eles
...@PHYSICS.UNC.EDU (Shawn Mehan) wrote:
> ch
...@novell.com (Chip Clark) writes:
>> [...] if Scots feel I am (by wearing the clan colors) making their history
>> a joke, I would like to know.
> Don't get me wrong. Take pride and do it well! Wear what you like. [...]
> I am not even remotely suggesting that all americans are playing "Dress Up".
> I am simply saying that there are many, many twits out there who simply want
> to wear a kilt because they think it is cool, which in itself is fine. But
> when they think they are actually being true to form, it makes some Scots
> wince.
[ toe-curling anecdote deleted ]
On top of this, most Americans don't really get the social meaning of kilts
here. There are, as I see it, three main ways the things are worn:
- very casually with none of the fancy trimmings, either just with a plain
leather sporran or maybe a nylon bum-bag, and usually a sweater, hiking
socks and Doc Martens. Some people use this as genuine work clothing (for
forestry, etc) but it's also often adopted as an urban image. Goes with an
up-yours working-class identity and a sticker on your chest opposing water
privatization. The tartan is likely to be army surplus Black Watch.
- the whole bit with the black jacket, tasselled sporran and topaz-handled
knife in your sock, as worn to a wedding or a graduation party. A lot of
middle-class Scots have done this but they'll usually hire the gear for the
occasion.
- something in between with the topaz-handled knife but a tweed jacket, as
daily clothing rather than for special occasions. This can mean one of
two things: upper-class Tory bampot(*) or right-wing nationalist bampot(*).
The Scottish aristocracy likes to ponce around in this gear. This tends
to be what Americans get sold on, since publications aimed at the Scottish
diaspora love to promote an image of Scotland as a fantasy-novel society
where commoners and aristocracy live in an idyll of social peace. In fact
an American adopting this dress code is signifying alignment with a class
the great majority of Scots have regarded with loathing and disgust ever
since the Highland Clearances. Even the far-right element in the Scottish
National Party that goes for this image and its associated cultural politics
is minute; the SNP members campaigning with their IT'S SCOTLAND'S WATER
banner on Saturday mornings where I live in the East End of Glasgow would
never dream of wearing kilts, they know how it would alienate people. I've
literally never seen anyone in a kilt on the street within a mile of my
flat in the six or seven years I've lived there.
(*) "bampot", or "bam" for short, means something like
"self-important obsessionally deluded fruitcake".
[ followups to soc.culture.celtic ]
--
-- Jack Campin -- Room 1.36, Department of Computing & Electrical Engineering,
Mountbatten Building, Heriot-Watt University, Riccarton, Edinburgh EH14 4AS
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