r/MensThongJournal

Most people on these forums don't remember a time when thongs were sold in retail stores; that was at least 25 years ago.  But there was a time when they were somewhat popular; I knew other guys from my fraternity who owned and wore them.  I’m thinking this is part of why the majority of men who post pictures of themselves outside, at a beach, in a public place, etc. are over 40 .

Several factors converged to make men’s thongs and other minimalist men’s underwear more retail-available in the 1980s than they are today.

 

·      First, was the fitness craze of women’s aerobics – The uniform of choice was the thong back leotard worn over spandex tights; this was one of the first commercially successful, mainstream applications of thongs being used by women in general, and the then influencers of the day, hosts of morning TV exercise shows, all wore them.

 

o   Men also had a bit of a fitness craze going on as well, the whole Muscle Beach and Mr. Universe thing with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, just to name a few of he well muscled men without shirts on the big screens.  Add to this many of the M-TV male band members, many of whom wore thong underwear.

o   I think in general the 1980s was just a “Dress Sexy” and show some skin and physique time.

 

·      Next was the tight-fitting clothing for both men and women; this made larger, more full-coverage underwear bunch up under skin-tight jeans that still did not have any give to them, as spandex and elastane were not incorporated into the fabric blends yet.

 

·      Then there was the Chippendale Factor, the rise of the Male stripper, and the fact that to comply with laws, the men had to cover the front, but the back was ok.  Women had a newfound freedom to openly express their sexual prowess at women's-only strip clubs and even ladies’ nights all across America.  The fact that many women saw men in thongs made the thong less of an issue and more acceptable.

 

·      Lastly, the convergence of these all happens because in the 1980’ and up to the early 1990s, women bought 70% of the underwear that men wore.  This translated into comparable styles that matched what women were wearing; companies manufactured them, and they were then stocked in retail department stores.  There were Bikinis, String Bikinis(Tanga), and of course, thongs.  Women bought their men similar styles to what they were wearing for many of the same reasons they were wearing them.

 

o   Now this is not to say that every store in a department chain carried all of these varieties, especially not the Tanga and the Thong.  I grew up in a moderate-sized Midwest city of about 35,000; our Dayton’s, Target and  K-Mart did not carry these, but if I went into Minneapolis or Chicago, they had everything.

What do you think? Can we ever get back to a similar convergence that will see a similar breakthrough

 

Come say hi 👋🏼

Glad to find this community. Been wearing thongs since I was in high school. I always felt like I was alone in my enjoyment of men's skimpy underwear and swimwear. Glad to see there's a huge community out there.