Happy New Year! I know I’ve been slack. I thought I’d post a little blog about short shorts, as it was a topic which brought with it much debate on Facebook earlier this week. My exact post was this:
‘Witnessed butt cheek walking to work this morning. This girl’s shorts were SO short that every time she moved her leg you could see butt. Glad it was a nice butt. For future knowledge, in this situation should you tell said person you can see their butt? Or is it implicit that they are already aware of this?’
This post elicited 61 comments. The first few comments were from female friends instructing me that I shouldn’t tell her that I can see her butt, that this is, in fact, the intended fashion. Now, her shorts were not quite as short as those in the images above, but that was about the amount of her butt that I could see as she took each step forward. It’s quite a bit of butt.
It is because I wear short shorts myself that I wanted to know what the protocol around buttocks is. It is not my intention to show my buttocks to strangers (even though I am quite fond of my bootiliciousness, cellulite and all) via short shorts. I wear short shorts as it is Summer and it is hot, and I run around all day for a job and skirts and dresses look bad with running shoes. BUT, if you can see my butt, please let me know. I would feel as embarrassed about my visible buttocks as if one of my boobs accidentally fell out of my top and I somehow didn’t notice (I know someone this has happened to. It can happen).
It is also very easy to not know that your butt is showing in short shorts because:
a) Dressing rooms and mirrors are ill-equipped for a proper short shorts butt check and we don’t all shop with our mates, or get our mates to check our arses when we walk.
b) Sometimes we put on weight on our bouncy back bits and don’t notice…
c) Shorts ride up. Front and back. This can also create the dreaded camel toe.
I think the comment that started the real debate (which was about freedom of expression vs children being exposed to sexually charged ideas to early) was from Peter:
‘i find it interesting here its women regulating the bodies of other women , honestly shouldnt they do it any way they want as long as it aint Genitalia?’
Regulating the bodies of other women was not my intention by the post. My intention was purely to find out the protocol around buttock bearing. I know it goes against most people’s sense of decency to wear a top so low cut that you can see the areola, I wondered if this protocol extended to butt cheeks, as this would be my assumption.
I thought I’d check out NZ law around nudity to support my point about publicly displayed buttocks and I found this website. It turns out there is no law in New Zealand which bans partial or full nudity, unless it is accompanied by ‘obscenity’. ‘Obscenity’ is a fairly subjective term. Some may find the display of buttocks via short shorts obscene, some may not. So the law is really not designed for such petty things as the control of short shorts.
So I then scoured the internet to see whether I could find an article about fashion and dressing etiquette and I have to say, the pickings were slim. I found lots of articles on how to dress for a black tie event, and some poorly written blogs, but nothing especially helpful. I found this: an article on a study of how men respond to women based on how they are dressed in nightclubs.
‘Any more than 40 per cent and the signal changes from ‘allure’ to one indicating general availability and future infidelity. Show some leg, show some arm, but not any more than that.’
By ‘not any more than that’ I’m sure they mean no butt. So putting together two and two from this article, and the fact that we women appear to be 'regulating' seeing buttocks on the street, I'd say naked butt is quite probably off-putting to many. I guess the reason I had difficulty finding any article about the protocol of arse in public is due to the general assumption that most of us know not to display our backsides in public like baboons. I think the only thing clouding our logic here are the artificial, media driven 21st century ‘Gods’ fashion and celebrity.
I know the kids these days are doing it because those they most want to emulate are doing it: Katy Perry, Rihanna, Lady Gaga and even Hannah Montana have recently sported some pretty public butt. And fashion trends follow the celebs, and the cool kids follow the fashion trends and everyone wants to be cool. But just as we don’t expect people on the street to be wearing Haute Couture, or to turn up at a wedding and find the bride dressed in this, we don’t expect to see naked buttocks on Symonds Street overbridge at 8.30am. If you can ever see my butt in short shorts I assure you, it will be because I got fat. Please tell me. I will not be offended, I will just feel like a bit of a dick.
