Can we change prejudicial beliefs?

My Wife and I have come to a workable agreement, for now.

I am free to enjoy my kilts at my choosing; however I must respect her choice to not accompanying me should I be kilted. She will however accompany me out one time a month as a show of faith. I will not push her too far on the subject as a show of mine. I will plan an outing to a single place with a limited time frame in mind. A sports bar trip made in mid afternoon on a Sunday? Perhaps I can build slowly on overcoming her fears.

It would be extremely difficult, and probably impossible, to change all of a Trouser Tyrant's, (namely my loving wife’s) prejudicial beliefs, all at once. To be most effective, we must choose the one or two beliefs that are most susceptible to change and which are most necessary for achieving our goal. We must identify, and believe, in our own goals, or all effort will be in vain.

I have chosen the Braveheart approach, the safest against the possibility of a total defeat, but not without risk.

My first step is to acknowledge the beliefs that skirts are exclusively female and that wearing skirts promotes effeminacy. Even in the honesty that a great many “women’s” skirts are nothing more than one leg cargo shorts available to men or women.

The Braveheart approach addresses these concerns by distinguishing kilts from women's skirts, by emphasizing their masculinity. We do this by pointing out, that very macho men have worn skirts/kilts throughout history and still do in many parts of the world. This approach would seem a lot easier than trying to uproot the deep-seated prejudice against women’s skirts on men. This is their view:  "The first step to cross-dressing." Even though more and more “unisex” items are available, every item we wear MUST be clearly men’s on the label, not so for women.

The Freestylers object to such gender distinctions. They contend that skirts are skirts, shirts are shirts and that it makes no difference whether the clothing a man wears was originally intended for men or women. After all look at how many items are sold that are totally male designed, other than the tag. Women can enjoy the fact that; every single item available in the men’s department, of JCPenny’s is available in the women’s.

However, when used against Trouser Tyrants, this argument could easily backfire. It might simply confirm their prejudicial belief that a man wearing any type of skirt is "cross-dressing." And a great many of these see a kilt as nothing more than a skirt.