Are you behind the times?

I sure hope so. I would have emphatically agreed with you up until about six years ago. But then things started changing. I wrote a post about it when I began to notice that it wasn't just the occasional boy who was wearing real shorts again, but that many boys were doing so. See link below; that post also has a link to a brilliant essay by Kevin Esser whom Edmund discusses below. This summer I spent a few days in the town where I grew up in the years before the onset of the glorious cord shorts/tubesocks/ OPs era. No boys ever wore shorts to school. Even in the hottest weather, jeans were the only acceptable pants for casual wear. Only the occasional boy would dare to wear shorts -- usually macho boys who favored tight denim shorts rolled to the tops of their thighs to attract girls (they did -- I saw it). Anyway. when I was back there this summer after a long hiatus, I couldn't help but notice that all boys -- I mean every last one -- were in shorts. Admittedly, it was hot. But the great majority of the shorts were well above the knee and often above mid-thigh. (I particularly liked a salmon pink short short worn with sneakers and athletic mid-calf white socks and matched with a stylish athli/leisure top -- saw that look fairly often.) Now admittedly we're not seeing genitals framed while girls are allowed to flaunt their boobs and butts in a way that is still a trifle off-limits to boys. But there's been progress. Rejoice in it cuz there ain't much. SR (Boychat.org link) The Long Shorts Nightmare is Over.