Mrs. solost and I have been watching Love on Netflix (the Judd Apatow series, not the porny movie of the same name also on Netflix). It’s about some 30ish characters in the LA area and their relationships. On one episode we recently watched, a few couples went bowling together. The female of one of the couples was complaining about her husband or boyfriend wearing shorts in public, saying he should have put on some “big boy pants”. I then realized that the others were all wearing long pants. This was a freakin’ bowling alley, not a fancy restaurant or some similar place where shorts would be discouraged. And it’s SoCal, which presumably is very warm much of the time.
Now me in the warm months, especially now that I work at home, I live in shorts and t-shirts. I feel sad when the days get cool and I have to break out long pants. I can’t remember when I did a load of laundry with long pants in it. Is “long pants only” a California or regional thing? I have heard that it’s easy to tell an American tourist in Europe in the summertime because they are the only ones wearing shorts. Is it a “grown-up” thing? I’m almost 58, so by most measures I think I’m a grownup.
And my preferred mode of shorts is cargo shorts. In addition to, I think, not being stylish for anyone anymore, are they not supposed to be meant for older folks? I’ve heard a few times “no one over (X) age should wear cargo shorts” (I think I heard Marc Maron say it on his WTF podcast once, and the cutoff age was 40). I love cargo shorts- all the useful pockets!
Nothing will affect my love of, and wearing of, shorts, and specifically cargo shorts. At my age I don’t give much of a crap what I look like in non-formal settings. Just curious.
It used to be a rule that (in most contexts) men didn’t wear shorts in public. But it also used to be a rule that (in most contexts) women didn’t wear pants in public. And that men wore ties. And that nobody wore jeans, except in rugged outdoorsy situations. And so on.
Here in South Florida most males of any age wear shorts most of the time. You can and will see men in shorts in places like Morton’s Steakhouse eating $50 lobster appetizers. Nobody is aghast.
I certainly wear shorts most of the year, albeit not to Morton’s. When dining fancy my wife likes to dress up and I like to match her. Seems disrespectful of her not to match her style.
But I have retired my daily wear cargo shorts for Billabong Bermudas. Not due to my age (63), but due to changing fashion. At least around here, cargo shorts are seen as real working-class attire now. Fine with a toolbelt & a dirty T-shirt, not so fine otherwise.
If that’s you, totally go for cargo shorts. It’s not me, so I don’t go for 'em. At least not anymore.
Having grown up in SoCal with family still there now and me visiting semi-regularly, my take is that nowadays SoCal is similar to SoFL in their attitude to cargo shorts.
One point about both SoFL & SoCal is that everyone, be they rich or humble, young or old, is far more appearance-obsessed than is common in flyover country.
Yeah, you occasionally see people wandering around here in public in PJs and bathroom slippers. But you also see plenty of hard-bodied, tanned, put-together people staring down their noses at those few slobs. In the Midwest you’d find plenty of the PJs & slippers crowd, but very, very few of the hardbody down-the-nose crowd.
So the show may be calling attention to the more appearance-obsessed coastal vibe, but not quite getting it right as to what is fashionable and what isn’t right now. Or maybe they think they’re “dumbing it down” so the flyover denizens will get it. Having a character say: “Shorts? In a restaurant? Eewww! How scruffy!!” is simple direct shorthand backed up by obvious visuals.
All guesswork on my part & worth every penny you paid for it.
I had a former coworker who grew up in India, who always wore long pants no matter how hot it was (And it can get really hot here). He told us that in India (at least at the school he went to; I don’t want to generalize about the whole country), boys had to wear shorts with their school uniforms. Then once they reached a certain age or grade level they “got to” wear long pants. So that pretty much ingrained in his mind the idea that shorts are for children, and grownups wear long pants.
I don’t live in an extremely hot area (Pacific NW) but I don’t notice any difference in how hot I’m feeling with shorts vs. jeans, even on hot days. My mid thigh to ankle region isn’t where I sweat, I guess.
I live in the Rocky Mountains, and as everybody likes to say, if you don’t like the weather, wait 15 minutes, and for that reason, I wear jeans for much of the year. But in the summer, when it gets hot, I change to cargo shorts, especially when I take the boat out. When it’s 90 degrees outside, I don’t want to wear jeans. If there is a sudden cold or rainy spell, I can always switch back to jeans until it warms up again.
Florida. Sarasota area.
Cargo shorts are dressing well. Bathing suits are casual.
We rarely go out anyplace fancy, but I do have chinos and bowties (from a prior life in Connecticut) just in case.
That’s inherited from the British tradition of graduating to long pants being a “thing.” It was a thing in the US, too, but died out long ago. If you read old books you can sometimes find mention of it. There are also expressions like “When I was in short pants …” meaning when they were a kid.
That way lies madness! That’s just rationalization for wearing crap in public. The country can go from “cargo shorts are A-OK” to “people of Walmart” in a heartbeat. Not caring what strangers think is actually selfish and/or egotistical. You’re not the only person in this world. Because we are laughing at “you”. We’re just polite enough not to do it to your face.
As for the OP, I think knee length shorts are kinda dumb. Not really shorts, not really pants. They’re like some poorly-imagined science fiction “fashion of The Future”. If you’re going to wear shorts, make them short. I’m talking 1970’s NBA, Magnum PI short. Go short or go home!
I think it’s more that they are trying to show you what kind of person the wife is, someone overly concerned with appearance.
American society isn’t a monolith. I’m sure that there are cultural tribes in which it is considered inappropriate for an adult man to wear shorts in public.
