My Summer Fashion Must-Have? Men’s Shorts.

Every summer, I see a myriad of videos, blog posts and social media statuses asking for and offering solutions to chub rub. Some people put talc on their thighs to absorb sweat, some people slick deodorant down there to prevent friction. If those work for you, great, but a lot of people are still stuck- myself included. I always found that the best solution to chub rub was to put some fabric between my legs. I mean, it’s such a simple solution! Why doesn’t everyone do it?!

Honestly? Because it’s really hard to find women’s shorts that actually do that.I don’t know how often you look at women’s shorts, so I’ve attached a picture below.

 

This is the very first image that came up when I Googled “women’s shorts”. If you turn your attention to the headless model’s crotch, you’ll notice a gap between the top of her thighs. Most people don’t have that gap. This means that most people don’t have air flowing between their legs with every step.

“Who cares if you don’t have air between your legs?”, you may be thinking. And for most of the year, I’d tend to agree with you. What does it matter if you don’t have a gap between your legs? For most of the year, any friction that would be caused by your legs rubbing against each other is taken care of by the material of your trousers. However, the shorts you see above don’t put any material between your legs. While they do for this very thin model, larger sizes have the same width between the legs, meaning your shorts just about cover your bum (and sometimes don’t even do that).

So in the summer, when we all take our shorts out of the back of the wardrobe, our legs rub together. This is the season where the affectionately termed “chub rub” rears its ugly head.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term, chub rub is the uncomfortable rubbing of inner thighs that can happen if they touch when you walk. Your thighs get sweaty, they rub against each other and the result is sore, red skin and the almost-irrepressible desire to walk like you’re doing the Haka just so your legs don’t touch any more.

When you wear women’s shorts, you either spend all day awkwardly pulling at your crotch to get a bit of thigh coverage and submit to chub rub and waddle like a penguin as it grows more painful. When you wear men’s shorts, you’re free! No chub rub! No fear of your bum showing! And, to top it all off, the pockets are actually big enough to put things in!!!

If you suffer from chub rub and haven’t checked out the men’s summer section yet, I highly recommend it. Men’s clothes use your body measurements instead of mysterious and inconsistent number systems to create their sizes so when you find a size that fits you, you can just pick up that size anywhere! Yet another factor that makes men’s clothes better than women’s.

Push your sore, red thighs through one last journey to the men’s section because the walk home can be the first friction-free walk of the rest of your life.