"You gotta represent with your yarmulke"

I overheard an interesting conversation at my favorite Manhattan synagogue this past Shabbat/Sabbath. One of the guys was saying that he used to wear a kippah all the time, but no longer does so, because he felt that it constrained his behavior. He felt that he couldn't walk into a bar while wearing a kippah, even though Jewish law doesn't not forbid it, just because it wasn't done (iz pas nisht?). He also felt that he couldn't go to a museum while wearing a kippah, lest he be seen looking at a nude, which might "look bad" (mar'it ayin?).

In the interests of chinuch (education), I'm linking to an old Shlock Rock video, even though it's Sefirah (during which many observe restrictions against listening to music), because the video illustrates the point of the above conversation perfectly. The words to the song are here, but, in the video (hat-tip: singer/songwriter/bass player and sometime blogger Mark Skier/PT), Etan G. described an actual incident in which he felt constrained to behave himself in a more civil manner because he was wearing a kippah.