door, the whistler, in an attempt to get out of the situation, continued whistling some tuneless thing. He was trying to make it seem like he'd just been whistling any old thing, not that he'd whistled at ME....that was obvious. I don't know which of the guys in there was the one, but I looked around the storefront, catching as many eyes as would look at me, nodded, smiled and continued on my way.

This little scenario will doubtless prove once again to some here that AlanH has a serious chip on his shoulder and has issues with everyone and everything. However, my intent was rather more to educate than confront if I'd found the whistler. I thought it was interesting, and I wonder about the motivation of the whistler. It was probably just a joke, he didn't think I'd actually hear it, and the guy was embarrassed to get called on it, but of course I don't know that, I'm just guessing. The Hispanic high school boys at one of the schools I substituted at thought it was funny...behind my back or in packs, to whistle at me, but I'd figured that adults were a little more "together". At least the guy had the sense to realize it was a dumb thing to do, and try to get out of the situation.

[James MacMillan]

For the life of me, I can't figure out why that bothers you.

The kilt looks like a skirt to many un-educated. They see you as a man in a skirt. You're not, but that's the way that they see you.

Go with it. Who cares?

Ooooooooooooooo a man in a kilt! Wooooooooooohoooooooooooo!

You've been kilted for a while now, aren't you used to it?

[Alan H]

For the life of me, I can't figure out why that bothers you.

The kilt looks like a skirt to many un-educated. They see you as a man in a skirt. You're not, but that's the way that they see you.

Go with it. Who cares?

Ooooooooooooooo a man in a kilt! Wooooooooooohoooooooooooo!

You've been kilted for a while now, aren't you used to it?

I get very, very few comments around here. I get some looks, but not comments. I mean, I can count the negative comments/experiences on one hand.... three... not counting the drunk on the sidewalk that saw me in the parking lot and screamed at me across the street when I went by in my car, later. That was just too stupid for words. I don't count this wolf whistle thing as one of the negative experiences, it was just a thought provoking one. I am not surprised when men or women from cultures outside of Europe don't know a kilt for what it is. These guys did not have that excuse.


Also, this is California, and Northern California, San Francisco Bay Area at that. Cultural diversity is rampant, here. It is not at all unusual to see different forms of clothing here.

So this kind of surprised me.

[James MacMillan]

Well, I have been whistled at many times.

But put it in perspctive. I have been whistled at when I was on active duty walking down the streets of New York in my dress blue uniform. You've seen my picture, I'm not what you would call handsome, ever without the beard and 30 lbs.

I'm not sure that the kilt was the major factor here. It may just be that it was something different.

Of course there always is "AlanH has a serious chip on his shoulder and has issues with everyone and everything." - - - -

[Alan H]

I'm not sure that the kilt was the major factor here. It may just be that it was something different.

Very likely!

[McFarkus]

I'm not sure that the kilt was the major factor here. It may just be that it was something different.

I agree. Maybe he just liked your legs.

[Nighthawk]

I work with a guy who does that BS every damned day. I would think he's get bored with himself. I just got a new weather MacKenzie, and wore it to work today. Needless to say, he said to me "That's a beautiful skirt." I said "Thanks. Glad you like. I have ancestors who bled and deid wearing it." He hasn't said a word to me all day since then.

[McFarkus]

"Thanks. Glad you like. I have ancestors who bled and deid wearing it."

Well said!

[kiltedsawyer]

Alan, please don't take this the wrong way, but when you say that you figured that adults had it "more together," you are admitting to a certain amount of naivete. Please....., jerks come in all ages, sizes, shapes, and colors, (just look at my in-laws.) Just wear the kilt proudly, know who you are, and let the negative stuff roll off your back. It's not our job to educate the world, (although I gather by your post that you are a school teacher,) ("our" meaning the kilted ones.) If you want tolerance, then tolerate others, even in their ignorance. You won't change a thing by staring down or confronting every negative remark or whistle. These guys weren't interested in learning about kilts or your scottish heritage, they just wanted to get under your skin, and you let them. I'm sure they all had a big laugh once you were out of earshot. If you're wearing a kilt, you're bigger than that.
Respectfully,

[Alan H]

Alan, please don't take this the wrong way, but when you say that you figured that adults had it "more together," you are admitting to a certain amount of naivete. Please....., jerks come in all ages, sizes, shapes, and colors, (just look at my in-laws.) Just wear the kilt proudly, know who you are, and let the negative stuff roll off your back. It's not our job to educate the world, (although I gather by your post that you are a school teacher,) ("our" meaning the kilted ones.) If you want tolerance, then tolerate others, even in their ignorance. You won't change a thing by staring down or confronting every negative remark or whistle. These guys weren't interested in learning about kilts or your scottish heritage, they just wanted to get under your skin, and you let them. I'm sure they all had a big laugh once you were out of earshot. If you're wearing a kilt, you're bigger than that.
Respectfully,

Actually, the looks I got from the eyes I caught were kind of embarrassed, so I don't think they had a laugh. The more I think about it, it really was an odd encounter.

Also, I currently work in IT, but I did some substitute teaching last year when I was between jobs. I really enjoyed the teaching I got to do, and I wrote about it on X-Marks quite a bit at the time. I wore my kilts to school every day, and while some kids didn't like it, I'll say this.....I never got "dismissed"... You know "Oh, it's just the sub, we don't have to care".. Nope, the kids may have liked me or may not have liked me...they may have thought the kilt was cool, or they may have thought it was wierd but they didn't DISMISS me. There were questions in every class, and those questions were a doorway into getting them to learn something, even if what it was that they learned wasn't necessarily on the lesson plan for the day. I wasn't the kind of sub that came in, turned on a movie and sat and read the newspaper. All in all, it was a positive experience, though I learned that I really don't want to be a High School teacher for my profession. I look at it this way...there's now a Celtic Heritage Club at Woodside High School, with 22 kids in it, and that wouldn't have happened if I hadn't showed up in a kilt. Carlmont High School kids, whose mascot is "The Scots" now have seen a kilt worn to school, not just on the schools paper for football games. Because I wore a kilt to school, two other teachers started wearing theirs on Game Fridays, and half a dozen guys in in the school spirit club started wearing kilts on Game Fridays.

Works for me!

However, you are entirely right about this...jerks comes in all sizes, colors, shapes and locations! You bet!