How did pants become associated with masculinity and skirts associated with femininity?

If I had to pull something out of my ass I'd say it's because pants are better suited for traditionally masculine professions like soldiers or laborers and so men started wearing them more and more, while pants vs skirts doesn't really make a difference in home-making and other feminine stuff so women just stuck to skirts.

Yeah, it really is mostly about functionality.

Research into fashion habits has shown that the use of underwear increased dramatically after 1200, both on the continent and in England, as more people moved into towns. The International Medieval Congress heard yesterday that the rural habit of wearing nothing under a rough smock or leggings was frowned on as peasants developed into tradesmen and found themselves running shops with customers of the opposite sex.

As underwear became more popular, so the supply of rags increased significantly
Rags from discarded pants and knickers led to a 13th century breakthrough in the making of cheap paper, undercutting expensive parchment

This cheap paper was available when William Caxton set up England's first printing press in 1476.

>pants are better suited for traditionally masculine professions like soldiers or laborers
How

Protects the entire leg, crotch etc.

Togas and such were aristocratic wear after all

It cover your leg without limiting the movements

Roman soldiers wore a Sagum, which is a shorter robe, and laborers wore a tunic without a cloak.

Really, pants are great when it's wet and cold but actually not THAT practical besides. Some professions, such as working a steel mill or oil rig or something, necessitate pants but those working conditions obviously didn't exist when the robe was getting phased out.

Unless your pants are loose it does restrict your movement to some degree.

Horse riding and a cooler europe during the dark age and medieval age.

pants were superior for riding a horse and staying warm. Men rose horses and were outside a lot as they did war and work.

women got to stay in skirts because they didn't ride horses for war or do heavy outside work in the winter.

Skirts let air flow through and that way girls vaginas don't small as bad. Mind you that this in ye olde days.

>>Yeah, it really is mostly about functionality.
functionality is achieved through high waist pants, not low raise pants which we have today.

We also live in a post-functional age.

This. Fun fact: before the Barbarian invasions Romans thought pants were effeminate

but then they learned how much better it was to wear pants while riding horses in a war.

People did not wear pants untill the late eighteenth century though, at least not trousers. There is a continuous development of european men's fashion that starts with woolen hose in the dark ages untill the late renassaince and reformation period, when for whatever reason people started wearing hose with breeches. Breeches were used untill the french revolution when burgouis fashion became more popular among europoors.

You can clearly see how it is due to cold weather and not practical reasons such as riding - tight hose is really terrible for day to day usage

I think it has as much if not more to do with giving birth.

oh hey, an actual good post. of course its ignored.

Id resisted it too if id live in a 40°+ desert/mountainvalley

you wear pants for riding war horses astride

I enjoy wearing pants

wait how did excess cloth translate into paper, which is made with wood pulp?

Clothes back then were made of wood.

>cloth translate into paper
look at your banknotes, pleb

I have never seen a pale german in my life. Ive seen plenty of pale italians

Alchemy my man #staywoke

I live in NC and the state is hot as fuck. I often just wear basketball shorts for whatever I'm doing.

Fuck pants.

Women used to be pregnant a lot back then so naturally expanding clothing like skirts and dresses made more sense than pants.

women started wearing skirts because you can just bend over, flip it up and start fucking
source: my ass, but I think it's worth considering

Roman soldiers were already wearing them centuries earlier on the northern frontiers and they had become ubiquitous centuries before the end of the West. The Roman army being entirely non-Mediterranean origin by the 2nd century probably helped its proliferation.

Still, what they wore was less revealing

Makes sense.

True but exaggerated, probably at its height during the republic when Romans were true Romans, not the case during the Empire

...

I read that most Europeans (and especially the men) generally went commando until the 19th century.

Some studies actually suggest that wearing tunics/kilts is better for men, as the lower temperature increases sperm production.
emaxhealth.com/1506/wear-kilt-increase-sperm-count

because before sanitation women needed to keep their crotches well aired

spotted the welfare babby

Periods.

So that men can access women easily
[spoiler]Don't take that seriously, I just have a really bad CFNM fetish[/spoiler]

They're called trousers you fucks.

Better ask why folks started wearing pants in the first place. Or breechcloths.

>yfw Alexander and his cavalry wore miniskirts and no underwear
>yfw they would all have their dicks out in the open if they charged against the wind

This is not how I want to picture ancient warfare

tight hose not good for horse riding? Have you like ever seen a televised dressage thing?