Panties

Women's panties or knickers

Panties are undergarments. The term spread through American culture in the 1950s after women's underwear became flashier and more colorful than traditional white cotton hygiene undergarments. Many people would agree there is a large cultural difference between typical underwear and panties, since the latter tends to carry different, more feminine influences.

Uses

Today, panties are used primarily for personal hygiene, just like underwear. Some panties contain taller control tops, which act as a slight girdle for women wearing tapered shirts or high cut skirts.

A wide variety of types of panties exist. High-cut, or control top, are cut higher on the hip to slightly pull in and shape the stomach. Bikini cut are cut traditionally, only the hip grips are small, like on those of beachwear. String Bikini are similar to bikini cut panties, but instead of a thin hip grip, they have a small string, which sometimes ties around the waist rather than being pulled up over them. Boyshorts describe a type of panty that has a lower, thicker cut of material around the hips, making them appear as shorts.

History

Before recent times, women's underwear were made with the primary function of body contortion. In the 1940s, Fredericks of Hollywood opened shop in Hollywood and began selling corsets and lingerie with a much more fashionable appeal to them. These new styles of women's undergarments possessed a greater sexual feel, made even more glamorized by models such as Bettie Page.

Colorful, bright and flashier fashions of women's lingerie were becoming available. More fabrics such as satin, lace and silk began to be incorporated into the makeup of women's lingerie, making them more desired by females and more sensual to males. This is perhaps the great turning point when panties became more then simple hygiene products and developed into an icon of sexuality worldwide.

Since then, women in flattering lingerie have become a staple of several functions of men's popular culture. Several men's magazines such as Maxim and Lowrider often use images of attractive females in sensual lingerie to capture mainstream appeal.

Cultural impact

During the 1960s, there was a stir among the old, traditional views of women's undergarments that they wanted to look more like females anatomies. Female anatomy was largely misunderstood due to censorship of the subject. Some feminist women were proclaiming how traditional women's undergarments were created to impose control and distort the appearance of women's figures. This movement caused many females to have a new outlook on how they viewed their undergarments. The underpants began to have themselves made more like woman anatomy.

Not long after, in the 1970s, a new chapter in women's taste opened. In the 70's, women's undergarments became even more sexualized due to the sexual revolution going on at that time. The underpants got smaller and skinnier and began to sexualize themselves more up front. The thong, g-string and v-string were the ones that did it.

In today's society, panties have become an entity in themselves. Considered by some to be taboo, the lingerie industry has boomed. Lingerie chains such as Victoria's Secret and Frederick's of Hollywood, hold annual modeling shows to showcase new varieties of panties and other assorted lingerie.

Several non-nude pornography websites survive off selling photo sets of women posing in panties and other lingerie.

In most modern cultures, panties have become a bit of a cultural icon describing sexual mischief and a fun way of life, especially for high school and college age girls who are more likely to enjoy them than the woman who grows up wearing granny panties. In Japan, panties (pantsu) are commonly depicted as being a highly flirtatious, naughty element to a female's persona.

When a girl's skirt comes up high enough for her panties to be seen, it is called a 'panty shot'. Many websites on the internet make profits from selling the aforementioned kind of pornography or voyeurism.

When a male or female wears clothes without undergarments, it is often referred to as Going Commando or, in the male version, Free Balling.

References

• Probably the most famous panty shot in history, in 1954 Marilyn Monroe stood over a vent and had her skirt blow up for the film, The Seven Year Itch.

• In the 1980s movie Sixteen Candles, lead character Samantha loans her panties to Ted so he can win a bet he has with his high school peers.

• In the Anime series, Ranma 1/2, the old letcher Happosai, is obsessed with panties and commonly looks up women's skirt and steals their panties.

• In Korea, the term fanservice is used to describe an incident where an attractive female (and occasionally male) show off their panties or other elements in a provocative manner.

• In the Anime series, Dragon Ball, Master Roshi, is often trying to catch a glimpse at the other female characters panties.