Laughter?

[Mike n NC]

In my experience, the two seem to go together more often than not!

Yeah. They call that insanity!!

Mike

[furrycelt]

Great story Schultz

Mudd's story reminds me of my own. It is one thing for perfect strangers to laugh at you, it is another when it is people who know you. I can ignore the opinions of strangers with ease; with friends and family, their opinions can hit harder. Perhaps this is why all this affected Mudd so.

The only time my wife has ever had Scottish blood in her was when she was pregnanat with my boys. ;) She is mostly German (of the Penn-Dutch variety) with a little Polish and Italian sprinkled in. When we got serious about wedding plans, I mentioned that I planned on wearing my kilt. She did not like the idea. She wanted to talk me out of it, but I stood my ground. I figured she gets to plan everything in the wedding, I should get *one* thing. She warned me that her (large) family would laugh at me. And she was right.

They were not ignorant to what a kilt was, but for them it was just something they thought they would never ever see outside of TV, or other such media. Needless to say it was awkward. Here I was about to officially join them as family and I am being made fun of for displaying my heritage. I was prepared for it though. I was picked on for standing out all thru elementary school cause of my red hair. This felt no different. We humans think we are above our animal neighbors, but often times when humans are in groups, they will react predictably and like other primates. When an individual seems "different" that individual has to be called-out.

When the wedding day came, everyone got it out of their system. The jokes stopped. Their ribbing lost its punch once they realized, it didn't effect me, and once they saw my dad show up in his kilt as well.

[mudd]

Hay, thanks for all the good advice. You guys are right; I should have just worn what I wanted regardless. That’s why I’m feeling so grumpy about it. My wife says I’m just a grumpy old man. :sad:

But then, you don’t know my MIL. She’s kind of unique. (My wife is in agreement on this, too.) Difficult to deal with. Not quite as bright as she thinks she is. No ideas are any good unless they are hers. I could go on, but I won’t.

I had mentioned my intention to my brother-in-law (who has seen me in my Kilts and thinks it’s cool and may even get one himself) and suddenly his eyes opened wide and he says “Uuuuuh, I don’t think that’s a good idea.” I respect his opinion, and that was probably the last straw.

My usual inclination when someone laughs at my expense is to suggest they kiss the human orifice that I sit on, followed by addressing them as someone who has had intimate relations with their mother. Maybe you big guys out there haven’t had to deal with this kind of stuff like the rest of us. I’m just 5’81/2” and 180 lbs. Growing up smaller than your peers puts a chip on your shoulder. Getting into an aggressive discussion with one of my larger friends, I like to point out that “you may be twice my size, but I’ll bet I’m twice a mean as you”.

I think this is probably one of the reasons I like the Kilt. It kind of mellows you out and makes you less sensitive to opinions that don’t really matter.

ANYWAY, I rambled on longer than I intended. Thanks again.

[Southern Breeze]

Wearing the kilt does indeed seem to mellow one out,as I've noticed myself. :-D

[chasem]

I have only had laughter in response to my kilt-wearing one time that I noticed. That was, like many others said, by early teenage girls in a Wal Mart. I was walking into an aisle as they were walking out.

We almost bumped into eachother, so I backed up, smiled and said "excuse me." They looked down, saw the kilt, quickly moved around me and started giggling. I didn't really care, as others have said, ignorance...

I've not had anyone laugh in front of me, in a mean spirit.



Oh I take that back, there was one other time I've seen laughter in response to my kilt-wearing, by a group of 18-21 year old girls.. It was more, as others said, a natural response to being out of their comfort zone. As I neared the people who were laughing, they got all excited and started asking me questions about the kilt, and my heritage. So it seemed the laughter was a comfort-masking response, so no harm done.

[mudd]

5cr3w 'em!

Intersting spelling. I can see myself saying "Go to H three one one!" from now on.

[philbo]

Ya know, I don't really like being laughed at either, but somehow the kilt gives me the more courage to confront those who are laughing. A few months ago, some guy directly laughed at me in the grocery store. I stared back at him and he just turned around. I caught up with him a few minutes later and continued to stare at him, and eventually he apologized. Sometimes it depends on who you're dealing with though. A mother-in-law, for instance, is probably not someone to cross. Perhaps the polite and jovial mood would go over better there.

[minimalistix]

Pretty much why I wear steel toe combat boots with my kilt. If somebody is truely being rude, I can plant my foot up their *** and not have much of a problem prying it out.

(Hamish, now slap me in the back of the head and tell me to quit being vulgar)

[Angus MacSpey]

Well, I’m sitting here in a motel room in Hemet, CA (the cultural capital of the western hemisphere) feeling grumpy about passing up a great opportunity to wear a Kilt.

Pray for me, I drive in Hemet! Are you from there originally?

Sounds like you and your wife have a great relationship with the battleaxe MIL - staying in a hotel. If I were in your shoes (obviously, I'm not, so take it with some NaCl) my wife had better have told her mother that her husband wears what he pleases, and has no need of her approval. Really. Who does she think she is?

[Andrew Breecher]

I often notice people nudging their friends and pointing to me, especially since I take the subway and busses all the time in Boston. My tried and true method is to give the nudger a little wink, and every time, suddenly they're the one who's embarassed. Sometimes they then laugh, or talk to me, or immediately ignore me, but no matter what, the wink - showing that I know they're talking about me - completely diffuses the situation.

Andrew.