History Main / BoyishShorts

This trope is when a preteen boy is almost always depicted wearing shorts--short, often plain in design pants that don't go below the wearer's knee.

# The person wearing them is a ''prepubescent boy''. At most, he's early into the teenage years--generally no older than fourteen. Once he's in high school (or the equivalent), it's just clothing he's wearing (unless he's trying specifically to evoke youth or childishness by wearing said shorts). Also, [[AlwaysMale it's only boys that get this trope]]. Girls in shorts, regardless of their youth, are seen more as {{Tomboy}}s unless they're wearing them as ModestyShorts--or if older, they come off as a MsFanservice if they're super short and thus intended to be sexy.

The last one is the hitch: shorts ought to be so much part of the boy's look to the point he's rarely depicted wearing anything else. Adult men wear shorts sometimes--say when on vacation, at the beach, or in the summer--but a boy in Boyish Shorts wears them practically all the time. The rare times this boy is wearing pants, it's either due to the weather (such as winter wear), a temporary costume change, or as a visual sign they're attempting to be, are, or appear more mature than their age. Pants make him more stuffy, mature, world-weary, and/or "grown-up" compared to the immaturity, youth, lack of responsibility, and freedom afforded a boy. This also includes cases of adult characters being [[FountainOfYouth aged down]]; they're frequently put in short pants to indicate they're now--even if temporarily--children.

This is TruthInTelevision as historically it was considered lower class to dress a boy in long pants before a certain age--or if the boy decided on wearing the long pants himself, acting above one's age. Until the late 19th century, upper and middle-class boys often wore dresses the same as girls from birth until they were three or four years old, about the time he was potty-trained. He was then breeched (put in his first pair of short pants), thus separated from the girls and mother socially in appearance. He then mostly wore short pants until he was considered mature enough to wear long pants regularly, generally about age twelve or thirteen. When the dresses stage was replaced with rompers, they were still followed by shorts. The shorts and kneesocks look didn't take off as much in the US during the era they did in England--the 1920s and 1930s--but did among the upper posh or preppy classes, and in the US it was often instead knickerbockers paired with high socks.

Shorts are also more practical in eras where new clothing took some time to procure, so outgrown clothing couldn't be easily or quickly replaced. Even post-industrial revolution, when clothes could be replaced slightly more quickly, parents often used hand-me-downs to not have to buy tons of clothes for multiple children growing fast. Kids tend to grow long in the limbs before they grow out or up in the torso; thus, shorts can look fine on rapidly growing children regardless of their length whereas pants could look too short after a big growth spurt and expose ankles and socks--and thus have to be either continuously maintained or replaced to avoid the "highwater" look. Shorts are also a visual gender division from an early age since the mid-20th century, letting gender-concerned parents worry less that their baby boy might be mistaken for a girl if dressed androgynously.

* ''Manga/DetectiveConan'': [[FountainOfYouth Young Conan]]'s IconicOutfit mostly resembles the high school uniform he wore before being turned into a child--but as a child, the necktie's replaced by a bowtie, the dress shoes with sneakers, and the long school pants replaced by a pair of shorts.

* A 1980s-era ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'' strip had Jon's father tell him that his brother Doc Boy hates to be called "boy" ever since he started wearing long pants--the joke being that Doc Boy only just started wearing long pants the previous week.

* ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' has--outside of winter settings--the boys such as Charlie Brown, Linus, and Schroeder wear shorts. While adults aren't seen, the shorts help visualize the children as young--too young to wear pants regularly--and thus still naive and young. Averted with Franklin who wears long pants, but he wasn't introduced until the late 1960s when the idea of long pants was becoming more common on young boys.

* ''Series/OddSquad'' has some agents-in-training sport a pair of navy shorts as a contrast to the navy pants that the more experienced Investigation agents--as well as agents in other departments like Science--wear.

** Ten-year-old Todd--in both the 1960s as Tutti's twin and the 1990s as Stacey's--wore shorts in many of his individual releases; this helped show him as younger than the mature adult male dolls like Ken. (He had pants in the first 1990s release, but this is part of the "cool look" and he came with soccer shorts.)

* Baby Mario and Baby Luigi--[[FountainofYouth aged down]] versions of Mario and Luigi from the Franchise/SuperMarioBros franchise--wear [[KiddyCoveralls shortalls]] with legs so short they're almost rompers, as opposed to the full length RoughOveralls of the adult versions. (Before ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiPartnersInTime'' and ''VideoGame/MarioKartDoubleDash'' they were often shown with just diapers.)

