Should You Go Commando?

We ladies all love our underwear. But some women love going commando – and wouldn’t have it any other way.

Aside from missing out on wearing beautiful and sexy underwear, are there any cons to occasionally (or frequently) going commando? Are there any pros?

Aside from common decency (if wearing a short dress or short shorts) and modesty, why should we wear undies?

·        Underwear protects us from infections

·        Underwear protects us from parasites – for example, pubic lice and other nasties can live on towels and linen, and can be picked up very easily by sitting on these sans underwear

·        Underwear protects us from irritation, due to seams, studs and zippers in clothing

·        Underwear protects our outer clothing from natural bodily secretions and sweat, keeping odours and stains to a minimum

There are, however, some good reasons to go commando at least some of the time – like at night when sleeping, or when at home, or when wearing a maxi dress or skirt. 

Here’s why:

·        No underwear = no visible panty line. Of course a g-string eliminates this too, yet g-strings are not healthy to wear every day. Yeast infections and other regional issues are exacerbated by wearing a g-string, leading to potential urinary tract infections.

·        Underwear in summer traps heat and moisture. This can cause itching and, again, yeast infection – going commando allows for better air circulation in the region. This is imperative for optimal health.

·        Whisper to your guy that you’re sans underwear and he’s sure to look at you in a whole new and exciting light!

Our tips?

·        Whatever underwear you choose to wear, make sure the gusset is made of cotton

·        Change your underwear at least once a day, and shower or bathe at least once a day

·        Don’t use harsh bath products or feminine perfume products on your genitalia

·        Don’t wear g-strings every day and don’t wear them to sleep in at night

·        Avoid synthetics and polyesters in underwear on the hottest, most humid days. Cotton is your best friend.

·        Always wear underwear while menstruating

·        Make sure your underwear fits comfortably and is not too tight

·        Always wear underwear underneath jeans, capris, or other trouser-style clothing which has seams that can irritate the delicate genital area.

·        Even if it’s just at home in the evening, go commando from time to time. Especially if you suffer from yeast infections, irritation, or cystitis.

·        If you do choose to go commando – NOBODY NEEDS TO KNOW!!!

·        Buy underwear that you love – and you will love to wear. Whether you’re a girl who loves a lacy cheeky pair or cotton full coverage, you will rock it if you love it.

A Fetish for Stealing Undies

Just a couple of months ago, an hilarious news story was reported in which a Chinese man, having stolen and stashed hundreds of pieces of women’s lingerie, was exposed when a ceiling collapsed under the weight of his hidden stash.

Located in the southeast Chinese city of Yulin, the man, aged in his thirties, who later admitted to psychiatric issues and a lifelong obsession with women’s lingerie, had been stealing and hiding the underwear in a ceiling above an emergency exit in his building. After the ceiling collapse, police found more than two thousand items, including bras and panties hidden in the roof.

The underwear had, seemingly, been stolen from other residents in the offender’s housing complex – they had been complaining of missing and vanishing underwear for some time. The offender had accessed a master key and entered the other residents’ apartments during their absence with the sole aim of stealing and hoarding their underwear.

He stored his stolen items in his own ceiling, until he ran out of room there; at this point he accessed the ceiling cavities in communal fire escapes.

This is not the only underwear burglar to make his way to infamy in the news recently. A Singaporean man who had been stealing lingerie from women’s indoor washing lines was caught in the act – and was publicly shamed into wearing one of the stolen bras as he was paraded around the block.

Why do men steal women’s underwear?

·        Some men want a kinky keepsake of their sexual encounters with a specific woman.

·        Some men get off on the risk of pinching something intimate.

·        Some men get off on the thrill of stealing – full stop – and getting away with it.

·        Some men have a fetish for worn underwear. There is even an industry for selling and buying worn (and unwashed) panties. Japan even sells used panties in vending machines, alongside tobacco products and beer, so extreme is this fetish in that country.

·        What causes a man to have an underwear fetish? A Japanese study used MRI scanning technology to look at the brains of men with self-confessed panty fetishes, and found that decreased blood flow to the temporal and occipital lobes of the brain was a factor in all subjects.  Whether this is a cause or just a correlation is unknown. Like all fetishes, it begins in early life and is usually triggered by an event.

The Annual No Pants Subway Ride

January 11^th, 2015, was the day of the annual No Pants Subway Ride. This novel event, started for the first time in 2002 with just seven participants in New York City, has grown to incorporate more than sixty cities worldwide.

