ADDED: The commenters get the answer easily. The men are all wearing long pants. If you have trouble understanding my opposition to men in shorts, look at this photo and visualize all the males in shorts. If you don't see the problem, I hope you are not dressing yourself.
Can you see what it is?
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98 comments:
Your son?
None of the males in the photograph are wearing shorts?
No shorts is my guess, too. Although, I can't imagine no shorts is a city wide trend for men in LA of all places.
Everywhere you go looks like an ad for wine spritzers?
It looks like Europe (in this photo), the women are well groomed and well dressed and the men are not in shorts.
Shopping.
Uhh, can someone please clue me in as to why shorts on men is wrong!? Chicks dig seeing my legs, right? C'mon, tell me they do...
There's something I like about L.A.
Is it the designed European style that apes European style without in any way capturing it? The seventy-five percent of the men who look like they stepped out a JC Penney Presidents' Day Sale catalog? The white pants on the guy in the middle? His grotesque black sandals? The MC Hammer white dress off to the top left? The garish fakeness of it all?
Very good!
Yes, look at those men. They are all wearing long pants.
mountainshout, maybe you are one of the men who look really good in shorts and choose the right kind of shorts or you are a man playing a sport where the standard dress is shorts (that is, bicycling but not golf).
I'm likin' the leg action of the ladies myself...perhaps if the fellas were in lederhosen!
Plus it's not Wisconsin. Even Brett Farve is taking it on the lam.
It's also possible that mountainshout is a male who wants to attract only those females who find the look of grown men in short pants appealing. Certain women are attracted to self-infantilizing men.
Me?
I like the way the woman in the op art dress appears as if she’s hovering.
Gravity . . .
It has its uses, I suppose.
Women get all the breaks fashion-wise. It's hot as Hell and men are supposed to wear a necktie and jacket. Who wears a jacket when it's 90 degrees? Men dressed up, that's who. Meanwhile, women get to wear sun dresses.
If men in shorts bother you, maybe you should just get over it.
There are plenty of women's legs I could gladly do without seeing and flabby triceps flapping in their flowery dresses.
There's enough fashion blame to go around.
Yes, they're all wearing long pants. But the gentleman with white pants is wearing SANDALS! One of the men on the side at a table may be wearing them, too.
Aarrghh! Long pants with sandals! "Dress" sandals, to boot.
Seven's description of "grotesque" only touches the horror.
Growing up in the vast ticky-tack penumbra of LA, I never felt the need to wear shorts. When I moved to Boston, people began to point and laugh because I was wearing long pants in summer. My kids wouldn't THINK of wearing long pants from May to September. So, to a certain extent, I've been forced to adopt the East Coast habit of shorts, horrible as my legs may be.
But through it all, I have NEVER worn the footwear from Hell: SANDALS.
Professor, please tell us that your not noticing the sandals was merely a jet-lagged oversight, overwhelmed as you were by the relief of no shorts.
The percentage of men with shapely legs is just about the same as the percentage of women with same.
Ergo: shouldn't there be a rule barring all women with stick legs or cankles from wearing skirts?
Sauce for the....
Nice pic Althouse. the women's legs look mighty fine to me.
Shorts are comfortable in the summer. I have a six inch long and two inch wide scar on one of my legs and could care less how it looks. My comfort is what counts.
It's true that it is a terribly sexist rule you have, Althouse. If the genders were reversed, we as a collective humanity would suffer far, far, far fewer cankles.
Perhaps an age limit regardless of gender. Say, 20?
Come to think of it, t-shirts and other short-sleeved shirts on men also make us look less adult.
Anything short of a tuxedo and I feel like a nine-year-old.
Hey, it's not like AA is making rules. She's expressing a preference. So what? Mountainshot will meet the right kind of mate because he'll wear shorts (which he likes) and the female will like seeing his legs and so she'll get something she likes. Great.
As for the problem AA is asking about, I guess there's no kids so men in shorts would sort of add a childish element. Plus, the women's legs look nice and tan and my eyes go to them (because I'm a man or because they're the only bare ones?) So it would be a problem to see men's hairy legs interfering with the women's nice smooth tan legs.
I don't care how good I look. Without the Althouse Seal of Approval, it's meaningless.
Are you sure you are not in Vegas?
