Panties

Women's panties or knickers

Panties are women's underwear. Sometimes worn by men.

Types of panties

A wide variety of types of panties exist. Bikini panties are designed so that the hip connectors are small, like on those of swimwear. String bikini panties are the most commonly worn type in the United States by high school and college age women, and are similar to regular bikini 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. String bikini is considered more revealing. String bikini are usually made of satin or silk, but occasionally from other fabrics. High-cut, or control top, are cut higher on the hip to slightly pull in and shape the stomach to conceal obesity. High-cut are usually worn by older women and are often shunned by younger women. Boyshorts describe a type of female underwear that has a lower, thicker cut of material around the hips, making them appear as shorts that men would wear. They are sometimes by men and women alike criticized as not being feminine, although some women do wear them. The g-string is a thong panty with a string running between the buttocks. It is often jokingly referred to as "floss" by critics and some comedians.

Panties are made of a variety of materials and fabrics including satin, silk, pvc, cotton, nylon, mesh, lace, rawhide, leather, latex, lycra, and/or polyester.

In British English, and in places such as the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, South Africa and India, panties are often referred to as knickers. The term knickers is not generally used in the USA and Canada, where the term "panties" is usually favored.

History

Before recent times, women's underwear were made with the primary function of body contortion. In the 1940s, Frederick's 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, sexy, 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 than simple hygiene products and developed into an icon of pleasure and sexuality worldwide.

Since then, women in flattering and provocative panties and lingerie have become a staple of several functions of men's and lesbian's popular culture. Several men's magazines such as Maxim and FHM 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. Women's undergarments became even more sexualized due to the ongoing sexual revolution at that time. The underpants got smaller and skinnier and began to sexualize themselves more up front.

In today's society, panties have become an item of great interest in themselves. Considered by some to be risqué, panties have caused the lingerie industry to take advantage of their erotic associations. 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.

A number of non-nude pornography websites survive through 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 teenage girls and women in their early twenties who are more likely to enjoy them than women who grew 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.

At some colleges, there have been panty raids.

Sometimes, when girls are pantsed, their panties are revealed.

References in popular culture

• 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 lecher 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 of the female characters' panties.
• In the magical land of Xanth, in the series of novels by Piers Anthony, panties have a special magic; when a woman wearing them flashes them at a male (particularly if the male is the same species as the woman wearing the panties,) the man is stunned for an indeterminate period of time.
• During the Weekend Update segment of Saturday Night Live, presenter Amy Poehler presented a mock debate about the use of the term "panties" in news stories rather than the gender-neutral word "underwear."
• In Good Luck, Chuck, Cam wears panties which are revealed when she attempts to get out of the car. They are white with a penguin on it.