dress down for ISBA 2018!
In preparation for the ISBA meeting next June in Edinburgh, I bought a kilt! (A cheap acrylic version o
f the real thing, sold by a company called Tartinista. As shown next, when getting ready for a night-out at a Kenilworth curry restaurant by bearable if sub-zero temperatures, the tartan of the kilt is Black Watch, for a Highland Regiment.)
Although I do not foresee a huge follow-up (!), I’d still like to suggest we all wear kilts at the conference, both as a celebration of Scotland and as a gender neutral support for an all-inclusive ISBA. [Needless to say (?), let me stress here this is a purely personal initiative, with no backup whatsoever from Visit Scotland, the ISBA Exec, from the Program Committee, from the Local Organising Committee, or from safeISBA!]
Xi'an's Og 
March 3, 2018 at 7:37 am
Wearing men’s clothes from a culture you don’t belong to is not the show of support you think it is. (Also if you’ve been to a rowdy Burn’s night or thought about the context, you’d probably notice that easy access to genitals is not a positive feature.)
March 3, 2018 at 9:18 am
Ah, a perfect opportunity to express my befuddlement at the concept of cultural (mis)appropriation. Indeed I just cannot grasp why on Earth I cannot enjoy a custom or costume partaken by some of my fellow humans simply because I cannot establish the “right” genetic stock. Which “authority” is going to decide where I belong and where I do not belong?! (And the second part of the comment just strikes me as being plain sexist.)
March 3, 2018 at 7:35 pm
I’m happy to disagree on the first part (my opinion is that if you’re of a dominant culture it’s polite to wait to be invited). It also wasn’t a critique of a person deciding to wear a kilt so much as a suggestion for doing so as a (group) act of solidarity.
On the second I’ve been in rooms with enough drunk men in kilts who don’t ordinarily wear to be concerned that it’s probably not a stunningly good suggestion for a conference with a serious sexual harassment problem. I have no problem having a low opinion of men in this particular context (no matter how sexist that seems to you).
March 4, 2018 at 5:31 pm
The question remains, though! Who is to decide I belong or not or just invite me? (As it happens, although I do not want to turn it into an argument!, I first had a chat with a local about the kilt purchase, enquiring about his opinion. Which was unreservedly positive.)
March 5, 2018 at 6:26 pm
As someone who attends many events involving kilts, I have (thankfully) never had a problem with anyone exposing themselves to me. Perhaps I just manage to avoid the particularly rowdy/drunken ceilidhs?
Walking through Newcastle at night, my conclusion is that’s the drunken part of the event that’s the problem. Not the clothing.
March 5, 2018 at 9:12 pm
Thanks, Colin, for the comment. I completely agree that drunken is the problem!
February 24, 2018 at 4:29 pm
La question posee pqr la reine Victoria a propos du kilt reste d’actualite.
February 25, 2018 at 9:58 pm
Je ne pense pas..!
February 24, 2018 at 7:52 am
Where’s yer sporran?
February 24, 2018 at 10:15 am
I could not afford it!!! But I discovered on my first night out having no pocket calls for an alternative…
February 24, 2018 at 10:51 am
Also, if it’s cold you can wear the sporran on the inside.