Your picture could of been taken inside the Venetian in Las Vegas. They have a faux Italian landscape including gondolas and a fake sky ceiling. It is very very similar looking to the background of Ann's picture.
"If men in shorts bother you, maybe you should just get over it."
They'd better not bother me!
As for the double standard, in fact, I'm not seeing any women in shorts here either. I think the women are overdoing it with the short skirts and heels, but they are putting effort into it, and if the men had shorts on, their efforts would seem quite idiotic.
AJ: That's so funny because it's exactly what I said at the time!
All women are beautiful in their own ways. You guys are Philistines. But if you are so adamant that you don't want to seen a certain woman’s legs, then let me suggest you buy her a maxi dress for C.enne.V available exclusively at Lee Lees Valise. It comes in black, teal and a multi colored print that is all the rage.
The maxi dress reaches from the bustline to the floor with bare shoulders that can of course be covered with a shrug made to match up with this dress. Available for a mere $68 this maxi dress is an essential piece for any young woman’s wardrobe, now very much in style and just right to assuage the ignorant comments of cads on the internet.
There is at least one woman wearing shorts in this picture.
Hmm, perhaps I'll have to rethink my approach. As a youngun', perhaps I'm given a little more leeway that some of those a little more...advanced in age. Eh, I'm just a college kid, but the girls like it, so what's a guy supposed to do. Although, I agree with meade, that grown men probably shouldn't wear shorts.
Click on the photo, and then increase the size. Look in the background on the stairs. Isn't that a man with a backpack on, wearing shorts?
No one's mentioned the smoker.
mountain shout,
I wouldn't say grown men should not wear short pants or short-sleeved shirts. We should wear whatever we like.
But if one wants to appear grown up and if one wants to visually appeal to women who have aesthetic sensibilities similar to Ann Althouse's, one has to dress for it. That's all.
Looks like a cheap movie set. Ersatz European and claustrophobic in feel.
Ahh, Althouse and the men in shorts caper.
What can I say: British men have pasty, knobbly knees, but there's nothing so fine as seeing tanned soccer player legs in a pair of shorts. Like my dad's. YUM!
(Err, yes, that was a little disturbing, but I'm sure you know what I mean, ladies)
And is that Chris walking in front of you, in the navy blue Adidas?
The women are all exquisitely turned out. I judge my cities by the flair of its women, and LA has rarely disappointed me.
NY, curiously, OTOH...
Cheers,
Victoria
The Via Rodeo ! That steep hill....and the noise pollution---but the limestone (travertine?) is distinctive.
And, they're having a tough time. Pierre Deux went out of business, at least at that location....I hope they are other branches. It was the only store worth going to. Retail is dead, everywhere. However, there's nothing like the Via Rodeo at Christmas. It's a completely different place, then.
Nat-n-Al's is over on Beverly Drive, (next street over) and you will see celebrities there....if you even get a table. (They open at 7:00 am, and that's probably the best time....Larry King comes at 8:00 am) I love their potato pancakes. Best I've ever had.
P.S.: My dad doesn't wear shorts, other than when he was young having a kickabout with friends. His gorgeous gams live on in my memory.
That's why I kept trying to tell Althouse she needed good clothes, and to plan her ensembles, very carefully.
If you go into Orange County, or Westlake, you'll need nylons.
A tight skirt, nylons and heels if you are planning to vist the Reagan Library, and frankly anywhere else if you want to turn heads.
I'll take a man in shorts over a man wearing flip-flops and white pants.
Shorts and Sandals = OK
Pants and Sandals = Not OK.
"A tight skirt, nylons and heels if you are planning to vist the Reagan Library, and frankly anywhere else if you want to turn heads."
Especially if you're a guy.
LOL Trooper. Is it washable or do I have to dry clean it?
Men in shorts? The only time my hubby wears them is when we are sitting on the deck and its over 90 degrees or we're going swimming.
We are soon going to go to Reno for Hot August Nights and there will be a zillion middle aged portly men in shorts with white hairy legs. Most will be wearing straw hats and sporting some sort of car related white T-shirt with a huge garish print spread out over their bellys. Definitly not fashion forward like the people in Ann's photo.
Not to be pedantic, but this is Beverly Hills we're looking at, not L.A. And this cobblestone shopping area is not just a subset of Beverly Hills, it's a subset of Rodeo Drive. Those men in long, white pants are probably not only not Angelenos, they're probably not Americans.
