Part XXV
Then starting in the 1980s everything changed again. Part of the changes that occurred in underwear fashion had to do with how men’s clothing, particularly jeans, had changed.
Think about the uniforms basketball players wore in the 1960s with very short shorts compared to the sloppy shorts that extended below the knee in the 1980s.
The mid-late 1960s was a period of time in which nearly every young male was wearing skinny, body–conforming jeans, and the snug-fitting cotton briefs almost universally worn during the same time period paired well with the jeans. The jeans fit very snug in the thighs, and there was no room for another layer of cloth extending into that area.
But by the 1980s everything was just the opposite. The popular jeans were very loose-fitting with very wide legs and guys suddenly decided that having genitalia in a confined space was no longer a thing to do. Instead, guys started wearing loose-fitting boxer shorts that extended all the way to the knee. Cotton briefs, for that matter ANY kind of brief was considered totally unacceptable. Students dare not show up in a locker room wearing anything but a very loose-fitting pair of boxers or they would be teased and bullied.
These loose, sloppy designs stayed around a long time—far too long in my view. But what happened revealed a linkage between what guys thought was the right design for jeans and other pants as well as the underwear to pair with them.
A lot of guys seem to think that their specific choice of underwear might reveal something about their sexual orientation to others. This is a particular concern for younger guys who go in for athletics that involves changing in a locker room of some sort. Guys also who go on dates with females worry that if the date concludes with intercourse, the underwear choice may tell the female something about the guy’s sexual orientation that she did not know, especially for guys who have a gay or bisexual side, though if the guy is having intercourse with a female that alone tells the female something about the guy’s sexual orientation without relying on clues from his choice of underwear.
The key advantage of loose-fitting blue plaid boxers (the most popular pattern and color) that extend to the knee is that no guy would ever accuse a peer of being gay based on that choice in underwear.
The key disadvantage of that specific underwear design is that it provides essentially zero support or protection for the genitalia. I certainly would not engage in any sport wearing these as the only undergarment. However, there may be a compromise. Faced with this dilemma I would suggest that the guy who wishes to make it appear that his underwear choice is a loose-fitting pair of plaid boxers, I would purchase a bikini brief in a coordinating solid color such as medium blue, and wear that as a supportive “liner”. Then the boxers and the liner could come off as a single garment in the locker room.
Still, loose-fitting plaid boxers are a poor choice for male underwear given the lack of support and protection for the genitalia. These are still available but for the most part underwear design and what guys wear has moved on. Generally loose-fitting boxer shorts are a poor choice for masturbation activities. Everything important just flops around loose and the coarse weave of the cotton-blend fabric makes them largely useless. I can’t imagine a guy saying “I get turned on when I get into my plaid boxers!” but maybe that is or was the point.
To be continued…
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