Dad Who Wears Skirts For Son Recalls 'Scuba Steve' Dad Earlier This Year

By Jeff Stone | August 29 2012 5:24 PM

Nils Pickert says he's nothing more than a dad who wears skirts for his son. Living in a traditional town in southern Germany, Pickert's 5-year-old son has been at the center of attention because of his affinity for wearing dresses and skirts. To help his son cope with the ridicule, Pickert started doing the same thing.

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In an interview with German feminist magazine EMMA (you can find a rough translation of the conversation in English by clicking here) Pickert said, "Sometimes men just have to be role models" and he doesn't mind making a fool out of himself in the eyes of his neighbors.

See the picture of Pickert and his son walking through town here.

"Not even 100,000 inhabitants," Pickert said of his hometown. "Very, traditional, very religious. Plainly motherland. Here the partiality of my son are not only a subject for parents, they are a townwide issue."

Pickert also admitted that people's opinions of a grown man who wears skirts will probably vary.

"Yes, I am one of those fathers who are trying to raise his children with gender equality," Pickert said according to The Daily What. "I'm not one of those pseudo-intellectual justice, and then, as soon as the child is born, falls back into the comfortable and clichéd gender roles."

Pickert decided to join his son in wearing the clothing designed for females when the boy was hesitant to wear the clothes to school in fear of being laughed at or bullied. Gawker reports that when the two made their way across town, one resident stared so hard she walked into a street light.

As the news made its way from Germany to the United States and around the world, the Twitterverse was very supportive of Pickert and his son.

"This German dad deserves Dad Of The Year award for supporting his dress-wearing son," tweeted @Ahriman92.

The "dad that wears skirts" phenomenon swept across the Internet after an American father did something slightly less daring. In July, the father posted a YouTube video of himself taking his son to the park while both were dressed as Spider-Man. That dad was able to get his son to do his homework after making the promise in an idea borrowed from "Scuba Steve" in Adam Sandler's "Big Daddy" movie.

That video, which you can watch below, also inspired viewers to call for the Dad Of The Year award for putting pride aside to inspire a son.