Maia,

Anecdotally, I've observed similar-ish.
Typically more queer dances have more men-passing people in skirts, but I suspect strongly it's just that these are gender non-conforming men and nonbinary people wearing skirts and dresses because they're queer and comfortable in them in day to day life.

Contrast this with "men in skirts at contra" which seems to me to be more about "I wear this clothing _only_ at dances." 

So, I agree, I wonder if cishet men are wearing skirts at contras now less frequently. I wonder if the increase in queer-coded femme-y fashion on men / male-passing people has somehow changed the context and cishet men who used to dance in skirts aren't any more partly because of this?

Louise, 

thanks for starting this topic. This has been an interesting read!

In dance
Julian Blechner
Western Mass

On Wed, Sep 11, 2024, 6:47 PM Maia McCormick via Contra Callers <contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
Here's another question to throw in the mix: ENTIRELY ANECDOTALLY, I feel like lately (last few years, maybe post-lockdown?) I've been seeing fewer men* in skirts than I did before. Does anyone else perceive that shift? Anyone have theories about what's going on here?

*people who I know to be men or people I perceive to be men, as imperfect as this is

Cheers,
Maia (in Brooklyn)
--
Maia McCormick (she/her)
917.279.8194


On Wed, Sep 11, 2024 at 6:26 PM Mary Collins via Contra Callers <contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
Louise,

dresses?  I believe that I've seen some hetero men, with children, in diamond drop earrings and dresses, I could be mis reading them too....

I really don't care except they often look WAAAAY better than me! lol....dance with who comes at you no matter how they appear!

Mary
"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who couldn't hear the music." - Nietzsche

“Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass ... it's about learning to dance in the rain!” ~ unknown


On Wed, Sep 11, 2024 at 6:12 PM Louise Siddons <lesiddons@gmail.com> wrote:
Thank you to everyone replying!

Re: twirly skirts have been around for a long time: for me, “the turn of the 21st century” encompasses the 1990s (which is 35 years ago, which may or may not feel to any of us like “many many years” ago but objectively speaking is before many of the people in the contra community were born :) 

Part of what I want to establish is that this is not a new phenomenon — even though it hasn’t been systematically documented as far as I (and fwiw, a colleague of mine who is an expert in men’s and queer men’s fashion history) know. 

For me, all-gender contra skirts are interesting partly because they appear to separate the garment from its gendered connotations quite successfully — I don’t think most contra dancers these days would look at a male-bodied dancer wearing a skirt and say “ah, they are being effeminate”. 

Dresses, though, are a curious subcategory in this regard, as I would say that in my dance communities they are still used to signpost queerness. 

Louise. 

On 11 Sep 2024, at 22:50, Mary Collins <nativedae@gmail.com> wrote:

[snip]
skirts for all genders have been around for many many years now!

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