Are thongs 'degrading' to women?

(Or, come to think of it, to men?).....

That's the great question that the French are debating today:

<snip>:

France's advertising industry watchdog, hardly a paragon of political correctness, yesterday took the exceptional step of asking a leading underwear manufacturer to withdraw a nationwide poster campaign for thongs because it was degrading to women. The Advertisement Verification Bureau (BVP) demanded that Sloggi scrap the picture of three young women writhing in minuscule, multicoloured G-strings as if in a strip club, saying the campaign, which has drawn complaints from across Europe, was unacceptably sexist and not in keeping with a recent drive by the industry to clean up its act. The BVP is made up of agency representatives and big advertisers. Its recommendations have no legal force. A BVP spokesman said: "We have criticised ads in the past, but I can't remember us calling for one to be taken down altogether for this reason."

The Sloggi campaign appears less outrageous than others that have passed all but unnoticed in France - where bare breasts, erotic poses and blatantly sexist slogans are still considered an acceptable way to promote anything from fruit yoghurt to financial services.

But Sloggi's explicit thong ad has coincided with a heated de bate on whether girls should be barred from wearing the fashion accessory of the moment to school. A former socialist education minister Segolene Royal said last week she feared "le string" could encourage child sex abuse. In principle, French state school pupils can wear what they like within the bounds of decency. But at least one head teacher sparked a near-riot last week by attempting to ban girls from wearing thongs that emerged above the waistband of their trousers.

Ms Royal and other socialist MPs called on Sloggi to withdraw its campaign on the grounds that it was harmful and "an insult to women".

<snip>

More:http://www.guardian.co.uk/france/story/0,11882,1058272,00.html

At my 16yr old's school, they've banned girls from wearing hipsters that show off the thong after some enterprising lad cunningly took a pair of scissors and followed his instincts by cutting off 'le string' at the crucial T junction....

why do so many women wear them?

(visible pantie line). Thongs eliminate the VPL so see-thru clothes look more see-thru.

I think they might be a bit degrading to men: The England Football Team captain david Beckham is reported to have been wearing his wife Victoria's thongs - maybe for bet? Don't expect he wears one when on the football pitch!

Mrs. Robb wears them under some business attire pants and skirts; it depends on fabric and cut.

Sometimes you don't want the world to see the outline of yer underpants. :)

(which is not, as I see it, the issue with this article, exactly)

He was wearing them so he could distract his mind and not think while playing, and breathing through his eyelids...















(Bull Durham humor)

I thoght that the feminist movement was all about women doing what they want, if they want to wear thongs who am i to complain :)

For adults...well, I don't know. According to my wife the worst thing about 'le string' is that it tends to itch, not that I would know anything about that ;).

IMHO.

of the France ads to know what they are talking about... :-)

Tastes Great, Less filling

(Sorry)

Thongs look stupid if they are sticking out of one's pants. They can l;ook great when one has NO pants on.

Women should wear what they want but they must also know if they wear it for people to "look" then they will look there.

If it looks bad on you or is worn badly then people will say so (to your face or behind your back).

Ads might be offensive if sex is offensive (or sexual objectivity is offensive) but I think we are way too uptight and people should have the right to wear what they want.

A family member whose "T" is always showing has earned the nickname "Flossy" and she is MUCH better about keeping her "T" out of sight now. It is NOT sexy but just reminds me of flossing - an image I prefer not to imagine.

I think men's Calvin's are MUCH sexier on a woman

daughter wears them, with low-rider jeans as well, and she is, how shall I put this . . . . .FAT.
Ugh.

We are working on both issues. Hope it's puppy-fat
:(

it burns off around age 12

Is she a size 28? Or a Size 8?

Society is putting WAY too much pressure on young girls to be rail-thin. And it's gonna lead to an epidemic of food issues, eating disorders, and health problems further down the road.

Of course, I'm an overweight man... ;-)

I've never even suggested she wear one. Then again, I'm not complaining. :-)

...about thongs beeing offensive to women. The girls in the ad are very young, and I really think one should not show young girls in such positions half naked and thus suggesting to children, that they have to be sexy or suggesting to a certain sort of men, that every girl wearing a thong is Lolita.

But perhaps I´m only too old for this sort of things...

