It can be very hard to be a middle-aged man, who just wants to wear comfortable clothes without judgement. Last week The Wall Street Journal published a story about cargo shorts, with Nicole Hong, who usually writes on legal issues, writing:

“Relationships around the country are being tested by cargo shorts, loosely cut shorts with large pockets sewn onto the sides. Men who love them say they’re comfortable and practical for summer. Detractors say they’ve been out of style for years, deriding them as bulky, uncool and just flat-out ugly. In recent days, the debate has engulfed the nation.”

She interviewed men who find that their wives steal their shorts, never to be seen again and a retailer who said “Bond never wears cargo shorts”.

Since the piece deriding the unfashionable clothing item, members of staff at the Journal decided to demonstrate their solidarity, wearing their shorts in an act of protest:

cargo shorts

In a later story, Hong wrote that the cargo shorts debate had dominated the website’s traffic for days after publication.