Thong
Thongs come in a variety of styles depending on the thickness, material or type of the rear portion of fabric and are used by both men and women throughout most of the world.
In Lithuanian it is siaurikės ('narrows'), in Italian perizoma or tanga, in Turkish ipli külot ('stringed underpants'), and in Bulgarian as prashka (прашка), which means a slingshot.
Colloquially, thongs and G-strings are often used interchangeably to describe skimpy underwear with minimal back coverage, although the main difference is usually attributed to the width of the strap in the rear.
[5][6] This is a definition reflected in the Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion, which considers the G-string or thong to be "a panty front with a half- to one-inch strip of fabric at the back that sits between the buttocks", using the terms interchangeably.
"[8] Alternatively, some sources have attributed thongs to be a derivation of the G-string, as claimed by Striptease: the Untold History of the Girlie Show.
[10] A reverse description is used in Americanisms: the Illustrated Book of Words Made in the USA, which calls the G-string as a type of thong invented in 1936 and attributed to strippers, that consists of a small triangular piece of fabric connected by two elastic straps.
[11] The thong, like its probable predecessor the loincloth, is believed to be one of the earliest forms of human clothing and is also thought to have been worn mostly or exclusively by men.
In the US 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.
In the 2000s, some people wore thongs with low-cut hipsters and deliberately exposed them over the top of their trousers, producing an effect popularly known as a whale tail.
Market research in 2011 placed the number of French women who wear thongs as their preferred underwear style at 25%, down by 5% from 2008.
Thongs are available in a wide variety of materials, including silk, latex, cotton, microfiber, satin, nylon, lycra/spandex, and lace.
Often, but not always, thongs for men will feature a vertical seam to create shape and space for the male genitalia, and the pouch may be made of stretchy material (usually cotton-Lycra or microfiber) for an ergonomic fit.
The V or G-string style consists of an elastic string (also a narrow piece of cloth, leather, or plastic) that connects the front/pouch and the waistband at back, worn as swimwear or underwear by women and men.
Safire also mentions the opinion of linguist Robert Hendrickson that "G" (or "gee") stands for groin, which was a taboo word at the time.
[34] The Oxford English Dictionary reports that the G-string was originally a narrow strip of fabric worn by Indian women.
[35] As thongs pass between the buttocks and, in women, may be in close contact with the anus and labia, concerns have been raised that they may become damp and act as a conduit for germ transfer, increasing the probability that the wearer may develop urinary tract infections, such as cystitis.
[52][53][54] However, research suggests that wearing thong underwear does not have a statistically significant effect on the occurrence of bacterial vaginosis[55] or yeast infection.
[57][58][59][60][61] The sale of thongs for girls aged 10–16 by US retailer Abercrombie & Fitch led to an email and telephone campaign against the company.