** The Youngster Class of trainers (called Shorts Youngsters in Japan), which are always boys younger than the player character, wear shorts and almost always battle with early-game ComMons such as Rattata or Pidgey. This shows they're still beginner trainers who aren't too skilled compared to later more challenging trainers like Ace Trainers, Sailors, or Gym Leaders. (In [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue Red and Blue]] their wearing shorts is directly noted by a Youngster on Kanto Route 3 -- named Ben in the FRLG remakes -- who says before he fights that he likes shorts because they're comfy and easy to wear--a line so unique it became memetic in the fandom.) Other classes of early or easy male trainers also wear shorts in this way. Bug Catchers, another early game trainer specializing in [[BigCreepyCrawlies Bug Pokémon]], all wear shorts and are young. Campers (previously called Boy Scouts) only wear shorts and are younger than the player character and more active, specializing in Pokémon found in the woods. Initially Schoolboys in the first two generations were pictured in shorts to make them appear as young kids in the early grades of school but later were aged up and put instead into full pants--showing they're older than the aforementioned Youngsters and the added Preschoolers (who are also in shorts), even if not adults compared to other trainers.
** The younger male Player character of [[VideoGame/PokemonLetsGoPikachuAndLetsGoEevee Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee]], Chase, wear shorts--in contrast to the older Red and Blue's wearing pants, who are being shown as skilled trainers compared to newcomer Chase.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Hilda}}'': David (who is in the same class as Hilda and confirmed to be 11 years old in seasons 1 and 2) nearly always wears shorts--regardless of whether he is wearing his regular clothes, his Sparrow Scouts uniform or his school uniform. The only times he is seen wearing long pants are when it's snowing. And--while not necessarily immature--he is easily the least brave of the three main kid characters, with many of the creatures they encounter frightening him.
* ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'': Bobby Hill through the whole series rarely wears anything but short pants, as he calls them--and often shows a lack of knowledge and naivete, and is easily manipulated or persuaded into getting himself into scrapes his father has to remediate. Even as he gets older and more thoughtful compared to past him, he's still less mature than his father Hank who is almost never seen in anything but pants. The same is true with his best friend Joseph Gribble, even after puberty takes hold and he shoots up in height--his [[HormoneAddledTeenager desperate desire to be involved with girls and see Luann naked]] marks him as no more mature emotionally than Bobby.

* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'': Phineas--who is at most ten years old--is always depicted wearing shorts, except in the winter--meanwhile, his quiet, stoic stepbrother Ferb is shown wearing rolled-up pants. In addition, when Phineas builds something, sometimes the person delivering the materials will comment on how young he is to be building it. In contrast, the adult male characters Dr. Doofenshmirtz and Lawrence Fletcher are almost always seen wearing long pants.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': [[Characters/TheSimpsonsBartSimpson Bart Simpson]] is close to the TropeCodifier. He (as well as a good many boys in Springfield Elementary School) are seen in knee-length shorts as part of their default look, in contrast to the pants-wearing men around them--including their adult nemesis Principal Skinner. The times Bart specifically wears pants are few and far between, often for just the episode, and if it's not because of winter it's him appearing more mature (such as his white preacher suit in [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS11E11FaithOff "Faith Off"]]).

A SubTrope of ClothingReflectsPersonality and MeaningfulAppearance. Often seen on the BrattyHalfPint or KiddieKid. An adult man or teenage boy hit by the FountainOfYouth might find himself in these, or an older character during AMinorKidroduction. Combine these with RoughOveralls and you get the shortalls version of KiddyCoveralls. [[JustforFun/IThoughtItMeant Has nothing to do]] with BoyishShortHair.

** The Youngster Class of trainers (called Shorts Youngsters in Japan), which are always boys younger than the player character, wear shorts and almost always battle with early-game ComMons such as Rattata or Pidgey. This shows they're still beginner trainers who aren't too skilled compared to later more challenging trainers like Ace Trainers, Sailors, or Gym Leaders. (In [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue Red and Blue]] their wearing shorts is directly noted by a Youngster on Kanto Route 3 (named Ben in the FRLG remakes), who says before he fights that he likes shorts because they're comfy and easy to wear--a line so unique it became memetic in the fandom.) Other classes of early or easy male trainers also wear shorts in this way. Bug Catchers, another early game trainer specializing in [[BigCreepyCrawlies Bug Pokémon]], all wear shorts and are young. Campers (previously called Boy Scouts) only wear shorts and are younger than the player character and more active, specializing in Pokémon found in the woods. Initially Schoolboys in the first two generations were pictured in shorts to make them appear as young kids in the early grades of school but later were aged up and put instead into full pants--showing they're older than the aforementioned Youngsters and the added Preschoolers (who are also in shorts), even if not adults compared to other trainers.

* ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'': Bobby Hill through the whole series rarely wears anything but short pants, as he calls them--and often shows a lack of knowledge and naivete, and is easily manipulated or persuaded into getting himself into scrapes his father has to remediate. Even as he gets older and more thoughtful compared to past him, he's still less mature than his father Hank who is almost never seen in anything but pants. The same is true with his best friend Joseph Gribble, even after puberty takes hold and he shoots up in height--his desperate desire to be involved with girls and see Luann naked marks him as no more mature than Bobby.

* When the Muppet characters were seen as babies in ''WesternAnimation/MuppetBabies1984''[[note]]and first seen in the "I'm Gonna Always Love You" sequence from ''Film/TheMuppetsTakeManhattan''[[/note]], the male characters that normally wear full pants like Gonzo and Scooter were instead put in short pants or romper style clothes, in contrast to their adult appearance. And while Kermit isn't often dressed at all with [[AccessoryWearingCartoonAnimal just his collar]] and Fozzie just wears [[RingAroundTheCollar a hat and tie]], Baby Kermit wears a sailor suit with shorts while Fozzie is decked out in a short yellow romper set. This is also true in ''WesternAnimation/MuppetBabies2018'' for Kermit and Fozzie still, though Gonzo has been updated to wear overalls.

** When Batman was transformed into Bat-Baby (it should really be Bat-Toddler), he was placed in [[https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Bat-Baby?file=Bat-Baby_Earth-One_001.jpg short-legged overalls]] (closer to shortalls, actually).

* Baby Mario and Baby Luigi--[[FountainofYouth aged down]] versions of Mario and Luigi from the Franchise/SuperMarioBros franchise--wear shortalls with legs so short they're almost rompers, as opposed to the full length overalls of the adult versions. (Before ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiPartnersInTime'' and ''VideoGame/MarioKartDoubleDash'' they were often shown with just diapers.)

** In "[[Recap/FuturamaS4E9TeenageMutantLeelasHurdles Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles]]", this is mostly averted with the [[FountainOfYouth aged down]] crew; Fry and Hermes are mostly shown in long pants. However, Hermes is briefly shown in shorts with a sailor top when they're small kids, Fry wears shortalls on the way to the Fountain of Aging as a toddler, and young Professor Farnsworth wears shorts with a button shirt and bow, high socks, and black shoes in the more nerdy/old-fashioned style at the fountain (before returning to pants before he goes in the fountain with the infant rest of the crew).

* WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}: Chuckie, a toddler that's more dressed and slightly older than the other babies, wears shorts in contrast with the adult men around him including his father.

# The shorts are, well, ''short''. Knee length at most. They aren't very far past the knee but can be as high as mid-thigh for very young children. Calf length or capri length isn't short enough. Knickerbockers and shortalls (short overalls) count, but plus-fours are too long.

A SubTrope of ClothingReflectsPersonality and MeaningfulAppearance. Often seen on the BrattyHalfPint or KiddieKid. An adult man or teenage boy hit by the FountainOfYouth might find himself in these, or an older character during AMinorKidroduction. [[JustforFun/IThoughtItMeant Has nothing to do]] with BoyishShortHair.

* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'': [[Characters/GravityFallsDipperPines Dipper Pines]] wears short grey pants; he's actively running around the woods and also younger and more immature than teens and other characters that he comes in conflict with. This puts him in contrast with deceptive, conniving Gideon Gleeful (who is certainly not childlike) and aloof teenage Robbie who sees him as a child tagging along with the teens.

A SubTrope of ClothingReflectsPersonality and MeaningfulAppearance. An adult man or teenage boy hit by the FountainOfYouth might find himself in these, or an older character during AMinorKidroduction. [[JustforFun/IThoughtItMeant Has nothing to do]] with BoyishShortHair.

** In "[[Recap/FuturamaS4E9TeenageMutantLeelasHurdles Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles]]", this is mostly averted with the [[FountainOfYouth aged down]] crew; Fry and Hermes are mostly shown in long pants. However, Hermes is briefly shown in shorts with a sailor top when they're small kids, Fry wears overalls on the way to the Fountain of Aging as a toddler, and young Professor Farnsworth wears shorts with a button shirt and bow, high socks, and black shoes in the more nerdy/old-fashioned style at the fountain (before returning to pants before he goes in with the infant rest of the crew).

# The person wearing them is a ''prepubescent boy''. At most, he's early into the teenage years--generally no older than fourteen. Once he's in high school, it's just clothing he's wearing (unless he's trying specifically to evoke youth or childishness by wearing said shorts). Also, [[AlwaysMale it's only boys that get this trope]]. Girls in shorts, regardless of their youth, are seen more as {{Tomboy}}s unless they're wearing them as ModestyShorts--or if older, they come off as a MsFanservice if they're super short and thus intended to be sexy.

