[Mind-numbed Robot]

Some women’s legs look nice in shorts or short skirts. The problem is that once the fashion is in place, the ones with less attractive legs - fat, excessively bony, varicose veins, oozing infected mosquito bites, bruises, etc. - follow it, too.

What about faces and arms suffering the same problems? What about acne? Should women go the burka route? Do ugly men get a free ride?

[HiTech RedNeck]

Also if you’re gawking around for short skirts automatically expecting a dynamite pair of gams to accompany them... so sorry, but the public really doesn’t exist for your titillation. (I mean the rhetorical you, not MnR.)

[Tax-chick]

Everyone (other than my children) may wear whatever he cares to, consistent with local law. However, Dr. Sowell is talking about people’s looking in their own mirror and deciding whether they look nice. Anyone who doesn’t want to look nice certainly doesn’t have to, but one assumes that most people are spending money on clothes for a positive visual impact.