You’ve seen them everywhere; on dancefloors, in dark rooms, maybe even in your own home: Panties. Thongs. Lingerine. Whatever you want to call it, guys are wearing women’s underwear and it’s fucking hot.
It’s impossible to say from whence the panties came. Certainly, men have been dipping a toe into women’s clothes for centuries—ostensibly for as long as gender roles have existed in society. To wear women’s underwear feels sexy because of its taboo: two things that societal norms dictate must remain separate come together, and that sense of danger and subversion keys into sexual desire.
Hopefully, at this point it goes without saying that gender is a construct. That clothes and undergarments are pieces of fabric, and they are genderless in themselves. That we imbue aesthetics with meaning, and that meaning often feeds into power structures that are meant to empower some people and oppress others. In a truly liberated utopia, your electric blue thong that is riding up your ass will read as genderless, for sure.
But, even as we work to dismantle gender roles—they do still exist. And subverting them can be hot.
Thongs on men were first thrust into the spotlight on a catwalk in Milan in the late 90s, when Tom Ford sent a male model out in a skimpy, black thong, the interlacing Gucci G’s keeping the whole thing together. ““There’s a little pad up front, but in the back you’ve got nothing but a string, baby!” Sacha, the model, told reporters at the time. In 2018, the same thong made an appearance on Kim Kardashian. Hailey Bieber wore a reimagining of the same thong last year.
But thongs are more than a fashion statement, or even an exercise in genderfuckery. Straight guys have started to admit that they love wearing panties and thongs. In a recent poll on r/MensUnderwearGuide, more than two hundred straight guys said they wear thongs. Further to (admittedly less-than-scientific) reddit polls, all you’ve got to do is scroll TikTok.
Guys are flashing lacey panties and tiny thongs as engagement bait to build their followings for one reason only—it works. Giving their followers a peak at their lingerie is a surefire way to garner comments, likes, and follows. As you might expect, the more traditionally masculine a guy wearing the thong, the bigger the response. A construction worker demurely showing off his thong online will almost certainly lead to virality.
Of course, there’s a more straightforward reason that thongs are becoming more popular on guys: the rules about who gets to wear what are beginning to look more and more flimsy as we continue to scrutinize them. And, more to the point, lingerie makes your ass and cock look…really good! These garments were literally invented to make butts look more appealing, and any kind of tight, skimpy underwear is going to create a heavy-looking bulge. If your bush is peaking out the front, well, that’s just a bonus.
After all, what’s a thong but a jockstrap set free.
Images Courtesy of @geelherme