'Le string' faces school ban as French fear sex abuse of girls :
Sunday October 5, 2003 The Observer (UK)

""A hundred metres from the lycé e at La Celle Saint-Cloud in the Paris suburbs, the street poster for Sloggi's skimpy underwear could hardly be more cheekily positioned. With a national debate raging over girls wearing le string to school, the poster focuses on the bottoms of three adolescent girls writhing like go-go dancers in barely there underwear. The high school is among hundreds of French colleges discussing whether the craze for G-strings has gone too far and is exposing girls as young as 10 to potential abusers. Pupils in France's state schools can choose their own clothes as long as they are decent. But a high school that ordered girls to cover up was faced with a near-riot last week that recalled rebellions 30 years ago when female students demanded the right to wear trousers. Bizarrely, the cover-up issue is running parallel to a campaign to force Muslim girls to abandon headscarves.

A former Education Minister, Segolene Royale, whose partner, François Hollande, runs the Socialist Party, raised the alarm after a meeting with parent-teacher associations who had expressed concern that the fashion craze could incite crime. 'Many headteachers have banned the accessory altogether, which is a very good thing,' said Royale, a mother of four. 'As far as boys are concerned, the string reduces young women to little more than their bottoms. Bodies are being exposed like vulgar merchandise. We shouldn't be surprised if girls are being sexually harassed or subjected to sexual violence.'

Backed by three other women MPs, Royale yesterday called on Sloggi to withdraw its poster campaign on the ground that the posters were 'an insult to women'. The problem lies in the way a supposedly discreet undergarment is commonly worn. Encouraged by fashion ads, girls make a point of wearing low-slung jeans and cropped T-shirts so that their G-strings are exposed. But the risks in imposing a ban were underlined at the Ribeauville lycée in Alsace, where 10 girls were told to change their clothes because of what was considered an indecent gap between jeans and T-shirt that left their midriffs in view. Three days later 100 girls besieged the headmistress's office and claimed the right to wear whatever they wanted.

The head, Claudine Wendling-Brickert, said she was ready to accept that girls showed off their navels 'but not in my high school'. Teachers have been told to pick out offenders and warnings have been stuck on classroom doors. At La Celle Saint-Cloud, which has yet to agree on a formal ban, students said they did not think that strings were provocative. 'Some of those in terminal - the top form - are 19 years old,' said Katherine Lebras, 17. 'They should be allowed to wear what they like, just as you do at university. Strings are just fun - they're not a come-on.' But parents like Royale are particularly worried about the dangers to pre-teenagers and recently forced a manufacturer to withdraw a brand aimed at 10-year-olds. There is no chance, though, of the fashion dying out in the face of erotic street advertising campaigns. France's best known popular brand of lingerie, Dim, has doubled production in a year, selling 1.3 million strings in supermarkets alone. L'Institut Français de la Mode said the rush to buy the flimsy garment had boosted sales of feminine underwear by 12 percent. 'I don't think parents and teachers can stop even pre-adolescents wearing these things - they seem to think it's a laugh,' an assistant in the Galeries Lafayette lingerie department said.""

http://www.guardian.co.uk/france/story/0,11882,1056368,00.html

At least not the one that is included in this thread. So what's the big deal?

and making young women, teens and girls wear those things is akin to child abuse!

How seeing a thong band rise about the waistband of a trouser, is any worse than seeing (for HOW many years now?) the waistband (and OH so much more) of boxer shorts as decor for the young men around the planet escapes me.

It's just underwear. Whether some perv is lusting after a lass in school girl gear, complete with the white granny panties, or some tanned, nubile surfer gal, it's just pervs being pervs.

I think panty line is a far more serious crime than a thong line.

so they would have no panty lines and such.

My wife said some of her friends wear them and don't mind the butt floss factor at all.

I don't think they are very sexy at all myself.

They are not uncomfortable, And nobody forces me to wear them.


They are sexy though :)

Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.
Henry David Thoreau

Thorry, couldn't rethitht.
;-)

uncomfortable as hell, yes.

I bought a couple of thongs a while back to see if they were as comfortable as some women said. After a couple of hours I was really sick of having a perpetual wedgie.

IMHO, I'd rather have visible panty lines than put one of those things on again.

I can't imagine them being comfortable.
As for sexy - well like miniskirts and bikinis: on supermodels ONLY.
As fo pantylines, I find them very sexy - in most cases. Sue me.

(not frontal wedgie... that's entirely something else and quite uncomfortable!)

