If you don't like board-shorts, don't wear them. If you don't like thongs don't wear them. If you don't like leggings don't wear them. If you don't like skirts don't wear them. If you don't like gay marriage don't marry a gay. I am not gay but I don't go round telling gay people they are wrong. I don't stand on the street telling gays they are going to hell, or calling other Americans libtards. There was a time when people thought men with long hear or earrings were gay or cross-dressing. Where I grew up Priests wore cassocks, as did choir-boys like me. Scot's men wore kilts. On black and white TV Liberace costumes still dazzled. We laughed at Dame Edna, and rocked out to David Bowie. Robert Plant, lead singer of the hard rock band Led Zeppelin, would wear a women's blouse on stage, for every show. Superstar rock band Queen did a whole rock video in drag, but was banned in the USA. I am sure some of our parents generation were apoplectic at the 'cross-dressing'. In the UK there were many skits on TV with men playing women, and of course we have a tradition of children's pantomime shows where the lead women is always played by a man. But being English we laughed and got on with their lives. In the USA slavery, color and gender rolls were far more defined, both legally and by social norms and the media of the day. While there was a time when the rich in the USA gave generously to schools, libraries and museums - it seams of late that when they are not buying media companies so they can set the agenda, they are mostly funding churches and divisive politicians. Outrage and hate seem the currency of the day, be it over paper straws or penguins in children's books. It was not very long ago that in some places black folk could not votes and had to leave town before sunset. When women were not allowed to open a bank account without a man co-signing, or wear pants (trousers) in public. In the USA Mary Tyler Moore was the first woman to wear pants in a US sitcom. Advertisers were so mad, writers limited her to "one pants scene per episode." We have come along way. For example no longer lobotomizing difficult women. But as many men have discovered, not everyone likes to see a man wearing a thong. Maybe they associate thongs and bras with women, and for some deep sexual reason feel personally affronted when they realize the wearer is a man. This prejudice seems stronger in the USA and other machismo societies, where gender rolls are more strictly policed. I grew-up in Europe and did not live in the USA until the early 1980's. Back then many Americans were very homophobic, so riding a bicycle around town in a speedo or wearing a thong on the beach made read-necks see red. Times have changed. Gay men are more accepted. Gay women are coming out of the woodwork. I am not gay but I smile when I see a gay couple holding hands when walking down the street. I am glad they feel safe to do that in my town. Similarly I smile when I see a man brave enough to drop his shorts and wear a thong, especially if I was the thong wearer who set an example and gave him the courage. But even I have prejudices: For example I find male and female nudity to be fine, but don't like men who use nude beaches or thonging as an excuse for sexual exhibitionism and dick-waving. Don't give thongers a bad name by wearing large mesh or totally transparent thongs. The news media is not going to differentiate but just report "A man wearing a thong was arrested for public indecency." Which then makes people think it is against the law for men to wear thongs. We are post Mary Tyler Moore. For the most part. n the USA most people are no longer uncomfortable with women wearing men's cloths. Although there are still some men wigged out by butch gay women in overalls or a smart suit. We still see neanderthals get mad when a women athlete 'looks too male'. I suspect feeling uncomfortable with women wearing men's cloths, or looking too manly, or men wearing skirts, is partly latent homophobia - and partly some innate animal sexual confusion about sexual pray. It may be triggering a deeper dinosaur part if the brain. Many years ago there was a book called "Dinosaur Brains: Dealing with All Those Impossible People at Work" by Al Bernstein. I bought it thinking it would teach me magic skills for dealing with difficult people at work. What it taught me was it was not them, but me, that needed to change. They were doing things that directly registered deep in the dinosaur part of my brain without being processed in the frontal cortex. Directly triggering feelings of irritation and anger. I have since come to realize this not only happens with dominance displays at work but with sexual signals too. Like smells and sounds, they go directly to the dinosaur part of our brain and instantly trigger reaction and emotions. When first wearing thongs in public my brain would react to dirty looks and be highly triggered by the slightest negative comment. It took self-will to develop the courage to discount and ignore the chattering monkeys and to fully enjoy positive feedback. It took self-control by me to recognize power and dominance displays at work were triggering emotions deep in my brain, and to willfully overcome and ignore them. In the same way I had to willfully decide to overcome my initial discomfort around gay men. When younger I did not mind men in dress or caftan, but an advance or even a wink from a gay man made me uncomfortable. That is something I had to think about and willfully overcome. Now I see it as a complement, in the same way I see the same action if it was by a women. This was a long LONG way to say, if you are wigged-out by other men wearing skirts, this is probably a problem in your head, not theirs. Also, they probably don't live anywhere near you, so not actually something you have to worry about today.

Thank you so very much JM_runs for your words of wisdom. This world would be a much better place if we all practiced just a little more tolerance towards others that don’t fit in to what’s considered the societal “norm “.

It would be nice if skirts became more common and acceptable for men to wear. I have had the luxury of wearing skirts in Key West the last few trips I have taken there. One trip I was there it was super humid and hot out to the point of being uncomfortable. While chatting with a friend she jokingly recommended buying a skirt to wear out. I thought about it and said f it, why not so I went to Ross and found a couple that fit and bought them. I wish I would have done it sooner. Give it a try, it's only fabric. Unfortunately humans have put guidelines on what gender should wear what.