Crossdressing...Just how does a woman participate?

[pelathais]

Originally Posted by Pressing-On

I don't know how you can say, especially, the point in bold when it's been stated a million times that women in the rice fields of China have always worn them. I'd have to drag up lots of past conversations on this subject and I sure don't have the time for it.


I can agree with you here.


I'm not sure I agree with you here, because the origins did start with the men, as you stated - "men girded their loins." So, in that respect, I think in ancient antiquity, it already started to be a man's garment which developed into, as you say, recently universal.

Now, I will have to drag Pel's post to me, because it is probably just as simple as he states.



Probably just that simple. Thanks, Pel!

Most observers of history seem to associate the development of the "bifurcated garment" (pants) as being a response to the needs of men riding horseback in colder climes. I personally don't know of any conclusive evidence for this, it just seems to be true because these are the people that brought this particular fashion into the Mediterranean world.

We have relatively little information about the "Northern Barbarians" compared to the relatively rich histories we have of the Mediterranean and Mesopotamian cultures. In the warmer Mediterranean region, men wore skirts while riding horseback - see any illustration of Roman, Greek, Egyptian and etc. cavalry uniforms. When the Romans moved north through Gaul (France) and crossed the Rhine into northern Germany, they began to wear "leggings" for warmth

In the North, men wore "pants" because they rode horses. The "cultured" and educated men (the druids, for example) wore robes and skirt-liked tunics as they dwelt in the cities and spent little time on horseback. Notice too, the clerics, missionaries and monks of the Dark Ages all wore skirts - a practice that has been carried into the modern age by Roman Catholic and other clerics. These were considered "educated" and "cultured" men and they tended to shun the rough customs and apparel of the warriors, farmers and merchant travelers.