The premise of the event is that transit passengers ride trains without wearing anything but undies on their lower halves. The top half must be as if they were going about their normal day. No acknowledgement of pantslessness is to be made.

Growing over four years from seven riders to one hundred and fifty in New York City in 2006, but 2013 sixty cities had people coordinating the event.

The event was the brainchild of Improv Everywhere, which is a New York prank collective, whose motto is “We Cause Scenes”.  Their aim is to create joyful chaos in public places. The fact that many participating cities are shivering through winter does not dampen enthusiasm!

This year, tens of thousands of people participated worldwide – with four thousand in New York City alone. The oldest registered participant was eighty four years young, and the youngest was just seven months old. Other cities which participated include Chicago, Tokyo, Bangalore, Madrid, Copenhagen, London, Jerusalem, Hamburg, and even a pantsless ride on a ski gondola in Fukushima, Japan.

Even Australians jumped on this bandwagon (and let’s face it, our climate is much more conducive at this time of year!) Trains and trams from Bondi to Adelaide had pantsless riders.

The founder of the event, Charlie Todd, has stated that the event is now an “international celebration of silliness”.

Missed The No Pants Subway Ride for 2015? Don’t despair. World No Pants Day is still to come – held in numerous nations of the world on the first Friday in May. This previously informal, college event became official in 2000, and has been embraced in colleges and universities in the US, Canada, Sweden, Finland, the UK and Australia.

Best get some nice undies!

Japan’s “Boob Goddess”

We all love our beautiful bras, and as such we should all want to look after what goes into our bras. We all know this involves wearing well-fitted, supportive bras and regularly checking the breasts for anything abnormal. But what about breast massage?

A novel invention has recently come out of Japan (where else?). Invented by Japanese midwife and founder of the Wellness Life Institute, Takiko Shindo, aka the “Boob Goddess”, this is a modified “rake” which is claimed to firm a woman’s breasts – and to even make them bigger by up to three centimetres.

Called the Oppai Taisou Hand (which translates as “Boob exercise massage”), it is a pink hand-shaped plastic rake which is used to stroke and brush the breasts. Modelled on Shindo’s own hand, it looks a little like a blunt back scratcher. Shindo claims breast massage to be not only effective for enhancement of breast size and shape, but also to improve shoulder stiffness, menstrual cramping, menopausal symptoms, and overall breast health.

There are claims that there is “science” behind this strange invention. According to Shindo, the breast’s supporting ligaments need to move so that the naturally occurring breast fats don’t settle amongst the chest wall musculature, hence causing the breasts to sag.

Modern medicine and cosmetic surgeons tend to disagree with this theory. The fact is that ligaments do stretch over time – but unlike muscles, they never bounce back. Once they are stretched, they are stretched forever.

It’s not all bad news for this invention, though. Using the “rake” to massage and lift the opposite breast, the pectoral muscles are being massaged and exercised. These muscles lie under the breast tissues, and with exercise, they can be tightened and enlarged – providing better shape to the upper torso. It is also scientifically considered that stimulating the breasts mechanically can encourage breast growth. And better circulation is encouraged, which promotes better overall breast health.

Does it work? Who knows? But it has to be a cheaper, healthier option than getting breast implants!

Looking Back – The Codpiece

It can be funny sometimes to think how styles and trends and the epitome of manliness have changed over the years. When this writer was a little girl, manly men wore white Y-front undies and never went without a white chesty Bonds singlet (at least, that’s what my father wore ... and does to this day. Some of us don’t move with the times so easily, it seems).

Five hundred years ago, the epitome of the quintessential manly man was expressed in the codpiece. Worn almost exclusively through the 1500’s and all but gone by the 1600’s, this was one unforgettable garment which was basically underwear worn as outerwear.

Men of this era wore hose to cover their legs; these did not cover the genitalia as well.  The stylish length for jackets and doublets rose over time, and men found themselves embarrassingly exposed in their nether regions when they sat or mounted their horses. To cover their genitals, they wore a simple piece of linen which was tied down or buttoned to the hose. It was named the codpiece, from the Middle English word “cod” which meant “scrotum”. The codpiece also offered better freedom of movement.

It wasn’t long before codpieces became a way for men to enhance rather than hide the area. They were padded, embellished, and made longer and bigger - to the point of being ridiculous. Some were crafted from metal. The bigger a man’s “ego”, the bigger he wore his codpiece.

There may have been other reasons for this than to simply emphasise and exaggerate a man’s sexual wares. Anthropologists believe that the prevalence of venereal diseases dictated the use of codpieces to allow them contain dressings and medications for the area, without being obvious to others.

