Figure 1.--
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Figure 1.-- |
Articles were published in the early 20th century, recommending short oants for health reasons, citing improvecirculation or the affect of sunshine. HBC will try to obtain some of these articles. We do not believe, however, that they had a major impact on the popularity of shorts. One factor that may have been important is that boys with tanned legs looked healthy much as colege kids like to get a tan on spring break. Recent reserch has in fact confirmed some health benefits of wearing short pants. Parents in different countries have viewed the potential health aspects of shortpants differently. Many parents have seen them as healthy summerwear while opinions have varied conserning their suitability for winter wear.
Articles were published in the early 20th century, recommending short oants for health reasons, citing improvecirculation or the affect of sunshine. HBC will try to obtain some of these articles. Recent reserch has in fact confirmed some health benefits of wearing short.
Many English fathers believed that wearing short trousers, especially during the winter was helpful to toughen up their often coddled sons. This was often an important factor often alluded to by Japanese parents (especially fathers) and school officials (usually the male teachers).
Recent research has fond that light on the back of the knees can affect a oerson's biologial clock. This may seem unbelievable, but just such research results have been reported by competent scientists. Researchers at this time have no exoplanation of this surprising research. This is a relatively new deveopment and not a known to parents in earlier years when boys more commonly wore short pants. Notably the shorts that many boys now wear or so long and baggy that they actually cover a boys knees except when he is sitting down--and then light does not get to the back of the knees anyway.
Some parents have from the onset of the appearance of short trousers were concerned that they were not appropriate for cold winter wear. Certainly American parents (especially mothers) fely this way. English mothers did not have this attitude when shorts first appeared, but by the 1960s many mothers had changed their minds. One HBC cintributor reports. It's interesting that mothers in the 20th century after World War I wore dresses revealing their legs. The irony of this is lost on many mums, who give in to demands from boys to wear long trousers because of the weather, yet walk them to school with their own legs exposed and the boys' sisters legs exposed to the weather!
HBC does not believe that health concerns had a major impact on the popularity of shorts, at least in Europe. One factor that may have been important is that boys with tanned legs looked healthy much as colege kids like to get a tan on spring break.
How parents have viewed the health aspects of short pants has varied between different countries.
American mothers by the 1920s had begun to see short pants as healty children's wear, although older boys often objected to wearing them. Mothers did not henerally see them as suitable for winter wear. Some mothers compromised and had boys wear them with long aboce the knee stockings. Climatic factors may be involved here. Boys in the northeast and upper mid-west faced much more severe winter weather than is the case in England or many European countries like France and Italy.
British mothers saw short pants as suitable for both summer and winter weather. I am not sure, however, to what extent health concerns were inviolved here. Hopefully our English readers will provide some insights.
No information availble.
No information availble.
Fashion was probably why European styled short pants were introduced for boys' wear in the 1950s. The short shorts appear to have appealed to mothers who lpurchased most children's clothes. Some men especially school administrators appear to have adopted short ants uniforms as way of toughening up boys as they were worn both during the warmer spring months and coolor winter months.
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