Old men and Speedos

[Glenda]

I'm 65, 6 feet plus tall, and try to maintain 170 pounds, but I am under it and in great shape. Speedos always fit great.

I have yet to meet any overweight women or men whom live year around at our postal zip code which has an average elevation of 9,900 feet (3 kilometers) above sea level. I am always surprised how out of shape people are when we visit lower elevations. Must be a higher metabolism or something at our high elevation.

[JamesSwim]

Originally Posted by sebbie

I got to reading this series of posts last night. It takes awhile, because there are 661 posts on 27 pages:

http://www.amazon.com/forum/fashion/...x2ELV6PE2YQX63

The thing that always amazes me is the vitriolic posts by women who seem downright angry at any man who would dare to wear a Speedo.

A few men too, but far fewer.

I go to the stores nowadays and snug-fitting briefs and boxer-briefs totally dominate the underwear shelves. I also realize that many men are not perfect body specimens. I am scratching my head and wondering what reaction these vitriolic women have when they see their hubbies or boyfriends in their underwear. Not every guy who wears underwear is a perfect specimen of male anatomy nor are they all in their teens or early 20s. So what drives the vitriolic comments about seeing a guy wearing a Speedo at the pool, hot tub or beach? One has to wonder. Americans seem to have these hangups to a far greater degree than in most of the rest of the world, for what that is worth. Are American men always supposed to be ashamed of their bodies?

Interestingly, women in America wear tiny, barely-there suits and often these women are not perfect bodies either. You dont see 27-page blogs on the Web devoted to why American women wear smaller and tighter swimwear than they should. So this seems to be mainly anger directed toward men by a subgroup of women as well as certain other men who seem to be insecure in their own skins. At some point every guy is going to end up in a situation where he is nude or nearly so in front of someone else. Once should not be so scared of ones' own appearance in minimal or no clothing that one completely falls apart. Think about it.

Sebbie

You make an interesting point that brief underwear is popular, so it's contradictory that brief swimwear is not. Here are some theories.

1. Fashion appearance - women now like to wear bikinis, but they don't like to have their husbands or boyfriends wear something too similar (perhaps they think it's feminine?) in public. If she's wearing a blue bikini, and her boyfriend is also is wearing a blue brief, she may think he's wearing something that's too similar to what a women would wear? Women's clothing tends to more attention getting than men's, so they may expect men to be different.

2. Age issue - if men who are most comfortable wearing briefs are older (they got used to it a few decades ago) they don't want their boyfriends to look like they are older. I presume men's casual clothing used to be more revealing a few decades ago too? So if this is true, women don't want their boyfriends to wear say, their shirts unbuttoned too far down?

3. Getting attention -- women like the attention they get wearing bikinis. but women don't like to see their guys getting attention by others. Men don't mind seeing their girlfriends getting attention since they feel good they have an eye catching girlfriend? I think guys are more easily turned on by visual cues, but girls less so. Girls probably care about modesty for their boyfriends and not have other girls look at their guy?

4. Private vs public -- that's the most odd thing . If brief men's underwear is popular, why not swimwear? I think it's an issue of being private so the girl's the only one who gets to see the guy -- and nobody else, so she's happy with that.

[Byron]

....understand this phenomenon either - such vitriol from the "fairer" sex can be surprising.
I shall have to go with JamesSwim's no.3 - some sought of attitude which says "how dare you infringe on our rights - we only are the ones permitted to expose our bodies to the maximum".

[JamesSwim]

Originally Posted by Byron

....understand this phenomenon either - such vitriol from the "fairer" sex can be surprising.
I shall have to go with JamesSwim's no.3 - some sought of attitude which says "how dare you infringe on our rights - we only are the ones permitted to expose our bodies to the maximum".

There's a modesty issue with worn out suits. If you have a lycra/nylon suit that is either too thin or worn out, it can show the contours too much -- and some suits look OK when dry but after a swim they stretch out. So one needs to be careful about that.

I realize people have suits with a pouch sewn in front, but I'm talking about regular swim briefs. But I think most of the discussion on the Amazon's site isn't about that.

[PSDave]

I have contended for years that the age has nothing to do with clothing choices - it is the person wearing them. There are many men out there in their 50's and 60's that look good in a speedo and guys in their 20's that shouldn't be seen in a speedo ever. (rule of thumb: If you look down and can't see your swimsuit under your gut -- you should be A. wearing another suit B. heading to the gym (and not via McDonalds)

Point in case:
http://www.tmz.com/videos/0_9ojjah6k/

[SwimTeamSpeedo]

regarding the video....not the best looking dude in a square cut, but he's not dreadful awful, either. Sure he is thick in the middle, but not fat. I think it is okay for average guys (those with no six pack abs (or even no packs) or some thickness around the middle to wear suits that are not board shorts. If more guys like him accepted suits like we all like... issue solved.

[Fred #1]

Wear what makes you happy! Life's too short to worry about what the neighbors think.

[Byron]

To be out snorkelling with this guy in a matching black speedo would make me happy:
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_md...gs9oo1_500.jpg

[Mollyk]

Me too! Yes!!