Panties

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Lace-trimmed panties from Westward Bound

Panties or knickers are female lingerie covering the hips and crotch, sometimes also the waist.

Contents

Types of panties

A wide variety of types of panties exist. Bikini panties are designed so that the hip connectors are small, like on those often found in bikinis. String bikini panties are the most commonly worn type in the United States and are similar to regular bikini panties, but instead of a thin hip grip, they have a small string, which sometimes ties around the waist rather than being pulled up over them. String bikinis are considered more revealing. String bikinis are usually made of satin or silk, but occasionally from other fabrics. High-cut, or control top, are cut higher on the hip to slightly pull in and shape the stomach to conceal obesity. High-cut are usually worn by older women and are often shunned by younger women. Boyshorts describe a type of female underwear that has a lower, thicker cut of material around the hips, making them appear as shorts that men would wear. They are sometimes criticized by men and women alike for not being feminine, although some women do wear them.

Panties are made of a variety of materials and fabrics including satin, silk, PVC, cotton, nylon, mesh, lace, leather, latex, lycra and/or polyester.

The term knickers is not generally used in the USA and Canada, where the term "panties" is usually favoured.

History

Before recent times, women's undergarments were often made with the primary function of molding the body into a preferred shape (corsets etc). In Victorian times, women sometimes wore "drawers" (loose-fitting linen shorts with legs), but only as one of a number of layers of underwear. During much of the 1920s-1940s, womens undergarments came to be much less confining overall, but lower undergarments often continued to have legs (the "knickers" in "don't get your knickers in a twist"). In the mid 20th-century, tight-fitting girdles came to predominate.

In the 1940s, Frederick's of Hollywood opened shop in Hollywood, California and began selling corsets and lingerie with a much more fashionable appeal to them. These new styles of women's undergarments possessed a greater sexual feel, made even more glamorised by models such as Bettie Page. Colourful, bright, sexy, and flashier fashions of women's lingerie were becoming available. More fabrics such as satin, lace and silk began to be incorporated into the makeup of women's lingerie, making them more desired by females and more sensual to males. This is perhaps the great turning point when panties became more than simple hygiene products and developed into an icon of pleasure and sexuality worldwide.

Since then, women in flattering and provocative panties and lingerie have become a staple of several functions of men's and lesbian's popular culture. Several men's magazines such as Maxim and FHM often use images of attractive females in sensual lingerie to capture mainstream appeal.

Cultural impact

During the 1960s, there was a stir among the old, traditional views of women's undergarments that they wanted to look more like females anatomies. Female anatomy was largely misunderstood due to censorship of the subject. Some feminist women were proclaiming how traditional women's undergarments were created to impose control and distort the appearance of women's figures. This movement caused many females to have a new outlook on how they viewed their undergarments. The underpants began to have themselves made more like woman anatomy.

Not long after, in the 1970s, a new chapter in women's taste opened. Women's undergarments became even more sexualized due to the ongoing sexual revolution at that time. The underpants got smaller and skinnier and began to sexualize themselves more up front.

In today's society, panties have become an item of great interest in themselves. Considered by some to be risqué, panties have caused the lingerie industry to take advantage of their erotic associations. Lingerie chains such as Victoria's Secret and Frederick's of Hollywood hold annual modeling shows to showcase new varieties of panties and other assorted lingerie.

A number of non-nude pornography websites survive through selling photo sets of women posing in panties and other lingerie.

In most modern cultures, panties have become a bit of a cultural icon describing sexual mischief and a fun way of life, especially for teenage girls and women in their early twenties who are more likely to enjoy them than women who grew up wearing granny panties. In Japan, panties (pantsu) are commonly depicted as being a highly flirtatious, naughty element to a female's persona.

When a girl's skirt comes up high enough for her panties to be seen, it is called a 'upskirt' or 'panty shot'. Many websites on the internet make profits from selling the aforementioned kind of pornography or voyeurism.

See also

This page uses content from SM-201; the original article can be viewed here.
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