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The thong is an undergarment and swimwear, worn by both sexes, mostly women, 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
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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 The first historical reference to the thong in post-1900’s is in 1939 New York City when Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia ordered nude dancers to dress more appropriately.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 1990s, the thong began to gain widespread acceptance and popularity in the United States, amounting for sales of more than $2 billion per year in 2006.5
Design and variety
| Back | Sides | |
|---|---|---|
| Strap | Tie | |
| T-back |  |
|
| G-string |  |
|
| V-string |  |
|
Types of thongs include the traditional thong, the G-string, V-string and the T-back. 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 In Israel the G-string is called khutini (חוטיני), from the word Khut, which means String. In Lithuanian it is siaurikės ("narrows"), Italian perizoma, in Turkish ipli külot ("stringed underpants"), and in Bulgarian it is known as prashka ("slingshot"). A frequent metaphor, especially in South America, is dental floss as in Spanish hilo dental or Portuguese fio dental. A Puerto-Rican Spanish slang term, used by Reggaeton artists, is gistro.
- 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 can have tie sides like the T-back.
- T-back: A thong that makes a straight line of a strip of garment in the back like the 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"). However, there are several usages of the term T-back in English as well (e.g. Children’s literature author E.L. Konigsburg’s T-backs, T-shirts, Coat and Suit).
- C-string; as narrow as a G-string but without the band around the waist, leaving just a "C" shaped piece between the legs held in place firmly by a flexible internal frame.7 Since there is no material around the waist, the C-string completely eliminates the panty lines which thongs and other underwear create. C-strings are also designed for use as beachwear, which reduces the tan lines that would have been left by the side straps of even a G-string.
- 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.citation needed
- String Tanga: This is a type of tanga swimwear which has the waist band replaced with strings which are tied.citation needed
Thongs are available in a wide variety of materials, including fleece, silk, cotton, satin, nylon, lycra/spandex, and latex and are also available in maternity styles.
Men’s thongs
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.citation needed Thongs for men are cut differently than thongs for women.
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.citation needed
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 Spanish suggests (hilo dental), 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 stripper’s 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".[3]
Thongs and society
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.89 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 choose to wear thong underwear or swimwear:12 prevention of visible panty lines13, 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.
This is one item of clothing that cannot be worn in dance competitions under the rules of the IDSF (International DanceSport Federation).citation needed
Controversy
Several institutions have banned thongs, mainly schools and universities.141516 In one particular case in 2002, a female high school vice principal in San Diego physically checked up to 100 female students’ underwear17 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 defense, 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”).192021222324
Of particular controversy is the retail by several outlets, including Abercrombie & Fitch, Argos and Etam, of thongs for children as young as seven.citation needed 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 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.27
See also
References
- ^ "Thong". Online Dictionary. Merriam-Webster. Retrieved on 2008-04-03.
- ^ Johnny Acton, Tania Adams and Matt Packer, Origin of Everyday Things, page 318, Sterling, 2006, ISBN 1402743025
- ^ Merriam-Webster online dictionary
- ^ Article Alley.com
- ^ Article Alley
- ^ a b Chlo Taylor Brown, Getting Ready Chlo-Style: Perfecting Your Authentic Image, page 224, AuthorHouse, 2007, ISBN 1434306283
- ^ Newspaper articles about the C-string: The Sun [1], Daily Mail [2]
- ^ KNBC in Los Angeles “Huntington Beach Amends Proposed Nudity Ban To Allow Thong Bikinis”
- ^ KNBC in Los Angeles “Huntington Beach Council To Vote On Public Nudity Ordinance”
- ^ OC Register “Council puts nudity ban into effect”
- ^ Palo Alto online
- ^ JS Online
- ^ Time Magazine
- ^ Salon
- ^ Monterey County Weekly
- ^ Metro Active
- ^ Channel 10 news
- ^ NBC San Diego
- ^ NBC San Diego
- ^ Sign On Sandiego news
- ^ Sign On Sandiego news
- ^ USA Today
- ^ CBS News
- ^ NBC San Diego
- ^ JS Online
- ^ Break the Chain website
- ^ BBC (UK)
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Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 22 November 2008, at 14:52.
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