The only problem with the short shorts of the 1970s was the horrible white piping down the side of the thigh and around the leghole.
LOL
Bring back short shorts. Legs look good.
I will be more than happy to provide pictures of my hairy chicken legs to those of you who are into that sort of thing - and at no extra cost!
I saw an article in the L.A. times recently about how short 1970s style boardshorts were coming back. The manufacturers they interviewed said the shorter-length shorts represented an increasing percentage of their total sales.
But, for them to be a major factor, something else has to happen first. Men, or their SOs who influence their clothing choices, need to get away from the entrenched preference for bagginess. You know why 99% of guys shorts are still knee length at least? Because even “regular fit” ones are so baggy that the crotch dangles between the upper thighs where workout shorts used to end.
I think this has to do with reason #2 in the OP, although I think it’s not so much a case of bashing male sexuality as vilifying male anatomy. A certain degree of skimpiness and tightness used to be acceptable in shorts and trunks. Especially with trunks. Even though most guys never did wear Speedos, still regular trunks were quite short and tight, much like what most guys used to wear in the gym. You could see the overall shape of man’s body where the trunks covered it up. You couldn’t see the genitals, of course, but there was usually a slight bulge that you wouldn’t see on a woman, should she choose to wear the same thing.
What’s changed now is that the shorts or trunks are expected to be so baggy that they hang straight down off the widest part of the butt like a set of drapes, and that, viewed from the front, you should never be able to tell definitively that they are being worn by a man, unless you hear him talk or he otherwise exposes other male characteristics that aren’t taboo. It’s like with female Olympic athletes from strictly Islamic societies; they can’t wear even the baggiest pants for training or competition, because such pants state the horrific fact that they do have legs. Instead they have to run in flowing skirts. Just so, men are expected not to show in any way that they have male anatomy.
sven, I thought shorts were fairly common in Africa, or is that just in the bush?
AS for the top tier of countries in terms of economic and industrial development, Europe is certainly too cold, usually, for shorts, so that might be why shorts on adult men seem to be an American thing. Still, shorts are popular in Australia, aren’t they? Most people probably don’t know about Paul Hogan, but he was a prominent Australian comic and actor whose short shorts were part of his trademark look. By “short” I mean they didn’t hit any farther down than mid thigh; the overall effect was intended to be one of casual comfort on a warm day. I think Aussie fashions now dictate much longer shorts, as they do in America. They too have returned to a state of proper repression.
I find it interesting, and ironic, that as the role of formal religion in mainstream Western culture has decllined, we have not shed our repressions regarding nudity and skimpy attire. There’s a kind of panic-revulsion reaction to a guy in short shorts. They could be merely what we used to think of as fairly modest, like 1970s tennis shorts, but when people see that today they’ll go into a state of shock which causes them to exaggerate the situation. “OMFG! His buns are hanging out!”, they’ll say, when the shorts actually end a good two inches below bun level.
What we have seen for the last 20 years or so in men’s attire may represent the vengeance on the so-called ‘excesses’ of the 1970s.
Could we maybe, just possibly find some happy medium between an inch below the crotch and three inches below the knee?
Female legs, yeah. I don’t have any desire to see men in Daisy Dukes.
Thank you. The extremes just look revolting.
Yeah, men’s legs look just fine, but let’s not call attention to the fruit bowl.
Yes, it certainly is hard to see female flesh in America these days. :rolleyes:
A curse upon those foul below-the-knee men’s shorts.
Why deny the thigh. Well…
Short shorts are both uncomfortable and fucking ridiculous looking. What more reason do I need?
How are they uncomfortable, unless you mean ones that are sized too small anyway?
I had a slightly weird experience that relates to this. I used to have a pair of super lightweight OP workout shorts. Of course they were long, like they all are now, and the material these were made of was so light it let the air through, but was still completely opaque. Pretty comfortable, actually. So, one time at the health club, I had finished working out, and gotten completely undressed. I was about to enter the shower area when I realized that I had left my headphones on the elliptical trainer I had been using. So I just put my t-shirt and shorts back on sans underwear so I could go back out and retrieve my headphones. Without underwear underneath, I was astonished at how these OP shorts felt. Like nothing, nothing at all! I swear to god, I had to look down at myself a couple of times to make sure I hadn’t flipped out and walked out of the men’s locker room wearing nothing but a t-shirt. Because that’s exactly what it felt like. So…yeah, I can concede that shorts don’t have to be short to be comfortable. But that begs the question, if long shorts in this wonderful material are so comfortable, why wouldn’t short ones be even more so, under certain conditions?
A lot of the answers here are more concerned with what other people want to look at. In some circumstances I think people ought to be able to just wear what they want to wear. We dress for other people, but we also dress for ourselves. If it’s extremely hot out and we’re doing physical work or what have you, I think anyone ought to wear short shorts if they want. Many women wear them who should not, if we go only by the opinion of the viewers.
I get a little angry about stuff like this. I just don’t like repression–and I also don’t think it’s healthy that males are held to a modesty standard that is so much stricter than in the case of females.
Hey, I’d be happy to see most *women * forgo the short short as well. They’re everywhere lately, and mostly on women whose thighs I should not be subjected to. My reactions have ranged from “Ugh” to “That *can’t * be comfortable, what with the chafing” to “Well *there’s * a yeast infection waiting to happen”.
For the most part, short-shorts show more than I want to see of anyone I haven’t expressly invited to undress. Like bathing suits, they’re okay on the beach, NOT on city streets.
You can wear what you want to wear. Who’s stopping you? Short shorts are available in this world, and if you can’t find them, you can always learn to make them yourself.
I don’t really see what the current fashion for longer shorts really has to do with repression. Who, exactly, is repressing you? The manufacturers who are making the shorts?
In a decade or so, I bet we’ll see short shorts on guys again, and it will be normal. It’s a fashion, not a moral dictum.
I’m a survivor of the 70s, so I still have some pretty traumatic memories of the mishaps (and “mishaps”) caused by short shorts and the male habit of sitting with the knees far apart. And while I’m something of a connoisseur of the male form, there is absolutely nothing sexy or appealing about a glimpse of hairy scrotum. Nothing.
But I’m all for a return to shorter shorts for men, as long as they cover the fundamentals.
Good sense has little to do with Fashion. Fie upon you, sir, for bringing it into this discussion!
I can’t speak for all of Africa, but in Cameroon shorts were pretty much just for children or for people playing sports. Wearing them around town was a bit comical and only a few people imitating American TV shows would do it regularly no matter how hot it was. Certainly there were no short-shorts seen on people who were not doing sports.
- golf clap *
These are my favorite parts. Thanks for an amusing treatise on one of the truly burning issues of our times. 
Drive over to the UGA campus or stroll through the Patagonia store in Buckhead to see plenty of shorts that are above the knee. Granted, they aren’t all that short, but they’re a few inches shorter than what the typical 40-something male would normally wear.
Because extremely few people, women and men alike, look good in short shorts. They’re absurd, they don’t leave anything to the imagination, and seriously, no one wants to see your pasty, flappy thighs.
I saw a guy running on the track the other day. Middle aged. Lots of flab. Wearing an-inch-below-the-ass spandex shorts. There aren’t words to describe what a bad idea that is.
(said by a chick who doesn’t own any shorts cut below mid-thigh)