Saturday, 16 Feb, 2019
You’ve probably seen it. Maybe you even do it. Guys running, working out at the gym or mountain biking with their spandex shorts peeking out from under something else.
Maybe you’ve seen the guys who wear bicycle shorts with underwear. Or worse yet for me, guys in running tights with shorts pulled on over the running tights.
Doing any of this not only makes no sense from a freedom-of-movement stand point, but also re-enforces an erroneous popular cultural stereotype that any male showing even a bit of a bulge in his crotch is some kind of sexual deviant.
Newsflash. Men have a cock and balls.
Wearing spandex makes a lot of sense for many daily tasks for men. Spandex athletic gear, when fitted properly, is comfortable and easy to move in while providing ;support,and in some cases the right amount of warmth, needed for most activities.
Covering up your spandex athletic gear with other bulky garments has no merit. Not if you are an adult.
Men cover up for one reason and one reason only: any display, even the slightest display or hint of male genitalia in our culture is seen as sexually threatening to both women and other men.
That is a huge shift from even as early as the 1960’s or 1970’s when men were confident wearing athetic gear that revealed a bulge or more. It is a shift in the wrong direction. A shift toward prudish behaviour that re-enforces bad stereotypes and bad self-image.
A guy who jogs down the street in running tights that he’s pulled a pair of shorts over is basically saying “I can’t be trusted to control myself and in spandex you’ll see me displaying something threatening or at best something I’ve been told I should be embarrassed about”.
Grow up.
Clearly, if guys are wearing spandex shorts, compression gear or running tights they understand there’s a value in having both the support and warmth or breath-ability of such a great product.
So there’s merit in wearing it as designed. The guy bought it! He did put it on! But then at some point decided to defeat the whole purpose behind such a garment by pulling something else over top of it.
Bicycle shorts are designed to be worn WITHOUT UNDERWEAR and WITHOUT COVERING them up in any way.
Bicycle shorts are about cool comfort, easy-of-movement and reduced saddle friction when out cycling even short distances.
So why do men wear shorts over them? You’ve just defeated the purpose of the shorts. Why bother wearing the cycling shorts at all?
Running tights are designed to be worn with LIGHT ATHLETIC SUPPORT such as a jockstrap at most. Running tights provide amazing freedom-of-movement and support while keeping hard-working muscles somewhat warm.
Many brands of running tights can be worn without any support over your cock/balls if you are engaged in light tasks like weight training or walks or even just errands out to the store or market.
Men fear being ostracized if they simply wore the gear as designed.
Like so many other fashion trends, if men just grew up and carried themselves with confidence while wearing the gear out we could do anyway with the silly custom of putting bulky clothes over gear designed to provide us with comfort and freedom-of-movement.
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A long time native of Toronto, Canada, UrbanGuyTO (SpandexGear) was invited by turnipHed to begin blogging about their mutual interest in LGBT issues, men’s underwear and swimwear! Loud, often opinionated you’ll always find UrbanGuyTO ready to engage in a friendly and open, non-judgemental discussion about any fetish, kink and sex-positive topic of interest to the LGBT community.
“tH” what you’ve had to say and it makes allot of sense. You are right, back in the 60’s and 70’s it was really cool for guys to wear colored underwear, briefs, bikinis, lycra swimwear etc..
I was wondering about this issue the other day… I went to my local box store to get some briefs just for around the house… all I could find were boxer briefs. Who in the hell decided that guys like boxer briefs that much? I have a few guesses, a few of which will sound like a grand feminist conspiracy but that’s not the intent.
One guess is that women are driving this trend. I wonder if they are intimidated by their guy looking better in their undies than they do? Or do they want to “dumb down” their guys undies in some way making him less undesirable to their competition. Like I said these are guesses, but I bet there is some type of marketing study that backs this up. “tH” you would know about this more than I do.
You have wonder where all the “bashfulness” about our anatomy is coming from? One guess is that with so many homes not having male role models present, guys just aren’t learning to be guys. Case in point, back in the day, Dads wore jocks and made sure that their sons had them. Now it’s hard to go to the local sporting goods store and get one.
So I fully agree, come on guys grow up, wear what makes you comfortable and understand that underwear, spandex, lycra etc. doesn’t make you gay or straight. “tH” hope this makes sense, and isn’t too rambling. 🙂
I completely agree with you John. I need to point out I did not write this article, it was written by UrbanGuyTO. You can see his bio just below the article. He has just joined me here at turnip Style Dot Com as a co-author!
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turnipHed#1
Well I am about to go to the store to get a couple of things for my Friday night. I am now inspired to go in my running tights a la fresco! (Or something like that!)