The Politics of Shorts

Like many teachers, I sometimes have anxiety dreams where I turn up to class and start teaching, only to realise that I have forgotten to put on my trousers. In class last week I wondered if one of the girls in my class had actually done this and come to school in her underwear. Closer inspection (well not much closer, given the ick factor of having your prof stare at your pelvic area) revealed that what I had thought were knickers were actually extremely flimsy shorts. That seems to be the fashion this term, as other students displaying copious amounts of thigh indicated. Of course I have no problem with this, except for the

Roman fashionistas would layer shorts with a tunic and bling.

competition it creates in getting the attention of the male students; on the contrary, I welcome it as a sign that the wave of conservatism supposedly breaking over Turkey may turn out to be more of a wavelet. It did get me thinking about shorts, though.

While men have always worn varieties of short trousers from braccae to lederhosen, shorts for women are a modern development; in fact, I'd go as far as to say they were an icon of modernity (not least because the phrase "icon of modernity" sounds terribly clever). The 1930s, with their emphasis on "physical culture" and a healthy mind in healthy knickerbockers, saw the first brave women experimenting with knee-length shorts alongside their menfolk, aided by the invention of elastic waistbands. But it was WWII that really made shorts the rage. Desert warfare stripped them of their schoolboy associations so that men no longer felt embarrassed wearing them, and women, already used to wearing trousers while working in factories, took to

Me and my boyfriend just beat Rommel.

shorts with a vengeance in the post-war years. Not only did they epitomise the modern woman, they also made cycling a lot easier, hence the term "pedal-pushers".

Where it all starts getting interesting, though, is when shorts start to make their way out of the Anglo-Saxon world. From a Third World perspective, the arrival of men in shorts was not usually something to be welcomed. Shorts normally came with pith helmets and swagger sticks. Women in shorts are a more ambiguous phenomenon, and my gut reaction is "Well if this is imperialism, then imperialism is a jolly good thing." For example, the first women to wear shorts in the Middle East were probably Israeli kibbutzim, who are, depending on your perspective, harbingers of a socialist utopia or Zionist oppressors. I have to admit that while I can see the Palestinian point of view on some issues (e.g., getting shot at, tortured and having your land stolen), culturally I still identify with the Israelis, and I'm sure those shorts have something to do with it. Like I said, icon of modernity.

Kibbutz chicks get into flower power.

I recently watched a Turkish film, Toprakların Çocukları ("Children of the Soil") about the Village Institutes which flourished as rural education centres briefly during the mid-twentieth century before being shut down because of fear that they were distributing Communist propaganda. As soon as you see the students at the Institute, you know they're the good guys

No one dressed like this could be evil.

because there are women wearing shorts (the fact that they're giving sanctuary to some gypsies who've just escaped being massacred by ignorant villagers and a Nazi gendarme captain is also a pretty strong hint). The shorts, as part of the general Baden-Powell couture, give the place a wholesome atmosphere.

I suppose the reason for this is that shorts are a way to say that girls can be just like boys. However much leg a short-wearing woman is showing, and however hot that may look, shorts still project a sort of tom-boyish equality rather than sluttishness (unless you're a hooker wearing hot pants or Miley Cyrus, of course). More importantly, places where a woman can walk around wearing shorts are generally decent, civilised places. When we were holidaying in the North-West of Turkey, the first thing we noticed about Çanakkale that made us immediately feel relaxed and at home was the large number of women wearing shorts - not just teens and tweens but middle-aged women. Try walking around like that in many parts of the Middle East and a riot would ensue. It's not just a matter of Westernisation, or even modernity; it's a matter of equality and respect.