The reason Speedos are stigmatised

[Bede735]

And on that issue, how would you know if anyone was thinking you were gay? Unless they said you were, but why would their opinion matter to you?

[50 Free]

Exactly. And as far as "attracting", well so what, I don't mind, really, all people are welcome to look at me and speak to me. Check out a Facebook page called I'm Straight And I Wear Speedos. It's kind of fun

[California Dolphin]

For the idea that speedos are "gay fetish wear" and STR8 men don't want to be mislabeled as gay because they wear them, here's another viewpoint.

The gay movement has seized on about anything that appears erotic and sexy. So why not avoid wearing jeans, t shirts, and sneakers?

Accordingly men's clothing can be made just plain bland, sterile, and devoid of anything related to the male physique.

[SwimTeamSpeedo]

First, Speedo is a brand and not a style, much like Kleenex is a brand and not a generic name for tissue. I do think a big segment of society sees a guy on a beach in a brief or less cut swimsuit and they leap to gay. I bet most posters on this board make the same leap. It is easy to understand, go to any beach with a gay section and suddenly you start to see swimwear that is smaller and tighter. Nothing wrong with that, but lets be realistic, outside of swimming sport use, the outward wearing of small cut suits is far more common in gay arenas. Heck, some gay guys choose not to wear them out of a desire not to look gay. I do not like broad generalizations and do not agee with it.

I think the move back to shorter cuts will help lift some of the association. However, I do not see the day where brief cut swimwear is the majority, except at the local team pool.

[sebbie]

New clothing styles of all types often are first adopted by gays, but then frequently are gradually assimilated into the straight community as the particular fashion becomes more widely worn. Remember the old "International Male" catalogs, and the "undergear" catalogs. Gay guys frequently tend to be more body conscious than their straight counterparts, and tend to favor clothing styles that show a fit-and-trim body. For some unknown reason, most straight guys are less interested in this.

The recent resurgence in popularity of skinny jeans for all guys is an interesting illustration. The last time these were that popular with guys was when I was in high school in the 1960s. Then we never thought of the design with respect to sexual orientation and we wore them simply because we thought we looked good wearing them. Note however, that the boy bands seeking attention from screaming teen girls almost always are wearing really skinny jeans.

The Sears store in western ND (Minot) had maybe 8 or 10 real Speedo briefs hanging on the rack when I was ther in late June. Its been maybe 20 years since I had last seen Speedos on display in any department store in the upper MIdwest. Not sure what is going on except that the entire area is experiencing a lot of in-migration from states such as Texas, recently.

Sebbie

[Dooley67]

OK guys, I need some clarification here. STS rightfully said that Speedo is a brand, not a type of swimsuit. I will often refer to a brief suit as a speedo or as a bikini. So, since Speedo is a brand, how do we differentiate between a "speedo type" suit and a bikini? Is it the size of the side seam or whether the suit creates the "v" shape or low cut straight line that Turbofan talked about?

D67

[Torchwatch]

The more I clarify the more you will become confused.

Speedo is a brand, speedo is a variation on the basic Speedo racing brief design by other manufacturers.

The basic Speedo racing brief is a smooth front bikini, the width at the sides is variable as are colour and fabric.

A square cut swim suit has legs while a bikini has leg holes.

The words brief and bikini mean the same thing, but a bikini tends to be briefer than a brief.

The limit to the side width of a brief/bikini is the sum of the width of the waist elastic and the leg elastic.

A full cut covers your bum, a Brazilian cut shows the sides of your bum and a thong shows your bum cheeks. The limit to the rear width of a thong/bikini/brief is the sum of the widths of the elastic used.

A low cut suit reveals the top of your ass crack, while a high cut suit could cover your navel.

A smooth front bikini (Speedo) uses a single piece of fabric for the front of the suit. It holds everything in and smooth's it over, hiding inconvenient details. A pouch adds the 3rd dimension to the front of a suit, everything moves forwards and greater details are apparent. A filled pouch suggests that you are well endowed while a massive under filled pouch is boasting.

A front lined suit avoids embarrassment should you "dribble" slightly between the locker room toilets and the pool. A front lined suit also helps smooth over everything making the swimmer more presentable in public and less liable to embarrassment. An unlined suit when wet will cling tightly and reveal the shape of everything underneath.

A thin white fabric becomes transparent when wet, a thick black fabric remains opaque. Other colours and fabric thicknesses create a spectrum of choices.

Decide where you will wear your bikini, and who will see it and how you want them to react. Choose something conservative and safe for the public pool where lifeguards will be protecting women and children. Have something more adventurous ready for the quiet beach, miles from town where you can express yourself more freely. Since you are allowed to own more than one swim suit experiment around the house and in your own shower (or even pool if you have one).

[Dooley67]

Torchwatch,

Thanks for taking the time to write such a thorough explanation. Actually, I am less confused after reading it. What I take from your explanation is that brief and bikini are the same but a bikini tends to be smaller than a brief and that what I referred to as a "speedo type" suit is really a brief that is somewhat larger than a bikini. And, when talking about a Speedo, we're talking about the brand and nothing more.

Now correct me if I'm wrong, but a brief that has a side seam of maybe 1" or 1.5" and is low cut in the front below the hip bones would be called a bikini. A 2" might also be called a bikini if it were also low cut, but any side seam larger and a higher cut in front and back would be considered a brief.

D67

[Torchwatch]

In Alice in Wonderland Humpty Dumpty said that his words meant whatever he wanted them to. So it is with men's swimwear, all the manufacturers are using different words to mean the same things and the same words to use different things. There are differences in meaning between different designers and cultures within the English speaking world.

Although there was already a Bikini Atoll in the Pacific used for nuclear tests the swimwear bikini was introduced by French engineer Louis Réard and separately by fashion designer Jacques Heim in Paris in 1946.

British men's underwear has included briefs for many years and so swim briefs were just a variation.

You are therefore as right or wrong as you want to be.

[Dooley67]

I don't know if you've seen the movie Bang the Drum Slowly with Robert De Niro in one of his earliest films. A baseball themed movie, some of the players in the clubhouse play a game called Tegwar, a game without rules. The rules are made up by the players as they play. Rules can't be challenged by anyone so the game is what it morphs into. So maybe it's the same in the swimsuit world. You say potato, I say potahto; you say bikini, I say brief!

D67