I’m scared of shorts. They make me nervous. This is clearly a bit silly. I mean, it’s not like they are actually going to bite me on the bum. But then fear is seldom rational. If I see a spider in the sink, it doesn’t help at all to know that it isn’t going to hurt me. And I’m not alone in my borderline shorts-phobia. After all, it is perfectly normal to talk about being brave enough to wear shorts.
This is not just about the brevity of a hemline. Shorts that end halfway up your thighs feels like a more radical choice than a dress that exposes the same amount of leg. Naked dressing has been increasingly normalised – see-through dresses, ab-baring crop tops – but shorts still feel daring in any context outside a holiday.