So, indeed, the Eurotrash that shops at the most expensive shops in the most expensive shopping area in the Western U.S. don't wear shorts. However, if we dolly back...
Pants and Sandals = Not OK
Ooh, Rocean, good eye. I didn't see 50-something guy with brunette Trophy Wife in the white trousers wearing black sandals.
Despite John Stodder's correct assessment overall, I do not think that's an Yourapeein chap.
I'm tempted to think he's Italian, but if he is, his choice of footwear would have him stripped of his Italian citizenship, so I doubt it.
Dust Bunny Queen, it is machine washable and perfect for a statuesque beauty such as yourself. When worn with the accompanying long shrug, it is perfect for an afternoon wedding or just for cocktails at the pool. Made to be California causal and perfect to be worn with a strappy sandal if the guys in the picture haven’t bought them all up.
I am behind the counter in the store right now so I am in selling mode. Resistance is futile.
After closer inspection of Sandals Guy and his wife:
They are not Angelenos, that's for sure. They do not have a polished air about them, at all.
They look like tourists who are trying very hard to look trendy. Notice the oversized Versace Buckle bag, in black yet (which is the colour of autumn '08 -- and therefore stands a good chance of being a Chinese fake since those are already out).
Notice her wide open Kentucky lass face. She looks like Loretta Lynn's younger sister (I say that as a compliment). Her hairstyle is fussy, as well.
Notice the Starbucks in their hands, the imprimatur of thirsty tourists everywhere. The man is even having an iced Tazo Chai.
We've already mentioned the sandals and trousers.
Have we finished canabalising these cows in the Althouse pasture enough?
Cheers,
Victoria
Oops. Skeletonising, skeletonising!
Thanks, John. Once I saw the sandals I figured they were "Eurotrash" or wannabees. If they were to wear shorts, they'd be way too short.
This does look like a bad European backlot at some studio - a Disney version of the French Quarter.
I think Sandals guy and his "niece" are both Americans. She certainly look tres American.
Or maybe German tourists. Many Deutsch have an "American" look. They don't seem "English" that's for sure.
But as you say, enough.
Wouldn't it be "funny" in a not so humorous way, if sandal guy or his niece were to be cruising the internet and come across this blog post and all of these critical comments.
"HEY!! Wait a minute.......that's me they're talking about!! Gee I thought I looked pretty cool /sigh"
This photo is not at all representative of "LA" (not that Ann or anyone here insists that it is).
15 minutes south of the location in that photo are the projects, where you can get yourself some crack (but sadly, no new fast food restaurants). And 15 minutes east is seedy Hollywood, where you can get yourself a tranny hooker.
It's a perfect day today. I think it'll hit about 80 degrees, tops, not humid but not too dry either. You don't notice the weather, which I love.
I'm glad you're here and I'm sure you're loving it! Live it up.
I suspect only two people in that photo were born here. Allow me to caption this (from left to right)
Smoking guy: Russian, standing next to his sister, and both his girlfriends (Russians roll like that)
Man dashing quickly behind the scene, very well dressed valet
Man in black cashmere top, white linen pants, Italian, and probably lives with his mother still.
Woman next to him in the almost Fusternberg dress, also Italian (and definitely not his niece).
Man in tie with nametag, doesn't count, he's working.
Gentleman in stripped T, and black jeans, woohoo! American!!!
Woman with massive (really, really massive) bag, also might actually be American, but visiting from Florida.
Man she's talking to, is angrily telling her, 'I don't know where you're car is, I'm not the Valet, what do I look Mexican to you?'
Woman in shorts that can be spotted in the distance between them, going to have to go with visiting from Hong Kong, but Japan is also a strong likelihood.
Silver haired-man chatting up blonde half his age, probably Swiss, maybe German or Dutch.
Just over his shoulder, heftier fellow, sitting and chatting with attractive short haired woman, visiting from Atlanta (or maybe Alexandria) (more Americans).
Finally, woman in hijab on the far right in profile, most definitely local, probably lives about five blocks from where this was taken, of Persian descent, but BH born and raised.
So my unoffical tally, about 3 to 1 Euro versus 1 in 8 Asian, 1 in 4 American.
