Sunday, February 10, 2019

Why you are so sexy girls?! How the co-eds from California shocked Japan in 1938






Already in the inter-war period the American girls sport teams became world-wide known because their short shorts. No, theirs shorts pulling sweat away from their bodies to keep the beautiful young sportswomen cool and dry, were not so short as few decades later, and in most cases till today. (Screenshot from YouTube video: Vintage All-American Girls Baseball Game, Lockport IL 2015)




To see young women or teenage girls in short volleyball, basketball or baseball shorts during a tournament was not world-wide accepted at that time. For example ...


In Japan, on request of the local International Woman's Friendship league a new police decree was issued


This decree prohibited girls' team from United States to wear such sports clothing as they used at home. The women sport team from California (girls' softball team from Hollywood) was obliged to wear three inches longer shorts during its exhibition series among the sons of the Rising Sun.


There was perfectly reasonable explanation behind that. According to organized Japanese women (their society was, besides. very popular and distinguished for the cause of womens’ emancipation): “Hands across the sea are one thing, but this is quite an other,” (SHORTS ARE TOO SHORT — JAPS, “Evening Independent”, St-Petersburg, Florida, Oct. 6, 1939, p. 9) Or was it a prejudice or a part of Japanese-Anglo-Saxon tensions of that time? Rather not, because:


The issue of short shorts in girls or women's sport teams turns out to be complicated also nowadays


Unfortunately (I’m writing from a man's point of view), for college basketball players, long shorts might finally be taking a seat. And fortunately, not everywhere.




By the way, you can see how the composition of the population in the US has changed. At present time, in many high schools the majority of basketball or handball players are no longer white girls.



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