Thong (clothing)

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Thongs as underwear — a traditional thong on the left, a G-string on the right
Thongs as underwear — a traditional thong on the left, a G-string on the right

The thong is an undergarment and swimwear, worn by both genders, in a style characterized by a thin strip of material along the center of the garment's rear designed to sit between the wearer's buttocks cheeks connecting the front or pouch to the waistband behind the wearer.[1] Thongs come in a variety of styles depending on the thickness, material, or type of this rear portion of fabric and are available for both men and women throughout the world. It is known as the "tanga" in Brazil.[2] The term originated from the Kimbundu term "ntanga", meaning loincloth.

Contents

[edit] History

Thongs are descended from the earliest form of clothing, the loincloth, which were generally a male's clothing item, the reverse of modern western culture where the thong has more acceptance among women. In modern clothing, thongs first became popular as a swimsuit style in Brazil. The origin of the word "thong" is from the Old English thwong, a flexible leather cord.[3]

The first direct descendant of the loincloth, in the direction of thong, was the jockstrap, created by Chicago sporting goods company Sharp & Smith in 1874. The first historical reference to the thong in post-1900's is in 1939 New York City when Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia ordered nude dancers to dress more appropriately. Jacques Heim's and Loius Réard's original bikini from 1946 — that introduced the term "bikini" — had a culotte with a thong back. Fashion designer Rudi Gernreich was credited with introducing the modern thong in 1974 which grew in popularity in South America, especially in Brazil.[4] In the 1990's, the thong began to gain widespread acceptance and popularity in the United States of America (U.S.), amounting for sales of more than $2 billion per year in 2006.[5] More recently, men's thong wear has begun to gain popularity for fit and supportiveness, especially for activities such as running, exercising, at the gym, or as daily wear. Thong underwear for males are similar to an athletic supporter, as they both provide support while using minimum fabric. Nevertheless, the typical athletic supporter is not a thong as the straps at the rear are not at the garment's center.

[edit] Design and variety

Types of thongs
Back Sides
Strap Tie
T-string Underwear - string back
G-string Underwear - triangle back
V-string Underwear - V back

Types of thongs include the traditional thong, the g-string, and v-string. There are many other styles available:

  • Traditional thong: This style is generally the most common and involves a strip of fabric in varying widths on the rear of the garment connecting the front or pouch to the waistband.
  • G-string: This style consists of a string of fabric - as opposed to a wider-than-thick strip - connecting the front/pouch and the waistband in the rear. It is also called a Rio thong.[6]
  • V-string: Similar to the g-string, this style connects via a single string along the rear that separates into two strings just at or before the waistband or into a small triangle of fabric above the buttocks but below the waistband.
  • T-back: A thong that makes a straight line of a strip of garment in the back like the English letter "T".[6] The sound has been causing some confusion among Japanese speakers with a tea bag, which is also common in today's Japanese dictionaries. In the dialects of Chinese language, the G-string is commonly called dingziku (丁字褲/丁字裤) which literally means "丁 character pants" (or roughly, "T-letter pants"). In Korean it is called 티팬티 ("T panty").
  • Dance belt: This is a type of thong designed specifically to be used in the same manner as an athletic supporter for male dancers, especially in ballet. Its purpose is to protect and support the male during athletic/dance activities without being seen through outergarments such as tights or a leotard.
  • Cheeky: This style covers a little more area, but exposes the bottom part of the buttocks. Some cheekies are used as undergarments while others function as bikini bottoms.

Thongs are available in a wide variety of materials, including fleece, silk, cotton, satin, nylon, and lycra/spandex and are also available in maternity styles. Thong underwear for males has been compared to an athletic supporter as they both provide support while using a minimum of fabric, though the typical athletic supporter is not a thong as the straps at the rear are not at the garment's center.

For obvious anatomical reasons, thongs for men are cut differently than thongs for women. Some still consider the male thong to be associated with gay men, but attitudes are changing as more and more young men embrace thong underwear.[citation needed] Thong underwear for men is becoming widely available with most of the large retailers carrying a selection.