Also, likelihood that at least one young, attractive woman (pictured or not), in this general vicinity is 'working' that day, about 65 to 75%.
(European men love contracting with escorts while in L.A., when the AFM is in town, it's almost like the Superbowl of escorting)
Also, can't say that I ever even considered recommending hitting Rodeo on your trip here, never found that place to be too interesting.
Everybody in this picture has too much money said he resentfully.
Spotless white clothes. Even their leisure is antiseptic. If you wish to know why Marxism for all its failures nearly conquered the earth observe these creatures. People who take this much pride in looking good while being pointless deserve the revolutions they inspire. Marie Antoinette kept in reserve a spotless white dress to wear in the tumbrel enroute to her execution. I see the same kind of fashion sense in this picture.
XWL
Very observant. Good get on the Russian - splay footed stance, trying to smoke like an American but not quite pulling it off. A couple of minor additions:
"woohoo! American!!!" is fondling his crotch, obviously trolling. Woman on left walking with friend in pink has noticed and is just beginning to comment.
Woman with massive cowhide bag is from a small, oil-rich country with no fashion sense. She is visiting her brother (standing) who is studying nuclear engineering at UCLA. Bag is required to be carried on shoulder because it is quite heavy, being filled with electronic components.
Couple sitting in foreground on the right (he jeans, she long blond hair, both in sandals) are definitely American, or at least she is. No European would place her purse in spot so vulnerable to snatch-and-run.
The guy in sandals behind the shades is Howard Dean
Of limited interest, but: men in Rome never wear shorts. No matter how hot it gets. A man in shorts in Rome is, virtually by definition, a tourist. A hated that. Refusing to look like a tourist last summer, I was baked!
Lurking in background, John Edwards and "friend".
"Refusing to look like a tourist last summer, I was baked!"
In Bolinas, CA, you'd have fit in as a native.
So Euro, so Great White North. Get over it, move to a civilized place where men dress to suit the weather. I work outside in the south and there is no way I would even survive in long pants. But I do wear shirts with sleeves. Short sleeves. There are some lines I will not cross ((wife beaters))...
William: Yes, Marie Antoinette's head was cut off along with many others. She kept a white dress to symbolize her purity of heart. In the end there were piles of headless corpses and a military dictator who did what a king should have done, like a particularly brutal king would have done it, dressed like the Emperor he proclaimed himself.
Russia worked out real well, didn't it? We now have a country losing population at the rate of 600,000 a year, health and longevity statistics of a century ago, vast pollution and a collapsed industrial infrastructure, and an economy, aside from mining and petrolium extraction, the size of Holland's. But the leaders of the Revolution wore plain, baggy business suits.
The Chinese, always practical people, have made a headlong retreat from Marxist-Leninism. The industrial part of the country now resembles a latter-day Manchester of 1819 in the way it treats workers. China is now rising to world domination on the backs of those workers, just as Great Britian once did. And the workers, although they can wear colorful polyester instead of the old, drab Mao uniforms, are treated no better by their modern dark, Satanic mills than their predecessors were in Manchester. The rulers now seem to dress in any way they want, just as long as they hold power.
Elites have worn gold-trimmed waistcoats and perukes, resplendent Imperial dress, business suits, or baggy green uniforms with little red stars.
By which suit of clothes would history say we ought to be governed?
"There are some lines I will not cross ((wife beaters))..."
Well you're not going to attract many Stella Kowalskis that way, are you?
I assume Althouse would also approve of this 'photo' by Manet as well. Follows the no-men-in-shorts principle -- just takes it a little farther.
"woohoo! American!!!" is fondling his crotch, obviously trolling."
I am 99% sure that that is Christopher Althouse Cohen, the fetching young son of the proprietor of this website. I'd watch myself if I were you.
This scene really does look like Disney World. Notice that there is not a single speck of filth anywhere on the ground. It's upsetting. I mean, in even the most fashionable parts of Paris, the ruling class has to sink their stiletto heels in piles of dog feces. And in New York, you can't trod across any street without stepping your Prada shoes in a puddle of urine-saturated newspaper and decomposing pizza toppings.
These people need filth. Maybe we can airlift some from Brooklyn.
Well, to be truly European in one's dress - as a male - one would need to have on those very gay male capris and sandals with socks on.
