No, but I’ve done 6-hour straight midday Marching Band practice for 4 years in Arizona summer heat. I do run sometimes, but I try to avoid the 109 temps so I don’t know how it is at peak temperature.
Where do you draw the line at which it’s ok to care about what ridiculous thing your SO wears? Is it never ok? If someone lives for wolf t-shirts and white bucks with white leather belts, do you just have to accept it or leave him? And these are for running so the silly long shorts are actually functionally problematic too. Zsofia didn’t even ask for advice on how to trick her boyfriend into wearing them, she just solicited opinions on why men are afraid of their knees.
I want at least 10" of inseam on my shorts. That shows knee but doesn’t send out that hey-lookit-my-package vibe. It’s discreet.
I’ve been with my wife almost 20 years, and never once given a crap what she wears, nor would I presume to try to tell her. I also can’t see why I SHOULD care. It’s completely inconsequential and unimportant. We have real concerns to worry about, like kids and a mortgage. we don’t have time to care about clothes.
I have no problem with shorts, but my boss sure did. Who would have thought Speedos would cause such outrage?
Maybe your boyfriend would prefer to run in a sweet pair of jorts.
My husband wears whatever kind of shorts he wants. I wonder at his choices sometimes (he absolutely refuses to wear anything but cotton socks and runners in summer, not sandals, and this is a very hot, sweaty guy who would benefit from cooling his feet off), but he has his reasons, and it’s his body and his choice. I have also learned that guys have rules about things like this, and they are arcane and complicated.
Men have become self conscious of their legs and I don’t know why. Soon they’ll stop wearing short sleep shirts because their armpit hair sticks out. Then they’ll agree to start wearing short sleeves again, but only those who shave their arm pits.
Then all men will start shaving their arm pits, claiming that arm pit hair on men is disgusting, and that men don’t want to run down the street looking like he just stepped out of a Geico commercial. They will claim that shaving is just good sense. They won’t like it when the stubble starts to grown back. Unshaved stubble makes you gay. This will be guy logic. Don’t try to reason with it.
That’s it! I saw it quite recently and definitely wasn’t looking for it, and it certainly lasted longer than a split second (long enough for me to gawk, look at my SO, nod in sync, look back and giggle with glee as it peeked out a few more times).
Love Ritter’s quote at the end about asking Nickelodeon to air both an edited and un-edited version ('Because sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don’t). RIP.
Also, ladies, keep in mind that shorts on guys can be like skirts on women – depending on their height, proportions and gams, some lengths look better than others. Though I think baggy basketball shorts look good on exactly no one.
If the only way to avoid catching teh gay is to look ugly to women as well, I suppose that is the price they must pay.
Heaven forbid one of his buddies sees him in homo shorts. Seriously. I bet he is thinking this.
(no offense to anyone meant)
Thank the Fab Five for increasing the length of mens’ shorts.
I would never wear shorts above the knee. They feel weird and look stupid on me. And yes, my peers would make fun of anyone our age who wore short shorts (I’m 20).
Heh, my future husband did both the daisy duke shorts and the shorts over the sweat pants. There was also the occasional fall-out because going commando was all the rage as well. Ahhhhhh, the late 60’s/early 70’s…sex, drugs, college and rock and roll. We didn’t know how good we had it. If it wasn’t for that pesky Vietnam war and the draft it would have been nirvana.
I have a theory that may or may not apply to some men.
You see, (straight) men like to look at women. They like the way women’s legs look. Then they look at their own legs, which are guy legs and don’t look like women’s legs. Then they think “gross, that’s not what I want to look at”. Well, no, of course not, it’s women’s legs that want to look at. What they don’t understand is that many of the qualities that make them go “ew, gross, guy legs” are qualities that women actually like in men’s legs because (straight) women want to look at men’s legs, not women’s legs.
This possibly incorrect and somewhat incoherent theory has not yet been proven true or not true.
They only invented gross hairy man legs in the past ten years? 
I was in the same boat as your man until very recently. I’d been wearing board shorts for swimming for a long time, but I just bought a pair of actual mid thigh trunks. Just an inch or two longer as Magnum P.I. himself seen here:
http://artstuff.typepad.com/magnum-short-shorts.jpg
I’ve got the leg muscles for it, so why should I have to be so modest? I’ve been thinking that the whole long shorts for men thing is overdue for a turnaround anyhow. I don’t know if I could sport my father’s 70s and 80s classic “coach shorts” in public, but I’m cool with shorter swimwear so far.
Sorry, I’m with him- I hate shorts. I hate anything higher than the ankle, and unless there’s a compelling reason (exercise, 100 degree heat, or wading in water) I won’t wear them. If I am going to wear shorts, they’re going to come down to just above the knee- no higher. Showing bare skin on my legs makes me feel like a little kid.
This isn’t all men, just (from my observation) American men. Europeans don’t have a problem wearing short shorts, and the super-long shorts that reach below the knee are a definite Americanism.
If you want his world to collapse, you could try buying him some rugby shorts to run around in. 
I’m with him, too. I haven’t worn shorts above the knee since primary school, and I’m happy to keep it that way.
I have a drawer full of shorts that I never wear, but that’s because a few years ago I put on about thirty pounds (which I’m now working on losing) and most of it seems to have taken residence below my waist. As a result, the shorts that I can actually still fit into look like overstuffed bratwurst. And of course since they never see the sun my legs are pasty white with occasional accents of blue veins.