A string tanga is a type of tanga swimwear which has the waist band replaced with strings which are tied. The g-string is one extreme variety of the thong. Retailer FreshPair defines thong as "An underwear style for both men and women with a thin fabric back that rests between the buttocks" whereas a g-string is "A panty with a very thin (string-like) band of fabric in the back."[7]

[edit] Thong and G-string

The G-string is one form of the thong.

  • Encyclopedia of clothing and fashion by Valerie Steele (Thomson Gale; 2005) says: "The G-string, or thong, [is] a panty front with a half- to one-inch strip of fabric at the back that sits between the buttocks".
  • Knickers: A Brief History by Sarah Tomczak, Rachel Pask (Allen & Unwin; 2004) says: "Minor tweaks to the cut earned these skimpy panties different titles — from the thong, which has a one-inch strip of fabric down AVPL is the underwear the back, to a G-string, which, as the name equivalent of spinach suggests, is more like a string of fabric akin between the teeth."
  • Striptease: The Untold History of the Girlie Show by Rachel Shteir (Oxford University Press; 2004) says: "The thong [is] an undergarment derived from the strippers G-string".
  • Americanisms: The Illustrated Book of Words Made in the USA by Gary Luke, Susan R. Quinn (Sasquatch Books; 2003) says: "G-string, noun: a thong panty consisting of a small triangular piece of fabric supported by two elastic straps. Attributed to strippers circa 1936".
  • Heinemann English Dictionary by Heinemann Staff, Martin Manser, Jessica Feinstein (Harcourt Heinemann; 2001) says: "Thong, noun: a pair of underpants or swimming costume in a very skimpy style like a G-string".
  • The Guardian UK says: "But the thong wasn't always so popular: in the old days it used to be called the G-string".[1]

[edit] Men's thongs

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In the USA and Europe, the wearing of thongs by men was once mainly limited to the dance belt, the posing pouch for bodybuilders and the realm of male strippers. As of now they are common underwear for men, with garments like the Jockey Next-to-Nothing Microfiber Thong and thongs by Calvin Klein becoming more popular. They are not only sexy and stylish but differentiate the younger men from the underwear of their forefathers. Recent surveys place the number of American men who wear thongs as their preferred underwear style at over 4% and the number of men who sometimes wear thongs at around 20%, more in the younger generations and less in the older. Men and boys chose to wear thong underwear or swimwear for many reasons. A primary advantage of thong underwear is that when wearing close cut jeans or pants you don't have visible lines from the underwear. Thongs can also be more supportive, more comfortable, provide increased freedom of movement, and minimize tan lines when sunbathing.

It is becoming more common for men to wear thong swimsuits on the public beaches. Men in thongs can be spotted on the more cosmopolitan beaches in the USA and Europe. The number of women wearing thongs to the beach still out numbers the men, by a good margin, but modern discussions of thong swimsuits will generally refer to both men and women.

[edit] Thongs and society

Main article: Social impact of the thong
Women's thong swimwear in tied g-string style.
Women's thong swimwear in tied g-string style.

Attitudes to thongs are changing in most of the Western world toward more acceptance. Acceptance among men is especially on the rise; most stores now carry a selection of men's thongs, and more men are dismissing the stereotype that thongs are for gay men. They are becoming a regular item of underwear and thong swimsuits are seen more frequently on the beaches. The wearing of thong swimwear on the beach is fairly common in the Southern European countries and on the tropical beaches of South America and Florida. Some county and municipal governments in the United States have passed legislation generally or specifically relating to thongs, such as Huntington Beach, California, which in 2007 passed an anti-nudity ordinance that did not ban thongs.[8][9] Councilman Don Hansen assured, "we remain thong-friendly in Huntington Beach." [10]

Recent surveys place the number of American women who wear thongs as their preferred underwear style at 28%. As of 2002, thongs were the fastest-selling type of underwear for women. While thongs are available for girls as young as third grade [11] it is common for parents to prevent young girls wearing them until they reach their teenage years.