-rolling eyes-
If we were to follow Ann's Rules of Fashion (tm) we would indeed have most women in burka's after the age of 45, and certainly not wearing anything other than pants and long sleeved shirts.
Los Angelinos also weren't shoveling their homes and cars out of all the snow that hammered us in Cleveland (worst blizzard in 30 years!) when we had thought spring should've arrived already.
I think this gives Northeast Ohio men a right to get a little excited about breaking out the summer wear, including shorts. We know we won't be able to wear them for long. If you live in LA there's no novelty factor in it. I bet most men in LA wore shorts so often for a few years in their lives that they just got bored with it.
Also, my legs need to get a little sun and color when they can. I can't just hit the beach any old time all year round.
So are you using the guerilla photographer techniques?
"Not to be pedantic, but this is Beverly Hills we're looking at, not L.A. And this cobblestone shopping area is not just a subset of Beverly Hills, it's a subset of Rodeo Drive. Those men in long, white pants are probably not only not Angelenos, they're probably not Americans. " ---John Stoddard
Yes, but The Grove is the same way. The same antispetic, generic fake exterior, and the same fake- "jet-set" Eurotrash populates 'The Grove'.....
Sadly, it's like that all over LA, not just Beverly Hills. Either you've got punk Mexican gang-bangers with A-K 47s.....or you've got the cocaine/Ibizia/fake Continental losers, and their trampy girlfriend groupies.
Take your pick. No middle ground.
15 minutes south of the location in that photo are the projects, where you can get yourself some crack (but sadly, no new fast food restaurants). And 15 minutes east is seedy Hollywood, where you can get yourself a tranny hooker.
That's right. Something for everyone.
Wait, what projects are 15 minutes south of BH? Or is that a 3AM 15 minutes?
L.A. has the kind of weather that makes long pants practical. Today in Boston I was wearing long pants and I was miserable. I wished I had opted for shorts and sandals like all the other men around me. To heck with Althouse's approval.
"Sadly, it's like that all over LA, not just Beverly Hills. Either you've got punk Mexican gang-bangers with A-K 47s.....or you've got the cocaine/Ibizia/fake Continental losers, and their trampy girlfriend groupies."
Sounds great. Hello L.A. - goodbye Kauai.
The best is the faux party atmosphere that these establishments work so hard to put forth.
Remember: if you see a long line to get in .....if must be good.
Crowds = success
A crowd of people standing around, in line, exhibiting fake joviality, and simulated laughter..... you know that's where the in-crowd congregates !
I'd watch myself if I were you.
People who spend time watching themselves are of a type I don't care to emulate. And the picture speaks for itself. I merely suggest an artistic interpretation.
Are you making threatening noises? I quake.
All the men are short. Whether they are wearing shorts, or not. It's remarkable, but has not been remarked upon.
Mark
Well I just came back from a wedding at Sacred Hearts. The girl was part Irish and part Mexican.
She has a mariachi band playing in the church which will lead a procession to the restaurant, Marco Polo on Court for the reception at 6 o'clock. We snuck home and will catch the tail end of the procession.
It should be fun.
"All the men are short."
Short - but chick magnets.
"Part Mexican - Part Irish"
Hot-blooded and Hot-Tempered. She sounds hot.
They are all short overcompensators.
If the men are all short, maybe they are wearing shorts.
Rick Lee said...
L.A. has the kind of weather that makes long pants practical. Today in Boston I was wearing long pants and I was miserable. I wished I had opted for shorts and sandals like all the other men around me. To heck with Althouse's approval.
Amen to that, Rick. Today in Boston was an absolutely typical summer day: High in the mid-high 80's, humidity to match, if not higher, sticky but not intolerable—to those of us used to it. If you just moved here from LA, you'd be dying.
I had to wear long pants today, because I went to work, and I don't like wearing shorts around machinery. (The old scars don't need new friends.) But, like Rick, I was very sorry to have had the damn things on.
Having lived in both LA and Boston, I can tell you Left Coasters that the thing that drives men to shorts—even knobby-kneed types such as myself—is the bleeping humidity east of the Rockies. I've lived in places like San Bernardino, Barstow, and even 29 Palms. When I was a kid, I regarded 113 degrees as a cool day. But NOTHING (except maybe a trip to Houston one August) prepared me for the choking, sticking East Coast humidity. I can tell you from long experience that Boston in the frozen north FEELS hotter for a few months each year than anything I recall from the Mojave desert.
