Quote Originally Posted by Beery
I think my problem is that I live near Boston, in Massachusetts, and while people here are liberal by tradition, they are very conservative (if not downright xenophobic) by nature. Basically, if you're a male and you're not sporting a beer belly, a tee-shirt and a baseball cap, the attitude is that there must be something wrong with you.
So I have a question for you....

Do you buy into the attitude that you just explained to us? You know, the "if you don't look like this, then there's something wrong with you" attitude?

I bet not.

And if you don't, then why are you considering conforming to it?

I'll make a public confession here. The first half-dozen times I went out and about with a kilt on, I loaded up a HUGE chip on my shoulder and paced around. I stood up taller, I stuck my chest out a bit. I met a whole lot of people eye to eye, though with a smile. If I got a hint of a look from another guy I looked them good and hard straight in the eyes with a smile and a challenge in every fibre of my body language. Nobody said a word.

I didn't come to blows with anyone, I wasn't an aggressive jerk. But I radiated a challenge to anyone and everyone. Nobody took me up on it and I've gotten a lot of stares from Hispanic men around here.

Now that it's almost a year later, I don't worry about it. I'm back to being plain old me, maybe standing a bit taller, but I don't radiate "challenge" every singe second that I'm outside. But if I hadn't done that, I might not have gotten to where I am now, which is a place where a kilt is just another piece of clothing, although a nice one and a fun one and one that people notice.