I have a question for guys.

I don't give a fuck what kind of shorts you wear in Australia, or why you wear them.

The OP is from Alabama.

 

I can't wear short shorts in public because I don't wear underwear. All my junk gets exposed too easily.

 

Not rewarded for trying with their appearance, which is why there are so many fat slob straight guys out there

 

But you said so many in the sisterhood get rewarded for caring more about whats in their bank account than whats in their pants. What is the sisterhood and how do they get rewarded for caring whats in their bank account?

 

This whole situation is crazy on at least two different levels. First, it violates a standard rule of fashion, which is that everything that goes out of style comes back in 10-15 years. Apparently, traditional short men's shorts are gone forever, maybe because so many young guys make comments about the old look being gay. Most straight American adult men seem to be a bit homophobic, or at least they think they should be.

Second, it's one of the worst examples of extreme hero worship, in a country that regularly takes this much too far. If you've ever followed NBA basketball at all, then you know that Charles Barkley has never been shy about expressing his opinions, and it won't surprise you that some of his comments at the time of the uniform rules change had to have a lot of profanity bleeped out for TV. It was one of those rare times when he actually agreed with commentator Bill Walton on anything. Their consensus was, "Why the fuck should everybody else have to wear what Michael likes?" All these years later, we're still asking the same question.

At first, it was only the sporting goods stores that changed over. Within a year, all the mainstream department stores had followed them.

This is one of only two examples I can think of where men's fashion is more absurd than women's fashion. The other example is the idea of having to wear a suit and tie on a hot summer day.

 

Yeah, Karen, I think that sounds right, not that I followed basketball all that much.

I have always been rather anti-fashion. After all, my hero is Jerry Garcia and I don't even own a blazer or suit. But the fashion lovers always say shit like fashion exists to allow you to express yourself. Bullshit. Fashion has dictated that I wear long shorts that I look stupid in and it has been that way for a very long time. Is it going to take another male celebrity who dares once again to wear short shorts to make them popular again?

 

Maybe. I wish somebody would go ahead and do it, because some guys have great legs!

Or maybe, declining homophobia will fix the problem. Some young guys are secure enough in their masculinity to not be constantly in a panic that something they wear might make somebody wonder if they might be gay or bi. They can wear whatever they want, with confidence.

In general, men don't have as many fashion options as women. I don't think that's fair or necessary.

 

this is what i look like in shorts lmfao poor casper

 

Maybe that's related to the very curious phenomena that guys in high school never take showers at school anymore. I was so surprised when I discovered that, because I thought that with our porn-obsessed culture, guys would be more willing to go naked, but the best explanation I've heard is that young guys are afraid of being seen by homosexuals in the showers.

 

In Massachusetts? Wow. Didn't see that coming. Sounds like a story from a red state.

When I had to take gym class, showers were required. On our side, the big shower had individual partitions. The guys didn't have those. I always though that was nasty and gross. You know, water splatters.

The guys' gym outfits used to look better than ours, which were kind of baggy.

 

I have a hard time believing this but then again I'm not looking into what high school kids are doing in the shower.

 

Yeah, I found this out when I was a public high school teacher. One day I played tennis and went to shower and found out that the showers didn't work. When I asked about it, that's when I found out that guys don't take showers at school anymore. Why would guys be so afraid of the showers that they would be willing to be less attractive smell-wise? It seems to be fear of sexual abuse, at least that was the most popular reason I got.

 

I don't think it is the fear of sexual abuse, really. I'm not sure at all but I find some peer pressure issue more plausible. Also, showers after gym class are often skipped here as a whole (probably to save time or something? I'm not sure) so it seems not something that primarily comes from the students themselves.
That some (not nearly all) choose to shower with their underpants/swimming gear on seems weird to me too but again, more likely some peer pressure issue than the fear of being sexual abused imo.

 

I don't think it's a fear of sexual abuse at all...

When I was in high school nobody showered afterwards. According to my girlfriends and many female friends chicks didn't either.

It seems to me that it was a combination of being somewhat insecure during those crucial physical and emotional developmental years, and simply not wanting to stand around naked with members of the same sex.

Perhaps its a generational thing as well. I've always noticed that the only people (really most often the ONLY) men who get naked to shower after a swim at public pools are men over the age of 50. You just don't see younger males doing it.

 

i don't know where all you people are from, but you would have been made fun of if you didn't shower after gym class at my school. actually, some of the girls didn't shower, and they did get made fun of for it.

 

Now, men over 50 grew up in a sexually repressive culture where censorship was rampant and nudity was strictly forbidden. Young men today have grown up in a culture where they see naked bodies and erections and sexual activities frequently and where actual sex happens much more easily, too.

So, don't you think it's unbelievably weird that young men will shower in their underpants to avoid being seen naked? If anyone had done that when I was a kid, they would been ridiculed. I've heard many different explanations, but nobody seems to really understand why.

 

They do see more nakedness almost everywhere than people that were kids 40 years ago. Perhaps that's why they got more issues about how they look? I can imagine they are more self conscious than kids were in a time when you never saw eachother naked except after gym class or after a team sport game (and that was labeled as normal then, as it seems to remain to be in most team sports btw, so you'd just accept it). The change seems still strange but not unbelievable strange. Society has changed alot in this regard over the last 50 years.

 

I guess that was true in all urban areas. In the middle of nowhere, where my grandparents lived, it was still acceptable prior to puberty for kids of both sexes to play naked at the neighborhood swimming hole and in those old cheap, plastic backyard pools that everybody used to have. Everybody saw that as totally nonsexual.

 

That's a good explanation. Perhaps (I would say definitely) people are more self conscious than ever, and we all know people are generally more self conscious to begin with.

 

Growing up in suburban Maryland, I never ever saw anything like that. I don't think I ever saw a naked guy until I went to junior high school and had to shower after every PE class in big open shower rooms. I felt extremely self-conscious, but everybody had to do it, no exceptions.