Many reasons exist why women and girls may chose to wear thong underwear or swimwear:[12] prevention of visible panty lines[13], prevention of ride up so one needn't pull at their underwear in public, comfort, doesn't ride up past jeans, fashion consciousness including the feeling of more adult and more feminine, saving storage space during travels, minimization of tan lines.

A large number of men and women also wear thongs as the preferred apparel during private home workouts or exercise, finding the clothing to be sexually empowering and liberating while one desires to get into their best possible 'sex body' shape. The almost completely exposed buttocks of many styles of thong is a paramount feature of this routine, with a lot of exercises emphasizing the development of gluteal muscles. In this regard, thongs to an extent can be attributed to aiding individuals in increased personal health, fitness, self-esteem, and sexual assertiveness. Particularly for men, thongs allow the genitalia to remain in a secure position while working out or exercising in as close to a state of nudity as feasibly possible.

This is one item of clothing that cannot be worn in dance competitions under the rules of the IDSF (International DanceSport Federation).

[edit] Controversy

Several institutions have banned thongs, mainly schools and universities.[14][15][16] In one particular case in 2002, a female high school vice principal in San Diego physically checked up to 100 female students' underwear[17] as they entered the school for a dance, with or without student permission, causing an uproar among students and some parents and eliciting an investigation by the school into the vice principal's conduct.[18] In her defence, the vice principal said the checks were for student safety and not specifically because of the wearing of thongs ("This was a safety issue, it was not a choice of underwear issue").[19][20][21][22][23][24]

Of particular controversy is the retail by several outlets, including Abercrombie & Fitch, Argos and Etam, of thongs for children as young as seven. A spokesman for Abercrombie & Fitch stated that he could list "at least 100 reasons why a young girl would want thong underwear."[25] This controversy spawned a great deal of free publicity for Abercrombie, including a chain letter that received wide circulation.[26] Argos's production of padded bras and Etam's of sheer tops caused similar consternation.[27][28] Media attention was drawn to the phenomenon when a British primary head teacher voiced concerns that pupils as young as 10 were wearing thong underwear to school.[29]

[edit] See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

[edit] References

  1. ^ Thong. Online Dictionary. Merriam-Webster. Retrieved on 2008-04-03.
  2. ^ Johnny Acton, Tania Adams and Matt Packer, Origin of Everyday Things, page 318, Sterling, 2006, ISBN 1402743025
  3. ^ Merriam-Webster online dictionary
  4. ^ Article Alley.com
  5. ^ Article Alley
  6. ^ a b Chlo Taylor Brown, Getting Ready Chlo-Style: Perfecting Your Authentic Image, page 224, AuthorHouse, 2007, ISBN 1434306283
  7. ^ Lingerie Glossary. freshpair. Retrieved on 2008-04-03.
  8. ^ KNBC in Los Angeles "Huntington Beach Amends Proposed Nudity Ban To Allow Thong Bikinis"
  9. ^ KNBC in Los Angeles "Huntington Beach Council To Vote On Public Nudity Ordinance"
  10. ^ OC Register "Council puts nudity ban into effect"
  11. ^ Palo Alto online
  12. ^ JS Online
  13. ^ Time Magazine
  14. ^ Salon
  15. ^ Monterey County Weekly
  16. ^ Metro Active
  17. ^ Channel 10 news
  18. ^ NBC San Diego
  19. ^ NBC San Diego
  20. ^ Sign On Sandiego news
  21. ^ Sign On Sandiego news
  22. ^ USA Today
  23. ^ CBS News
  24. ^ NBC San Diego
  25. ^ JS Online
  26. ^ Break the Chain website
  27. ^ The Sun (UK)
  28. ^ The Telegraph (UK)
  29. ^ BBC (UK)

[edit] External links