King Henry VIII of England is perhaps the most famous wearer of the codpiece; a look at his surviving armour shows just how big he wore this garment. Considering that it is well known that he suffered from advanced and severe syphilis, and in light of the medication theory, one can surmise that perhaps it wasn’t all about his ego. Not entirely, anyway.

These days we usually only see codpieces at Renaissance Fairs and on Superhero costumes...

G-Strings – The Pros and Cons

G-Strings. Otherwise known as “thongs”, you either love them or hate them.

I have to admit, I am a fan – and have been for the better part of twenty years, when I discovered them at the age of nineteen. My mother was confused by this. My grandmother was scandalised. They could never see how it could possibly be comfortable – or what the point was if my butt wasn’t covered.

But therein lies the whole point. Don’t get me wrong; I do like big “Bridget Jones” undies under certain circumstances. Like in winter.  Or when the tummy absolutely MUST be given a little extra help at being sucked in. But come summer, when it’s hot, or when thinner clothing might display the dreaded visible panty line, there’s nothing better than a G-string.

Some ladies might say going commando in these circumstances is the better option. Um, no. I’m afraid I just can’t do that. It seems, somehow, totally unhygienic...

For the uninitiated, a g-string (or thong) is an undergarment which covers the pubis and the genitals, passes between the buttocks, and is attached to a thin band which runs around the hips. It was first invented in its modern form during the age of jazz, when it was worn for modesty by burlesque dancers.

So what are the pros and cons of wearing g-strings?

Pros:

·        Feels like wearing nothing if the correct size is worn

·        No visible panty line

·        Can look and feel very sexy

·        Can be cooler in hot weather

·        Can be incredibly comfortable

·        Guys tend to love them

Cons:

·        Can be uncomfortable or even painful if the incorrect size is chosen

·        Should not be worn every single day

·        Under some garments, your butt might get rubbed or irritated – for example, rough or heavy jeans

·        They are not going to absorb sweat on a hot day like briefs will

·        Worn with pants that sit on the hips, you may be able to see the thong above the waistline – not a good look

Tips to Successfully Wearing a G-String

·        Always choose a cotton garment, or at the very least, one with a cotton gusset

·        Change regularly – at least every day.

·        Choose a size larger than your normal underwear – this is both more comfortable as well as more sanitary

·        Accept that it can take some getting used to

·        Accept that wearing a lace thong might defeat the purpose of wearing them  insofar as the visible panty line – like lace bras, lace on a thong will often show its texture through clothing

·        Don’t wear a g-string every day

·        Never wear a thong for sleeping at night

·        Avoid wearing a thong when menstruating

·        Avoid wearing a thong for long trips, like flying

What was going on under all those Skirts?

Historical women’s underwear was truly mind boggling. They might not have worn bras or underpants, but they certainly didn’t skimp on hidden fripperies under their skirts. In fact, there was some seriously hardcore hardware worn underneath clothing.

Here is a rundown on what well-dressed ladies wore underneath those long skirts...

·        Open Crotch Pantalets – these were basically two individual leg covers which came over the hips at the sides and tied at the waist. They provided no cover to the genitalia whatsoever, being fully open from the thigh to the waist. It was believed that women required proper ventilation in the area. In the mid-1800s, some of these pantalets or drawers had optional buttons applied to the crotch.

·        Dimity Pockets – before the days of handbags, this was how women carried their bits and bobs, including keys. There were worn under the skirt, tied at the waist, and were accessed via a slit in the folds of the skirt. In time, pockets were sewn directly into skirts instead.

·        Panniers – these were wide hooped petticoats. The woman tied the support garment at the waist, which gave the shape to dresses during the 1700’s. The style of the time dictated a very wide skirt from the hips – panniers created the effect.

·        Bustles – these were worn in the later 1800’s and early 1900’s. Women wanted an hourglass silhouette and the bustle nicely contrasted with the cinched and corseted waist. The bustle enhanced and showed off the buttocks – so that even the flattest-bottomed woman had a pleasing rear.

·        Cage Crinolines – these were the undergarment big guns. The shape of the early Victorian era dictated tiny waists and voluminous skirts – the bigger the better. Enter the Cage Crinoline. Rings of steel were attached with string and worn tied at the waist. They not only distributed the enormous amount of fabric in women’s skirts, they allowed a woman to walk without getting tangled in said skirting. They had to be removed to catch public transport, and women required assistance to dress.