When Men Wear Skirts

Good morning, afternoon, evening...where are my menz at?
I've been thinking about you recently and the cage y'all lock yourselves into this idea that men cannot wear anything other than trousers and still remain men. And I want you to think back really and ask yourselves where this idea came from.
If you're not a European of English descent, it is likely that your ancestors wore something other than trousers on a daily basis and yet they were and looked more 'manly' than you do.
Then came toxic masculinity in the form of germanic traditions and suddenly there was a whole list of things that men 'can't do' and remain men.
And somehow y'all adopted it and decided that masculinity can only be defined in Anglo Saxon terms.
My hero when it comes to men's fashion is Junior Nyong'o. Lupita's brother is the complete global citizen, the renaissance man who does not let your narrow, short-sighted ideas limit him from being all he can be. One day he's starring as Hamlet on Broadway, the next he's writing lines for Too Early for Birds at Kenya National Theatre.
Today he wears jeans, tomorrow he's in a skirt.
He's the very epitome of what freedom looks like.

Men love to police women's clothes. This is a well-known fact. What is less acknowledged is how much they police men's looks. There is a very narrow idea of what is acceptable to wear and still be considered manly. With the "new gentleman" fronted by Pharrell Williams, Pretty Flacko and Lil' Uzi Vert (yes!) we're seeing a resurgence of freedom in fashion. Of course, this is a factor of people going back in time, learning their history, discarding the lie we have been told for years...that ours is bad, theirs is good.
Donald Trump might be a disaster but he really illustrates that it's an ill wind that blows nobody any good. As a result of his blatancy and just general awfulness, he has forced people to confront who they really are and what values they hold.
This blog post is just going to consist of pictures I've seen of mainly Africans, not wearing trousers, not having shorn or short hair, wearing jewellery...just generally being all they can be. Let us remind ourselves that we don't all have to live in that one box, with that one look. Being adventurous is a good thing. Let us embrace it.

The Empire of Ethiopia lasted from 1274 to 1974. Emperor Haile Selassie wore his hair in curls and plaits.

Kingdom of Ghana: 700 - 1240 ad. No trousers in sight

Asante Kingdom in Ghana: 1670-1957 what even are trousers?

The Hausa of Nigeria: 1000 to 1903

Please note the complete lack of anything resembling trousers in all the pics. Here are some more.

Zulu Chief in his basically unmentionables

It's not just Africans though. In the Scottish Highlands for example:

Men in Kilts

Why they practically wear skirts.

Somalis have never really changed their way of dressing..

Somali Sultanate: 9th century to 1910

Let's branch out to other continents. New Zealand for example.

traditional Maori clothing

The sad part is that we all know this. We know that there is more to clothes than just wearing pants all the time. So many ways to style hair and wear jewellery. But most men, especially African men and black men in general, seem stuck on this Eurocentric idea that manhood = trousers.

Let us set ourselves free people.