Turning the Tables on Comments

[cessna152towser]

I was in the court office today doing paperwork, while wearing my black heavyweight kilt. The three ladies who staff the office were all wearing trousers. I recognised the local councillor arriving at the public counter. Although he often wears a kilt while representing the Council at official events he was casually dressed in jeans today. Entirely spontaneous, I greeeted him with "I see you are dressed like a woman today with your blue jeans." Fortunately, my remark went down OK and he and the three ladies all broke out into laughter. OK it wasn't very clever of me to comment on someone else's clothing choice unprovoked, but I couldn't resist the opportunity. I must remember to save this one as a response if any of the trousered masses comment on my kilts.

[Mr. Kilt]

I love it!!

[Dreadbelly]

Who let you out of the house wearing the mommy pants?

[Randy]

I can forgive you.

[Rigged]

Ego te absolvo a peccatis tuis in nomine Plaid et Sporran et Kiltus Sancti. Bless you, my son.

[Tattoo Bradley]

BAHAHAHAHA! Good show!

[GMan]

Troublemaker. I love it!!!!

[Warlock]

Way to go Laddie!

[Nanook]

Entirely spontaneous, I greeeted him with "I see you are dressed like a woman today with your blue jeans."

I find such remarks worse than unfortunate. Jeans are men's clothing just as the kilt. Both, it seems, have been adopted by women's fashion but to single out the jeans in this context (unprovoked) was unwise. Your "joke" was effectively effacing the concept that the kilt is a male garment. The subject was neither the jeans or the fellow in them but implicitly you in a kilt. You could, I fear, just as well screamed--- to draw attention to yourself--- "Look at me, I'm dressed like a girlie". I think you might actually have come better out of the situation with that one as it leaves intact the concept that the kilt is a male garment but plays against (in the tradition of ghetto humor) bias. Its best, I'd suggest, to say nothing. Do we discuss with everyone on the street what shirt or jacket we're wearing? Not even the "girlies" do that :-)

[Erisianmonkey]

This was a comment from one kilt wearer to another. Even the folks who rarely wear kilts get the comments from time to time, so I am certain that the gentleman who the remark was made to was cognizant of where the remark came from. If he had said it to someone who lived their entire life in trousers and had never strapped on a kilt in his life, then the remark might have been as unfortunate as you make out. One of the points of that remark is that kilts are a man's garment. There were three people wearing trousers in that office, and one wearing a kilt. Which one was wearing a garment designed specifically for men? All four of them. Thus the humor in the statement.

The only thing, and I do mean only thing wrong- and Cessna, being a smart gent, said it himself, was that he made fun of another's clothing choice unprovoked. But that's a damn good line he used, and I bet the other gent;eman, being a kilt wearer himself is going to be glad to have it in his repertoire if he gets hassled by the fashion police himself.

As far as suggesting that it was equivalent to screaming that he was dressed like a girlie- I really don't have a response to that one that is appropriate for a family friendly forum. The closest I can come is "male bovine waste product." That would be the concise answer, once all the questions about where you pulled that idea from were set aside.

I'm gonna quit and go calm down before I say something to get modded.