Men In Skirts

From a comment on BitchPhD about the shocking report on women in science recently discussed in the Times:

That therefore on the social side of things feminism has succeeded to a large degree in opening up the prestiguous options in the "male valued system" for women, yet has failed to open up the "female valued system" for men? (women can wear trousers but men can't wear skirts...) And that it also has comparatively failed to raise the relative public esteem of the "female valued system" vs the "male valued system"?

Clearly the answer is for men to wear skirts. As there are many wonderful reasons why trousers are convenient for women, there are also a number of advantages for men in skirts.

1. Hot, sticky summer weather - jeans are too hot, shorts are too binding. Skirts let a nice breeze circulate around the moist regions.

2. More man leg! This one's selfish. Shorts are generally too tight or too baggy - they are unflattering, but skirts skim the body while at the same time offering a good glimpse of delightful man legs.

3. One more option for evening wear.

4. Can easily change into your bathing suit on the beach when there is no changing room if you are wearing a skirt.

5. Dudes don't shave their legs anyway.

6. Why the hell not? If it's good enough for the Scots, it can't be bad.

Ah, but wait ... despite the manifold practical advantages, a bloke in a skirt would look like a girl!!! And who can think of a more cutting insult than that?

In other news, I am giving a lecture this evening with two other women. Getting dressed this morning, what with the fracas over boob-gate fresh in my mind, gave me pause. Does this shirt accentuate my breastesses to a distracting degree? Turns out I don't really care, so long as I don't look frumpy.

But it got me thinking about sexual objectification. Fact of BOOBS overriding all other information about the speaker, at least for a minute, in the minds of some male listeners? Sometimes I see talks given by attractive speakers (okay, rarely, but it does happen) but generally this is in its own little box while the talk itself is in another little box in my brain. Hot guy giving talk = hot guy giving talk = pleasant surprise. But hot girl giving talk = BOOBIES!!!

I wonder if men are less good at compartmentalizing in these situations. Was considering how I would handle a classroom situation if I thought there was too much attention on me as a boob-vehicle at the expense of as a vehicle for information distribution. I mean, what do you do when people refuse to take you seriously because of something you can't help or hide, should you want to?

(I don't want to hide mine, by the way. They're quite nice. You can totally look at them, but just don't make a Thing out of it, this is all I ask.)

Now I am rambling. I have too much work to do to sit here and ramble about boobs.