Quote Originally Posted by Jock Scot View Post
you chaps wearing the kilt out of its natural surroundings are putting yourselves there to be "sniped at". Surely you must expect comments like this?
From what I'm told, one could probably argue that even the Scottish Highlands are out of the kilt's natural surroundings nowadays...

Instead of being nice and polite about such off-hand remarks, rather than ignoring them, perhaps it's time to start telling people exactly how rude they are.

Hindsight is 20/20 but perhaps for a woman such as the one descibed by the OP, the best solution may have been to interrupt her and say something like:

"Ma'am. When you woke up this morning, I doubt you said to yourself that your goal for the day was to find someone who dresses differently and make fun of them... I know of very few people who would be THAT offensive.. But perhaps you don't quite realize exactly how rudely you are behaving at the moment. It would never occur to me to walk up to you, a perfect stranger, and just start bashing your clothes, hair and appearance. How would you feel? What would you say to me if I went and did that? What makes it acceptable for you to do that to anyone?"