Is it possible to wear a kilt and not look like you're from Scotland?

**tripleblessed** · 14th July 16, 06:47 AM

I always have interest in hearing the opinions and stories of others. My understanding of both science and spirituality is
both broad and deep from a lifetime of seeking out great teachers worldwide and the necessity of an enormous amount
of prayer and meditation required to keep an tremendously damaged body operating. This understanding leads me (personal
opinion) to believe there is only one of us. Your story is also mine, as mine is yours. I have worked very hard to face my shortcomings and motivations and to understand and have patience with those of others. I appreciate the willingness of
all to share, as my awareness is informed and illuminated by everyone I meet. What I cannot and will not do is allow someone else's misunderstanding of my motives to rule my choices. If someone chooses to take offense, that action is on them; I will not intentionally offer offense.

Had to bail before addressing OP's question. I think it is possible to wear a kilt and not look like you're from Scotland. However, as we have seen, not very likely to happen. Our thinking habits are too habitual and unexamined, not to mention in many instances
ill-informed. I grew up knowing a man who had a mind like steel trap. Unfortunately, after years in the woods hunting, it was so
rusty it no longer opened.

**neloon** · 14th July 16, 06:59 AM

Originally Posted by Nathan

And Oxford, and dictionary.com...

I could find no online definition that didn't include that...

Just for the record, the Scottish National Dictionary says

SCOT, n. A native of Scotland, a Scotsman or -woman; orig. a member of a tribe that crossed from Ireland to Argyll in the late 5th c. and established a kingdom there which by conquest and amalgamation with the Picts and the Britons gradually extended its bounds, came to be called in Latin Scotia in the 10th c., and reached its present limits in the 12th c. Nonce dim. form Scotling, a young Scot, a Scottish child (Sc. 1787 J. Elphinston Propriety II. 106).

That seems to be the accepted Scottish usage.

Alan

**Pleater** · 14th July 16, 07:47 AM

At the risk of being thought frivolous - I don't think this fellow is trying to look Scottish

**Jock Scot** · 14th July 16, 08:16 AM

Originally Posted by Pleater

At the risk of being thought frivolous - I don't think this fellow is trying to look Scottish

I am all for a spot of frivolity Ann, but whilst doing that, you have provided a totally neutral Interstellar example to use!

So what does any body think? Personally, I think the fellow(?) had landed in Scotland somewhere near Princess Street and one of those sharp kilt salesman from Gold Brothers nipped out and sold him(?) the kilt.

Thinking about this. This illustrates perfectly the question in the OP. So whilst your example here may not intend, or even know that he is dressing like a Scot by wearing the tartan kilt, nevertheless for observers, the inevitable thought arrises "tartan kilt = Scotland".

**Knight** · 14th July 16, 09:51 AM

Actually, having stared at the image for a bit, I think it's the sporran that make it look "it's from Scotland," as an outsider non-native-Scot (avoiding that side argument deliberately) looking in. Not the kilt. Not knowing better, it's just a plaid skirt. But slap a sporran on it, and suddenly it calls to mind Willie from the Simpsons or any one of a dozen other stereotypes. The kilt is a specific garment, but one amongst many kinds and sorts of skirts.

Bear with me, because I'm speaking as an American, so I'm conjuring a "hypothetical American" as found in its native habitat: the big box retail store. Now I'm stepping into his shoes. Had I, as an inexperienced random, seen a guy in an sporanless skirted garment two years ago, I'd have thought, "Huh. He's wearing a skirt." I may not have known enough about the kilt to recognize it distinctly as a kilt, perhaps even after I saw the pleated back. And that's with some lingering Scots culture left in my family (some music, some foods, etc; crumbs), which included being around kilted gents a few times in my youth.

Having said that, I honestly wonder if the average fellow in a kilt would truly be identified, at least in the United States, as kilted, sans the other "orienting" features like the sporran. Looking at all of the typified Scotsman/Highlander cartoons and popular images, a great many of them include the sporran. Arguably most.

So many the question, "Is it possible to wear a kilt and a sporran and not look like you're from Scotland?" is worth consideration.