Sorry. I hate shorts almost as much as Althouse does. But I hate stewing in sultry airlessness even worse. Shorts don't solve the problem, but they help. Yes they do.
Next up: Pith helmets.
"Wait, what projects are 15 minutes south of BH? Or is that a 3AM 15 minutes?"
Washington Blvd is a little over 3 miles south of where the last photo was taken. Things get rough fast when you head south from BH. 15 minutes is probably generous, regardless of the time of day.
Ann, if you think guys don't wear shorts in LA, do some more exploring. I once heard a comedian say the people who hang out at Venice Beach make the people who hang out in (pre Giuliani) Times Square look like the Amish.
"The man is even having an iced Tazo Chai"
Venti! If they wanted to be convincing, it'd be a double decaffienated half caf with a twist. Or, if they were real Angelenos, a Slurpee.
Men should stop wearing shorts when women stop doing the visually disturbing things they tend to do.
Finn--I'm not sure we want to go there, but, being the naif that I am, curiosity has got the better of me. Okay...in your opinion, what visually disturbing things do women tend to do? For my part, women are not especially visually disturbing, but maybe that's just me.
For my part, women are not especially visually disturbing, but maybe that's just me.
I'm guessing Finn meant the way we emphasise our boobies with those low décolletages, and perhaps hip-hugging skirts which act as two-fold legs/hips magnets.
In short, yeah, I have no clue either why that's disturbing (unless you're from the Middle East or really, really square).
Cheers,
Victoria
I just got home from a nice event, a "Sound of Music" singalong at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans. Relevance?
I had no idea that so many New Orleanians, men mostly, owned liederhosen - the real deal, quality stuff, not a costume. So, Althouse, you'd have hated this - hairy legs abounded.
Lots of nuns with five o'clock shadows, too.
And a few excellent "brown paper packages tied up with string" costumes as well.
Today was an incredibly odd day for me, when one weird thing happened after the other -- like something out of a movie (Scorcese's After Hours comes to mind, without the scary Rosanna Arquette burns).
Amongst other things, two naked biker chicks were caught skinny-dipping in my condo pool, which we saw since they were being led to a police cruiser, starkers, as we arrived in the lobby.
(Please note to all the salivating gentlemen reading this, they were incredibly ugly, fat, masculine-looking women, one covered in tats over her Venus of Willendorf bod, so unless that's you're thing, it shouldn't perk any of you up. Their motorbikes were impounded, so that's how I knew they were bikers)
And amongst the other things which happened that day, I was taking snaps on Lincoln Rd. when a black chap came up to me and asked me to delete the photograph, very very angrily.
I was merely trying to copy Althouse! I nearly protested back at him. Unfortunately, I'm not sure he would've gotten the reference, so I didn't.
Instead, I channelled Professor Althouse's profession and said very lawyerly that there is no expectation of privacy in a public place and that I was within my rights. HOWEVER, I told him, I'm polite and would delete it if it discomfitted him so much -- which I did.
I couldn't help but to crack what I thought was a sarcastic, but innocuous joke as I did.
"Why? Are you a fugitive from justice or something?"
Before I could finish, he turned tailed and ran like greased lightning.
So that was my day. How was yours?
Cheers,
Victoria
Rocean observed:
Or maybe German tourists. Many Deutsch have an "American" look. They don't seem "English" that's for sure.
I would agree with you about the German bit, except a German man would've been wearing little white ankle socks with their Birckenstocks. His toes are peeping out, unbesocked, in rather thin-soled leather sandals.
And no, they're not British. I'm not going by any physical stereotypes (such as they're too dark, which they are), because that's a fallacy. We come in all shapes in sizes, and colouring.
Though she could pass for an Essex girl, a ladette made good, I think I know where he's from.
Not a mamone, though XWL provided an an otherwise amazing skeletonisation of the scene.
I think he's Iranian or at least, Middle Eastern-American.
And I totally see now that the chap to the far left is indeed Russian.
It's one of those 'wow, XWL totally nailed it' moments on Althouse, that make these threads so fun.
P.S.: As I guessed earlier, Palladian, I'm fairly sure that's Chris and no he's not fiddling with his codpiece.