* Ken Amada, of ''{{VideoGame/Persona3}}'', is the youngest (human) member of SEES, and all of his outfits feature very short shorts, including his school uniform and winter clothes. When a now teenaged Ken shows up in ''{{VideoGame/Persona4ArenaUltimax}}'', he has traded in the shorts for proper pants.

* Ken Amada, of ''{{VideoGame/Persona3}}, is the youngest (human) member of SEES, and all of his outfits feature very short shorts, including his school uniform and winter clothes. When a now teenaged Ken shows up in ''{{VideoGame/Persona4ArenaUltimax}}'', he has traded in the shorts for proper pants.

* ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory'': Andy Davis, or at least [[WesternAnimation/ToyStory3 before hitting puberty]], wore shorts, and is a kind, young boy who really loves playing with his toys.

!!Examples

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* When Batman was transformed into Bat-Baby (it should really be Bat-Toddler), he was placed in [[https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Bat-Baby?file=Bat-Baby_Earth-One_001.jpg short-legged overalls]] (closer to shortalls, actually).
* ComicBook/{{Robin}} wore green shorts as part of his superhero uniform which emphasized him as the "''Boy'' Wonder" and KidSidekick to Batman; his outfit had shorts from the 1940s through the 1980s.

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* ''StoryOfSeasons2014'' has villager Lutz in the more preppy version (minus a set of somewhat practical boots), and the boy twin in these as the more active version with farm boots. Since [[NotAllowedToGrowUp none of the children get older]] or [[LimitedWardrobe ever change clothes]], they always wear them.

* ''{{WesternAnimation/Arthur}}'' averts this trope with the older boy characters, including the title character, but plays this trope straight with the Tibble twins, being known for their mischievous and troublesome personalities.
* {{WesternAnimation/Caillou}} wears blue shorts, and is known for his bratty and immature personality.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants:'' Inverted and invoked in the episode "[=SpongeBob LongPants=]". [[Characters/SpongeBobSquarePantsTitularCharacter SpongeBob]], who almost always wears short pants, switches them out for long pants. He starts to be perceived as mature and elegant in the longer pants; Patrick calls him a "man", and [=SpongeBob=] even passes his driver's license test due to wearing long pants. This is in contrast to his otherwise regular childish behaviour.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants:'' Inverted and invoked in the episode "Spongebob Longpants". [[Characters/SpongeBobSquarePantsTitularCharacter Spongebob]], who almost always wears short pants, switches them out for long pants. He starts to be perceived as mature and elegant in the longer pants; Patrick calls him a "man", and Spongebob even passes his driver's license test due to wearing long pants. This is in contrast to his otherwise regular childish behaviour.

* Some more posh schools in Europe (and higher level preppy private schools in the US) may decide that the lower level elementary boys (about US grade 5) will wear shorts and knee socks as part of the school uniform rather than be mistaken for the older students of the higher level in their longer pants.

* In ''Film/{{Malena}}'', twelve-year-old Renato angsts that he's the only one amongst his friends who still wears short pants.

* ''Literature/TheGiver'': Invoked by the community. Boys in the highly structured community are not even given long trousers to wear until they reach the Ceremony of Eleven (individual birthdays are not celebrated, so their age cohorts celebrate milestones as a group), a symbol of their immature age status and childhood in the Community. Wearing long pants is a right of passage for boys leading them closer to their adulthood, with the children all receiving their adult role assignments the next year. Jonas is already near 12 at the start of the novel and so he has already graduated to long-pants status.

** A 1980s-era ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'' strip had Jon's father tell him that his brother Doc Boy hates to be called "boy" ever since he started wearing long pants--the joke being that Doc Boy only just started wearing long pants the previous week.

** In ''Film/{{Malena}}'', twelve-year-old Renato angsts that he's the only one amongst his friends who still wears short pants.

** ''Now We Are Six'', the 1927 book of children's poems by Creator/AAMilne, includes a poem in which a boy compares himself to his younger brother: "If John were Me and I were John, / I shouldn't have these trousers on."

** ''Series/LeaveItToBeaver'' has one episode where June's aunt Martha watches the boys while their parents are out of town. She takes Beaver shopping for a "proper" suit, which includes short pants as she thinks this is what boys his age should be wearing. Beaver is, of course, humiliated when she makes him wear the suit to school.

A SubTrope of ClothingReflectsPersonality and MeaningfulAppearance. An adult man or teenage boy hit by the FountainOfYouth might find himself in these, or an older character during AMinorKidroduction.