2018 is promising to be a great year. It is the year I finally graduate college for the second time. First time was an associates degree, this time I will have my bachelors degree in business management. I am excited to be done. Not just because it is finishing with something that I have been working on for several year, but because it will free up more time to do the things that I have not had as much time for. 

     I will be hitting the sewing room more working on new creations. I hope to renew old things into new things. I want to create something completely new for me and finally I am excited to learn new things in the sewing room. 

     Sewing however is not going to be the only focus for this new year. I will be working both in front of the camera and behind the camera, though mostly behind, to bring you new photographs and break  into videos. I also am looking forward to adding more blog postings and even some traveling to 2018. 

      Yes I said traveling! As of right now I have plans to travel to the Seattle area in late March and early April. I also am looking forward to spending the 2018 holiday season back home in Minnesota! There will be other short day trips or weekenders tucked in to my schedule but those are the big trips for this year that are planned as of right now.

     I hope that you can overlook my long absences here in blogging land. I have been really busy with college, working a full time job while maintaining some sanity with my wife, kids and myself. With college out of the way that will be a huge relief and I will not feel guilty for working on some of my side projects.

     I hope that you can join me for my 2018 adventures and...

Happy New Year

SKIRTING THE ISSUE, PART 3

     Why skirts? Because wearing pants contradicts the message that we have been preaching about our health. The unfortunate part is that if a man in today society (here in the states especially) their health can be compromised by physical and mental bullying. This is the stigma that must be changed in order to safely move forward with male freedom.

     Time and time again men hear that they should be wearing boxers instead of briefs. What good does this do? It is fine if your walking around your house in your boxers without pants on, but put a pair of pants on things start getting cramped down there. There is some relief if we stand up but still most pants are a little snug. We have a tendency to spend most of our waking hours sitting down at a desk. That leads to a continuous shifting and trying to be comfortable. Yet there is still no great solution.

     Through out the world you see cultures where men are wearing everything from vashti in India to a sarong in Sri Lanka. There is also the hakama from Japan and the kilt from Scotland. We should also not forget about religions. Look not farther than the Catholic and Lutheran churches. Their priests and pastors wear the cassock and alb. Wiccans and other neo-pagan religions are also known to wear ceremonial robes. Yet (in my opinion) some of the most vocal critics of the male skirt come from religion.

     As you remember from my previous posting. I am not advocating men to raid the women’s departments at your favorite clothing store for the perfect dress. If men started wearing something other than skirts there would have to be a specific market designed around those articles of clothing. I am also not advocating the wearing of anything that would restrict our movement. Sorry guys I am not interested in seeing you in pencil skirts. It is very important for men to maintain freedom of movement so that we can continue to be the protector of our families and property. That is what was bred into our being to be the hunter and gatherer and protector.

     

I hope that men can finally be freed from the restrictive clothing that we have just become so accustom to in the western cultures. Allow us not to be cramped when sitting and give us a better reason to be wearing the boxers that we often told to wear for our health.

SKIRTING THE ISSUE, PART 2

     One of the ways we show our identity is through the use of clothing. We define our own fashion to fit our individual personalities. The problem is, if we fail to dress like the mainstream society thinks we should dress then we get negatively looked upon. Will how we dress really affect how we perform our jobs?

     When was the last time you saw a gothic individual running a board meeting in any company? Most of the time if these individuals are seen at all in a business it will most likely not be in an office building where the attire is socially set and set by the policies of the company. A few years back a directive from a place that I worked stated that we were no longer able to wear black on both the top and bottom at the same time. Black pants required a different color shirt and if you wore a black shirt a different color of pants was required. This would prevent our clients from being uneasy with us.

While being goth in the business world is not acceptable it is even less acceptable to be, dare I say, a “crossdresser”. I am not saying that I really want to slip into a long gown for the next formal event I go to, or that I desire to march down the isle in a beautiful wedding dress. Though I might be able to pull it off if society’s thinking was different. Actually, no even I have my limits. I would not be able to get that fit just right, even if I worked out and beefed up my chest. Seriously, there is a limit to even where I would define women’s wear and men’s wear.

     I would like to see men be allowed by societal standards to wear a skirt. Nothing more. Some men have tried to bring this to mainstream society but have failed. Other cultures allow for skirt/dress like garments to be worn so why can’t we bring this to the United States? Could a man ever feel safe walking down the street in a skirt? It can happen but it is going to take a fundamental change in societies thinking.

     

Stick around for part 3 and I will explain why it makes sense to change our ways and if men could just get over this stigma of being different then things would change and different would become the norm.

SKIRTING THE ISSUE, PART 1

     In today’s society we brainwashed into thinking the way a normal society wants us to think. We are made to think that society’s normal must be our normal. I believe that these barriers that are holding us hostage must be destroyed and we must work at recreating a new normal.

If one decides to go against the societal norms they are considered to be outcasts and substandard citizens. Society has a fear that if we accept these individuals into our realm then we will become like them.

     It is time to make a change. A time to stand up for our differences and a time to stand up for others who are different. How do we do it? How do we change the way society thinks without becoming outcasts ourselves? The problem is that changing the way society thinks is not something that can be done from the bottom up but must be changed from the top down.

     There is so much talent that is wasted in this world because of the outcasts that fall outside of the societal norm. Let us not be afraid of what we do not know and learn about our fellow humans that we have removed from our normal society.