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What is a wife beater?

Prime Muscle

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Prime Muscle

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I got an email from a buddy of mine telling me about his trip to Florida. I need some help deciphering:

 

"I got some more eye candy later on when he actually stripped down to the wife beater he had on under his shirt."

 

What's a wife beater

 

(and with this topic -- I'm sure the responses will be all over the board!)

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Prime Muscle Collaborator

Prime Muscle

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All -

 

I got an email from a buddy of mine telling me about his trip to Florida. I need some help deciphering:

 

"I got some more eye candy later on when he actually stripped down to the wife beater he had on under his shirt."

 

What's a wife beater

 

(and with this topic -- I'm sure the responses will be all over the board!)

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Guest Utopia

Guest Utopia

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Yes I kind of remember hearing that somewhere else as well now. Thanks.

===

"You realize that life goes fast

It's hard to make the good things last"

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BenjaminNicholas Grand Master

+ BenjaminNicholas

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Wifebeaters. YUM~

 

Sorry, but i've got this affinity for well-developed guys in tank-tops. See, there's this fantasy i have about a guy wearing one while fucking... Oh, nevermind ;)

 

Let's just say it's a cheap piece of clothing that turns me on. It's kind of like my '80s-porno fantasy involving those high socks with the colored striping on the top. Athletic shoes optional.

 

Warmest Always,

 

 

Benjamin Nicholas

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FrancoDiSantisxxx Community Regular

FrancoDiSantisxxx

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wife beater n.: 2 [slang]

 

A Sleeveless, Ribbed White Cotton Undershirt.

 

http://www.bobfromaccounting.com/2_25_02/ike.jpg

 

When a word or phrase that’s been floating around in the culture finally lands in the Oxford English Dictionary, it has transcended the zeitgeist. Homer Simpson’s exasperated “d’oh†made the cut in 2001. So did “retail therapy†and “boy band.â€

 

According to Jesse Sheidlower, North American editor of the dictionary, an unusual defintion of the phrase, “wife beater†is now a contender for lexicographic immortality.

 

The phrase no longer would strictly refer to a man who beats his wife; its definition would be expanded to mean a white ribbed-cotton sleeveless undershirt that is a wardrobe basic these days for movie costumers, rap stars and models.

 

In the popular imagination, the shirts are associated the Stanley Kowalskis and Tony Sopranos of the world: anti-elitist, testosterone-dripping lugs who sit in front of the tube in their underwear and slap their wives around, hence (presumably) the slangy-sounding name.

 

Although the style has been around for more than a century, in recent years there’s been a boom. The shirts have shown up on bad boys Tommy Lee, Kid Rock and Snoop Dogg and on femme fashion plates, Madonna, Britney Spears and Gwyneth Paltrow. Calvin Klein makes them. Even Chanel and Dolce & Gabbana have offered versions of the scoop-neck tops.

 

The desire to look trashy isn’t hard to explain (they’re sexy on the right body and showcase well-toned biceps). What’s mysterious is how such a potentially offensive phrase managed to slip into the fashion lexicon so easily.

 

Mark-Evan Blackman, chairman of the menswear design department at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology, remembers hearing “wife beater†used when he was growing up in Brooklyn in the 1970s. “It referred to the shirts worn by pumped-up Italian guys in pizzerias,†said Blackman.

 

“The stoves were 150 degrees, these guys were lifting weights and they had a virile appeal.â€

 

“It’s a reference to class,†said Valerie Steele, curator of the museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, who had not heard of the term “wife beater†until a few years ago.

 

“The subtext is that Stanley Kowalski and other working-class men are more sexy and physical, which may be why everyone wears them at the gym.â€

 

The undershirts are often referred to in music and film. Rapper Eve sings about how good she looks in her “wife beater with a bangin’ tan.†And in the final scene of 8 Mile, Eminem mocks rival rapper Papa Doc for wearing one of the shirts, calling him “Snoop Dogg in a bra.â€

 

“Everyone wears them, especially hip-hop artists,†said Susan Bauer, director of fashion programming at MTV. “But I was told by an executive not to use the word in the workplace,†she said. “So we just take off the “wife†and call them “beaters.â€

 

The term may have resurfaced as past of an urban aesthetic that has swept popular culture in the last 15 years, suggests Blackman. “At one time, people aspired to be wealthy and to get out of the city. But now people feel to be cool you have to be down with it. I have wealthy students who say such and such is ‘ghetto’ or ‘pimp,’ and I’ve heard ‘wife beater’ at Princeton and Brown. For the people using these terms, they’re not socioeconomic,  they’re descriptive. Because regardless of whether you are black or white, live in the city or the suburbs, everyone today grows up listening to rap.â€

 

Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women, says that calling a shirt a “wife beater†trivializes domestic violence. “The implication is that wife beating is not viewed as sufficiently serious to lift it above the level of something that’s OK to joke about.â€

 

The OED’s Sheidlower, who says “wife beater†probably will turn up soon the dictionary’s online edition, says any fuss over the phrase is media-made.

 

“Apart from fashion writers writing about this, there’s no evidence that this term is being used in an offensive way. People who use this term are not using it to put anyone down.â€

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nycman Grand Master

+ nycman

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>Actually, Marlon is just wearing a simple (full) T-shirt....

 

In this classic pic from Streetcar, it appears you are correct....

 

http://www.threemoviebuffs.com/miscreview/streetcar1.jpg

 

But...this Streetcar pic appears to support the fact

that Mr. Brando did wear a true "wife beater" at some

point in Streetcar....

 

http://www.destinationhollywood.com/celebrities/marlonbrando/images/marlonbrando_streetcar_6.jpg

 

 

Guess I'll just have to watch it again...I LOVE that movie!

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