Married Str8 Trio: Swimwear Chat – Part 2
Hopefully you read part 1, but if not check it out here. We’re continuing our discussion on swim briefs and touching on acceptance or lack of.
Why do you think swim briefs are more acceptable for swimming laps then just for the beach or lounging at the pool?
The Bottom Drawer: It’s kind of a reversal in swimwear coverage when you think of lap swimming for men and women. At least when I was growing up most guys wore a swim brief and the girls wore one-piece suits on the swim team. Of course nowadays the guys have the jammers, but swim briefs still seem to be acceptable for lap swimming. I assume this is the case, since it use to be the norm swim attire for swimmers back in the day. You know to reduce drag in the water and I guess jammers must do a better job now a days, since that is what the Olympians opt to wear. Some of them look to still practice in swim briefs from what I have seen. Only thought I have on it is if it is part of your sport’s attire then guys can wear lycra type cloths like swimmers/divers, football players, wrestlers, and bicyclist and no one thinks too much about it.
Blkmlthng: For me I think swim briefs are more acceptable for swimming laps because as you pointed out Nate, they are designed to give you more freedom when you are in the water and allow you to move more freely. I equate it to how a football player wears tights but if a man was to wear tights out in public or as daily wear people would be all up in arms. I think for men we are taught to hide or conceal our manhood (aka penis/bulge) and if we show it off we are some sort of deviant or freak. Just my two cents.
Ron: gents. for me the acceptability of wearing swim briefs for laps is as you’ve both said; in that it gives less drag than shorts. i’m not sure why your ‘football’ players wear tights though. the ones here (soccer you would call it) wear long shorts while rugby(now that’s a man’s sport!!) wear even shorter shorts. Dare I say it; the ‘gay’ aspect creeps in here in that the general populous associate men ‘showing’ of their ‘bulge’ as being a gay thing; ‘look what i’ve got here’ as they parade around. Then there is the fear among men that they don’t compare with other men if their ‘bulge’s are too small hence they fell safer in shorts from ridicule. Interestingly, an article in a news paper today is about the GB Olympic diver, Tom Daley (who is gay) complaining to the designer of the GB men’s team wear designer, Stella McArtney, daughter of Beatle Sir Paul, that his diving briefs were too brief!! and she designed them wider. he was worried that its contents would spill out in the water. bless him….
This question could touch a bit on the stigma conversation I’m looking at doing next, but what do you think needs to be done to overcome what I’ll call swim brief phobia?
Blkmlthng: I think that it would take a heterosexual, famous entertainer or athlete to proudly boast and wear proudly a swim brief. If their are those entertainers or athletes who choose to wear swim briefs they do so in secret or it is a part of a big joke. I think it would take the person to really embrace wearing such swim brief and boldly proclaim it and have a f it attitude. Also having a woman gush at how sexy she finds it if a man wears a swim brief would also help i think. It would encourage other women to agree and encourage their boyfriends or husbands to wear such swim styles. I know for me once I lose some of this weight from my new found dad bod, I hopefully will feel confident enough and wear a swim brief style, maybe a trunk brief style swimsuit; that would also help if us regular guys continue to promote and discuss such styles. I for one have never worn anything but swim trunks or board shorts so wearing a swim brief would be a big step for me!
Ron: It’s back to the issue of people feeling jeered at, humiliated, deemed because they wear or admit to wearing swimbriefs. Have you been watching the Olympics? The USA men’s dive team have some of the skimpiest swim bikinis, followed by the UK men- doesn’t help our cause that Tom Daley of the UK team is gay, though…and I’m just waiting for an association to be made of the two. Also interesting that other team members appear quite accepting though I guess they accept as part of the divers ‘uniform’. I noticed that the Russian men’s dive team had a big Russian woman as their coach and I wouldn’t imagine she had an issue with the guys in their little bikinis; probably enjoyed seeing them! I think it also depends again on the geographical location; as said many times, Europeans have a more accepting attitude to swim briefs and no phobia there. Similarly, swim brief wearers being accepted at their local pool, lake, shore or whatever wouldn’t be swim brief shy or if they visited a country who accept without question.
The Bottom Drawer: In the end there is probably a lot of things that need to be overcome to break the phobia. I do believe there is a tolerance for them at most places so far from my experience, but I wouldn’t call it an acceptance. I do agree there is a geographical acceptance of them and that includes within certain areas of a country. Still a long ways to go. Probably the biggest thing to help swim brief acceptance would be better publicity of them, which would go along with Blkmlthng point of someone popular or role model material wearing them. Companies marketing them for beach wear and not just lap swimming. Typically swim briefs also get a negative representation with being the butt of a joke, a lost bet, or someone just being stupid in them. Along with some guys being inappropriate in them just trying to show off their manhood. I guess the responsible swim brief wears have a lot of work to do to turn the image they have gotten over the year. We need to turn them into the image that bikinis for women have and like Blkmlthng said women’s encouragement for the guys to wear them would be a great help.
Does the cut of a swim brief have a bearing on acceptability?
Ron: Recently my wife commented on how the Brasilian men divers had swim suits which were not as brief as others and she accepted them more than my very brief ‘bikinis’. Brasilian ‘sungas’ tend to be wider almost box cut though with a slight rise at the leg.
The Bottom Drawer: I would say yes. I still think it would be more of a toleration than acceptance. I believe the issue people have with guys wearing swim briefs or tight swimwear in general still has to be more about the bulge. I do see people being more tolerant to a full swim brief over a bikini cut. Just because of the appearance of more coverage.
Blkmlthng: I agree with Nate, swim briefs will most likely always be more acceptable than a bikini style as a bulge is considered a taboo. Men’s attire that accentuates the bulge is frowned upon and not acceptable, which is crazy to me.
Ron: It’s a good point about the male bulge. That said any tight garment will accentuate the male anatomy so to be well endowed is not maybe preferable if you want to wear bikini style swimwear. However brevity is sometimes the option for maximising sun exposure and the bulge becomes a side effect which doesn’t bother me. Large breasted women always have that issue and this becomes more so when the wear tight swimwear more so bikinis especially when of the tiny variety.
That wraps up our swimwear chat. Keep watch for more chats from the Married Str8 Trio.
Ways to Support The Bottom Drawer by Shopping