I just came across this poem by Vernon Scannel in his Collected Poems 1950-1993
It is a fact – or would have been until
About half a century ago –
That any picture showing Jack & Jill
Would carefully preserve the status quo
And represent the boy as wearing some
Type of trousers with his manly shirt
To clothe his legs & privy parts & bum,
While Jill of course would wear some kind of skirt.
Not quite the same today. Some women wear
Trousers all the time (I mean as fact
As well as metaphor). Most choose a pair
For work or play, some simply to attract –
On certain female shapes they look sublime –
And yet I sometimes feel, I must confess,
Regret for those lost days, that faded time
Of whispering hem, that unambiguous dress.
I’ve often wondered why it’s always been
The woman clad in skirts, the man in breeks –
At least here, on the European scene –
Though come to think of it, the ancient Greeks
(The males I mean) wore skirts, the Romans too,
And both held to the view that those who wore
Trousers were barbaric; it’s still true
Some Scots wear skirts, by which they set great store
There are three more verses which I won’t repeat here. While sympathetic to an old man’s view that “There is something magical/In women wearing skirts” my feminist self won’t let me