Although that never fails to make me gross out when I see it done publicly.
Cheers,
Victoria
A few years ago women in this area had a practice of wearing super-tight low-riding pants and half-shirt or otherwise belly exposing tops, resulting in a whole lot of muffin top.
That was sort of disturbing.
Now I've noticed shorty-shorts coming back. They're sort of like what are called "boyshorts" or "hipsters".
So far I've only seen them on women who could actually pull it off--which is disturbing in one way--but eventually those who shouldn't will follow suit, bringing a different sort of disturbance.
From the last several comments, despite the expense and bad weather, there are times I really, really thank my guardian angel or whomever that I live in the Boston area. Not to be too smug about it or anything.
I know those female fashions will make it here soon enough, but they will be toned down and made frumpy, as befits the locals.
You have a hard time being a fugitive from justice in Boston, because everybody knows who you are and everything about you. "You don't sound like yer from aroun' heah. Who didja say yoah people wuhhh?"
And, of course, biker chicks would never be skinny-dipping in your apartment swimming pool. First, no apartments have swimming pools. Second, they may do that sort of thing over at Walden Pond, where they would be led discreetly away by Park Service rangers.
I do live in a bubble.
Well, I'm happy you're happy, Theo.
But...you know...the expense...and the weather...and the frumpy!
Blake: That's just it. But the weather here is not as bad as a lot of places in the Midwest. I think it isn't as bad as a lot of the South, but that's a matter of taste. No, the weather is the only thing weird and unpredictable about Boston. It's a place where wearing shorts and a parka sometimes makes perfect sense.
Otherwise, this area is about as steady and boring as you can get. Very little weirdness such as Victoria describes. It's got low crime, good schools, a very low divorce rate, a high percentage of churchgoers, and nosey neighbors. Privacy is a difficult concept for New Englanders, which helps that low crime rate. Despite our reputation for political liberalism, the Boston area is very socially conservative. A family sense almost envelopes you. Unless I was at one of the colleges here, if I were young and single I would be long gone. Having children, however, nothing is going to pry me out of here. I'm convinced that the 'burbs of Boston are among the best places in the country to raise kids.
Except it costs too much.
And, yes, the women's clothing you describe can be disturbing, especially on Boston women.
**Shudder**
Theo, Boston and New England in general sounds a lot like an English country village today.
One begins to think that the Pilgrims knew exactly what they were doing when they moved.
P.S.: Florida is made up of transients, freaks, and space cadets (I think I qualify on one, at least). But this State is a prime place to raise kids.
Let's be honest. Most places in the US are prime places to raise kids. America is the ultimate wholesome family-friendly place. Having lived in tonnes of cities around the world.
You think they have Family Fun Day in European soccer stadia, like they do for MLB games? You're lucky to escape with your life.
Cheers,
Victoria
Down here in Texas where it is very hot and very humid, shorts work well. My wife picks my clothes, and she is more concerned about my health than my looks. On top of that, the ladies in cardiac rehab where I go every day tell me that my legs are good, and not just for a guy who is 72 years old. (No big gut, either.)
So, there is a double-standard regarding "effort?" How much effort does it take to wear a belly shirt with junk sticking out? A sleeveless blouse with arm fat that could feed a small country.
No effort.
AA,
Must clothing choices be based on aesthetics alone?
Where I live, most men wear shorts during the summer and nobody cares. 102 degrees F in the shade with 90 per cent humidity drives clothing choices much more so than the edicts of fashion ever could.
A few years ago, my hubby and I went to a resort where women were allowed to wear anything they wanted to dinner, but men were required to wear long pants and sleeves. It was unbearable to the men. We won't be back.
I can't remember the last time I heard anyone complain about hairy male legs in shorts... except on your blog.
Bear in mind that I'm a MAJOR fan of yours... but I just can't agree with you on this.
Fortunately, Suzie, AA doesn't demand conformity.
Er, that's Ann Althouse. Alcoholics Anonymous is pretty strict.
Maybe someone already mentioned this, but the guy on the right with his back to the camera looks to me like he's wearing shorts.
I'm at SEALS wearing pants and sandals today myself. I call it "Al Plantinga chic" after my dissertation advisor. Happy to see it catching on in the trendier parts.
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