Dress Threads

[Keb 0]

Dress Threads

Keb’s Personal Log, Stardate 50506.29

 

It didn’t take me as long as I expected to change into my uniform. Tovan, for some reason, disapproved of my working on the shuttle in a dress. People seem to assume that whatever they’re used to wearing when participating in an activity is the most comfortable thing, the safest thing, and the most natural thing to wear, and if you step outside of that boundary—through color, cut, weight, anything—they wonder how you could possibly manage to do what you’re doing, wearing that.

 

“Aren’t you hot/cold? Doesn’t it get in your way?” I got asked that all the time when I was a teenager doing historical reenactments. If different civilizations on Earth could manage to wear certain garments and do all the many daily things of their lives, if civilizations on other worlds could wear what they do, why should we wonder how they managed? The most difficult garment I think humans ever wore was probably the toga. I mean, you look at the ancient Greek and Roman statues, and they’re holding up the trailing kilometers of fabric just to show off, and you wonder—how did the senators manage to commit the murder of Julius Caesar wearing those things? Wouldn’t one of them get his knife tangled up in his toga, or step on someone else’s, trip, and accidentally stab Brutus? But you have to remember, this is what they wore on a regular basis, and the really voluminous clothing was probably reserved, like our dress uniforms, for only special occasions. What a senator wore at home was likely much simpler, lighter, and more comfortable; what those who worked for him wore was probably likewise easier to move in. Medieval women wore dresses down to their ankles every day and worked the fields, cared for children, made the food and clothes, kept the shelters livable, herded animals, everything that’s required for a society to sustain itself.

 

If they could wear what they wore and do what they did—ten times harder, in physical terms, than just about anything I do on a daily basis, who am I to question the practicality of their dress? For the time, place, and activities they were engaged in—it was probably good enough, or they would’ve worn something else.

 

And though I wear dresses and skirts when I’m off duty just because I like them and find them comfortable, I doubt Tovan would have ever said a word about it if I had a “cultural” reason to wear them. It seems that because I’m human I’m expected to go with the flow—the culture of Starfleet, and Earth, is my culture.

 

I love my uniform, because I worked hard to earn the right to wear it, and because it is the uniform my father and grandfather wore. It is a mark of pride, a badge of honor, and I wouldn’t trade it in for anything else. But that doesn’t mean I like everything about it. Starfleet changes the uniform every so many years to reflect changes in culture, practicality, and fashion. Some changes are good; some aren’t. I liked the color on my father’s uniform, which is more muted now, but I like the fit of my uniform a little better. If I’d designed it, though…well, it wouldn’t look like it does. And, being me, I’d probably take a cue from the 23rd century and put skirts back on. Maybe even make the men wear skirts, just to show them that it’s not as bad as they seem to think. There were a number of cultures on Earth alone where men wore skirts and dresses, albeit calling them such things as “kilts” and “robes”. Why the pervading culture of modern Earth seems to forget this fact, I have no idea.

 

I also have no idea what the heck Terry Riker is thinking.