Missing the "Good Old Days"

[dm106]

Originally Posted by Swimmin

There is also a 9 year old that wants a real Speedo and his mother just accepted. He is currently wearing a square cut but has been asking for a brief for months now. His board shorts pretty much disappeared too from the moment he got a tighter swimsuit.

Even at 9 he understands he might get some looks or be made fun of but he decided to simply ignore all that. He thinks the brief swimsuits are cool and is determined to try them.

Trend? Probably not as they are still very rare but definitely an option now that we actually see some on young guys.

Swimmin, how does the 14 year old do in his speedos? Does he manage to "stay in control" in them? That was hard for me at that age.

[California Dolphin]

As I've said on previous posts, If you want to see a change back to the pre 90s shorts, start emailing the makers and tell them what you want.

All the clothing makers can be easily contacted by email and you can even attach a photo of the old fashioned shorts so they know exactly what you want.

[California Dolphin]

Originally Posted by dm106

Swimmin, how does the 14 year old do in his speedos? Does he manage to "stay in control" in them? That was hard for me at that age.

I just keep under water and concentrate on swimming so my mind isn't getting below the belt line.

[Swimmin]

Originally Posted by dm106

Swimmin, how does the 14 year old do in his speedos? Does he manage to "stay in control" in them? That was hard for me at that age.

That young man is much more in control than I have ever been until I got to about 25. Not that I have been checking all the time but he seems safe enough to be confident about walking around the pool from and to the lockers. That Seobean suit is quite revealing and obviously he had a thrill out of wearing it at first but remained under control.

But at the end of the day I was telling him that I was impressed about him enjoying himself dressed like that. He said at first it was a little wierd but he quickly got used to it and said that would be exactly the suit he wanted next but just a little smaller because you could see the XL is a little big.

I am not his father so I try not to talk too much about erections or puberty stuff but instead I always make it known if he wants to talk about it I will listem to him.

He asked me once about penis position while swimming and said he is more comfortable down. I said really? Up is much better....he then tried it and quickly went back to down.

[dm106]

Good for him! I prefer up as well. Perhaps he tried up and felt like it was too easy for him to start an erection.

[Swimmboy]

I grew up in the 70s and I just don't remember brief "Speedo" type suits being all that common. I recently watched "Jaws" and its sequels - all from the late 70s - and in those crowded beach scenes I did not see ANY true Speedo-type brief suits and maybe just one or two briefer trunks. In 1980 I took a swimming class in college and got up the nerve to purchase a Navy blue nylon Speedo instead of wearing the uncomfortable trunks the locker room handed out with your towel. But I felt quite uncomfortable and 'out of place' in the sporting goods store buying it because such suits were not that common. I justified it to myself by saying I was enrolled in an actual swimming class so was 'entitled' to wear a Speedo....

[nespeedoguy]

The comfort of gliding through water in brief is terrific. And nice to get tan if you can’t get down to the buff. Wish more guys sported them. Be fun to have a speedo board beach day ! Always enjoy folks speedo stories.
Cheers !

[Speed-Will]

Swimmboy - it may have been a matter of where you were located, etc - as far as the Speedo exposure in the 70's - 90's. I was on a swim team as a youth and we wore Speedos. On the "social front" - our country club hired members of the local college's swim team as lifeguards and they all wore Speedos to the pool, so that helped to open things up there as well, making them more acceptable.

As an adult I was already wearing Speedos as a member of a Masters swim team, so when I started dating my wife she knew what I wore (and as I mentioned earlier - her father was wearing one at the time as well). Her brothers also wore them, and they weren't swimmers.

While I would wear Speedos for swim team practice and meets, I started wearing skimpier suits to lie in the sun at the Beach and whenever we traveled to the Caribbean or Mexico. Granted - these were places that had more Europeans at the resorts and they always wore bikini style suits. I guess I was just lucky with my timing with where I was and what I wore - and I do miss those days.

[Jack Lewis]

About 25 years ago in Europe, something strange happened. Almost overnight it became socially unacceptable for men to self-objectify. Up until that time we could build muscle in the gym, play frisbee on public family beaches wearing string-sided Rios or thongs, and people felt free to comment on your hard-work. We used to wear our jeans skin-tight, and I mean tight around the crotch, not tight around the calves and baggy around the crotch. And some poor fellas feeling under-endowed used to actually stuff socks down there to enhance the bulge.

Then all of a sudden it became the restricted province of the female, who could buy breast enlargements and go topless, show off their pert thong-clad bottoms and say “Aren’t I gorgeous? Don’t you all want me?”. But according to all the online fashion gurus, any clothing that reveals a hint that you actually have a penis, is a cause of public revulsion. And any top that suggests perhaps you go to the gym more than once a week makes you a social douche-bag! Any hint of leg above the knee and it’s assumed you need to visit your trick cyclist!

Business-men in late middle age wear suits because it is the best way to present a body that’s likely to be past its best. But since you can’t play beach volleyball in a suit, everybody hopes you’ll wear something like a tent so they can’t see any hint of masculinity lurking within. And even with a stripper body you can now walk through a London park shirtless on a hot summer day past groups of young ladies who don’t even look up from their mobile phones. And when they’re unavoidably cornered, political correctness forbids them from making any comment or showing a reaction, because you’re no longer supposed to comment on anyone’s appearance, whether it be negative or positive.

I know this because I recently returned from a third world country where, free from our political correctness, people commented on my physique freely – something I’ve not experienced in the UK for many years.

After the new era started in the mid-90s I think a lot of us thought it was a passing fashion or phase, and that what comes around would come around again. But I now believe it won’t, because of other social changes in the Western world that have cemented it in place for a long time to come. But maybe one day, just maybe…

[Fairfax]

I agree with you Jack Lewis in your "view from Europe".
I witnessed the same shift in Australia about a generation ago.
The most visible part is how sunbathing and the nudist culture it is closely linked to is now regarded as a "feminine" activity.
Sure it was more popular with women but the pleasures of sunbathing (either small swimsuit or naked) were seen as something men could enjoy too. As a teenager no one thought my interest in briefs and sunbathing strange, it was just a recreational activity that some people of both sexes enjoyed.
Sunbathing in shorts or jammers just isn't the same, you have to at least "feel naked" so modern men simply don't participate anymore.
There was a popular subculture around minimal swimwear and sunbathing that todays young males have never experienced. It wouldn't appeal to every man (same as for women) but some of todays men would embrace it if given the chance.