Why It's Wrong For A Man To Wear A Dress
Most people know that there is something not right with the “genderqueer” and transgender stuff, but they struggle to articulate exactly what is wrong. When a man claims to be “genderfluid” and wears a dress, he can say something along the lines of “this is just a fashion choice, I can wear whatever clothes I want.” And most people don’t have a great answer to that.
I’m not just referring to transgender men here, I’m also taking about relatively normal men who are feminists who think that it is a good thing when a man wears a dress. Feminists will say things along the lines of “clothing norms are arbitrary. If there’s nothing wrong with a woman wearing a dress then there should be nothing wrong with a man wearing a dress.”1
Suppose we meet a guy named Jordan who has been in and out of jail for many years. Jordan just got a swastika tattoo on his face. When people react to him negatively, Jordan says “Why is everyone getting so mad at me? My swastika tattoo isn’t a political statement, I just got this tattoo because I think it’s a cool-looking symbol.”
We would reply to Jordan: “No you didn’t just think it’s a cool-looking symbol. You got a swastika tattoo on your face because you either joined a prison gang or you want to say ‘F you’ to society. You put that symbol on your face because you intended to be shocking and confrontational.”
Jordan says “I have the right to decorate my body how I want.” And we reply “Yes, you have the legal right to get any tattoo you want, but we do not have to welcome you into our social spaces. We don’t have to hire you, and we are going to explicitly tell you that we will not hire you because you have a swastika tattoo on your face. We know that you chose to present yourself that way with the intent to shock and offend the rest of society merely for the sake of shock and offense. We are not going to play along with your lie that it was just a fashion choice, like choosing to wear one color or another.
Similarly, when a man wears a dress and tells us that it’s just a fashion choice and he just wanted to dress that way, we should tell him:
“No you didn’t just want to dress that way, it’s not just an arbitrary fashion choice, you wanted to wear a dress because you wanted to say ‘F you’ to society. You wanted to be shocking and offensive for the sake of shock and offense. We all know why you’re doing this, you’re not being clever. And when you choose to display yourself in public in a way that is deliberately provocative for the sole sake of provocation, we are going to treat you accordingly.”
Notice that there are some situations in which this argument doesn’t apply. When David Bowie wore a dress onstage at one of his concerts, everyone understood that it was a gimmick which is part of a performance. A rock concert is a venue in which shocking things are expected and not out of line. It’s not the same as a man wearing a dress when he goes to the grocery store.
When a man wears a dress, not only does it reflect a desire to rebel for rebellion’s sake, it also reflects an obsession with clothing. Suppose you live in a community in which everyone wears a red shirt on Fridays. You grew up in this community. The red shirt on Friday custom has been in place for centuries. Suddenly you say that you’re going to stop wearing red shirts on Friday and wear some other color instead. You say that alternative clothing choice is your “self expression” and some other color better “reflects who you are inside.” That choice seems narcissistic, and it also seems to indicate an unhealthy obsession with clothing. What would it even mean for a different color shirt to “reflect who you are inside”?
Side note: Kilts are not dresses. Dresses are generally lighter, more frilly and more elegant, while kilts are generally more sturdy, rough hewn and functional. The different clothing norms for the two sexes stem in part from men’s and women’s different personalities. It’s not totally arbitrary.
As a man who occasionally wears dresses, I loved this article and once considered writing something similar. In spaces like gay gatherings, wearing a dress feels harmless, but when I cross-dressed just out and about in the city during peak woke, it felt like committing social terrorism. People didn’t know how to react, fearing they’d become a viral video. It’s inconsiderate to force that dilemma on them.
Kilts also bear in mind the difference in men and women of waist to hip ratios.