I'd rather have a small piece of string up my ass than a pair of regular panties. KWIM?

but personally I don't like anything in my butt crack, so I don't wear them. I just don't understand the appeal. I know you don't get VPL's with them, but then there are some women that show them off with low-cut pants. I thought the idea was NOT to see panties? I guess it's just me.

Thongs are just another scam for consumers - in this case, female consumers.

(potential gross-out ahead)












Even for tampon users it's not like they are wide enough to handle a "leakage protection" pad on those few days a month when you'd actually need underwear. And do they really provide enough coverage to take care of hiding any miscellaneous leakage? I kinda doubt it.

But what I most hate about thongs - especially the more visible thong swimsuits - is that they necessitate shaving down to the point where you've got the appearance of a thatch on par with a pre-pubescent and that, speaking as a fully mature woman, is degrading as all get-out.

The Defense Rests!

This is a guys perspective but the butt hanging out is not half as sexy as a woman in silky panties that accent her rear well. yum.

More comfy too.

IMHO and all that.

...they're debating whether or not an ad campaign was sexist (sounds like it was) and whether or not young girls should wear thongs. Adult women, however, don't enter into it.

It's a choice like any other that women make for themselves. What is degrading to women is being told what underwear they should wear for thier own good.

dupe post

You ask "Are thongs degrading to women?"

In the article you cite, the question being debated is, "Is this particular ad campaign degrading to women?"

So I think your question is moot, but my answer is, of course not.

Cat

Hey, I'm not gonna bullshit you: If you wear them, I AM GOING TO LOOK. I'm a guy. I find the human body an attractive art form. I DO prefer the mind, but if you are going to wear one...you are advertising. Which is candy for my eyes, thoughts, and hormones.

Ladies-if I walked up to you half-naked, my cock hanging out, are you going to keep your full attention on my eyes so we can discuss deconstructionalism?

As for minors wearing them, I agree 100% that it is inappropriate.

their entire country is a mess and they worry if thongs women wear by choice are sexist. If you think it's sexist, don't wear them or suggest to your wife /girlfriend not to wear them. We can't let a bunch on people sitting in a office decide what's sexist or not.

You'd then have to ask if they're degrading to "humans".

Looks like the Sloggi campaign has just hit the French zietgeist at the wrong moment. And it's damn cheeky of them to put a billboard so near the lyceé.

Personally, I don't care what kind of underwear anybody wears. But it doesn't have a place in school so I think the principal is right here. Not because I'm a prude, but because this is just another classroom distraction. It's tough enough as it is to get a class focused and concentrating on the lesson for the day. The now-you-see-'em thongs are just add fuel to the fire.

By the same token, I wouldn't wear the same thing to my job. It's just distracting.

If girls want to wear high thongs with low jeans off school property and their parents let them, then I'm OK with it. And I think it would be fine and appropriate on a date or in a club.

Heh. Kudos to the impy guy with the scissors! :thumbsup:

hehe.

At least, that's the impression I got.

I HAVE to wear em with some of my dress clothes.

as long as people aren't forced to wear them.

That said, I'm personally not interested in walking around with a wedgie all day; and the thought of properly laundering such items is about as appealing as washing poopy diapers.

Besides that, I think underwear (straps included) belongs under the clothes, unless one is in an intimate setting.

So, I'm a prude.

I don't see how something women BUY FOR THEMSELVES is offensive to them. This world is getting so PC it's getting annoying. Nothing surprises me anymore, though.
Duckie

Then I wore a pair to work instead of my white granny panties like I usually wear to work. I have to wear white uniform pants that aren't too thin but aren't denim either. I didn't think that anyone would be able to see the thong. Later one of the guys at work commented about me wearing the thong and said that other guys were talking about it too. I have never worn thong underwear to work since then.

If they are worn to be shown off, then they are trashy (imo). Otherwise, I don't care and it's no concern of mine who wears them...

The trend where young girls wear low slung jeans that show off the thongs bothers me. I'm no prude (even though I'm Muslim), but the old saw still applies: people judge you by the way you present yourself, and if you dress like you make your living on a street corner, that is how you will be perceived.

Did you know that the tie symbolizes a leash? No? Well that's because I just made it up. But it seems like it could be so, doesn't it? Yes it does.

Ties are degrading to men.

under slacks and shorts. Once you get used to the "breezy" feeling they're quite comfortable.

:thumbsup:

When she said something to the effect of why the hell would I want to wear a thong when I spend half my life digging my panties out of there.

Frankly, imho, I find wedged panties much more sexier than a thong.
:shrug: