Thread: Wife-beater shirt... ?

Originally Posted by rockzmom

NEVER have I heard it called a wifebeater until this thread!

Neither have I, but given the fickle nature of the english language, it doesnt come as a complete surprise to me that some Americans (Dogboy for instance) use it.
Still "wifebeater" strikes me as quite odd, just cant see my way clear to adopting and using it.

Mr Happy Go Lucky and rockzmom, that's very interesting!
I've ALWAYS heard/seen it called a wifebeater and nothing else. And i always wondered why Americans don't like tank tops (?) so much. In Russian it's quite a neutral word, associated with May (~a May shirt).

Originally Posted by gRomoZeka

In Russian it's quite a neutral word, associated with May (~a May shirt).

Really? Never thought about майка this way. For me it was just a simple word.

Originally Posted by Basil77

Originally Posted by gRomoZeka

In Russian it's quite a neutral word, associated with May (~a May shirt).

Really? Never thought about майка this way. For me it was just a simple word.

Я сначала подумала, что опять что-то новое для меня. А это просто майка!
Да, я тоже майку никогда не ассоциировала с маем.

Кстати, я слышал такое выражение, как "майка-алкоголичка", чем-то напоминает американское название.

Originally Posted by Basil77

Originally Posted by gRomoZeka

In Russian it's quite a neutral word, associated with May (~a May shirt).

Really? Never thought about майка this way. For me it was just a simple word.

Yes, it's just a simple word. But some people associate it with May, and according to one of the two existing theories, it does derives from the word May. Anyway, I tried to say, that it's a neutral word without any negative widely known "nicknames".

Originally Posted by gRomoZeka

Mr Happy Go Lucky and rockzmom, that's very interesting!
I've ALWAYS heard/seen it called a wifebeater and nothing else. And i always wondered why Americans don't like tank tops (?) so much. In Russian it's quite a neutral word, associated with May (~a May shirt).

Ahhhh that is simple.... two reasons:

Because we Americans wear those tank tops as shirts. My girls do almost 24/7. They layer them with other color tanks. Sometimes with a a lone vest over top. Men wear them just as a shirt. And "we" Americans don't like seeing hairy backs/armpits (male or female) or any fat ripples (male or female) under those tank tops. Yet, we don't want to workout to get rid of this unsightly fat or eat healthier.

And..

IMHO... it has a stigma of being a shirt that a foreigner would wear... say an Italian or Hispanic. Not a hard working AMERICAN. Not a "real" businessman, but the gardener or plumber... someone who needs to have a freer range of motion when he moves his arms or gets hots when he works and chopped off the sleeves of his undershirt.

Originally Posted by rockzmom

Originally Posted by gRomoZeka

Mr Happy Go Lucky and rockzmom, that's very interesting!
I've ALWAYS heard/seen it called a wifebeater and nothing else. And i always wondered why Americans don't like tank tops (?) so much. In Russian it's quite a neutral word, associated with May (~a May shirt).

Ahhhh that is simple.... two reasons:

Because we Americans wear those tank tops as shirts. My girls do almost 24/7. They layer them with other color tanks. Sometimes with a a lone vest over top. Men wear them just as a shirt. And "we" Americans don't like seeing hairy backs/armpits (male or female) or any fat ripples (male or female) under those tank tops. Yet, we don't want to workout to get rid of this unsightly fat or eat healthier.

And..

IMHO... it has a stigma of being a shirt that a foreigner would wear... say an Italian or Hispanic. Not a hard working AMERICAN. Not a "real" businessman, but the gardener or plumber... someone who needs to have a freer range of motion when he moves his arms or gets hots when he works and chopped off the sleeves of his undershirt.

I think you answered your own question. You're a woman and who stated you have girls. I guess thats probably why you've never heard it. Because mostly men use this term. Also just because you worked in retail it doesn't come as a surprise that you haven't heard it. Its not like people go to the store to try them on or look out for the latest fashion of wife beater attire. You usually buy them in packs of 3 in the sock aisle at Walmart. Also, I think the word is most common with young(er) men so the fact you don't happen to be one of those is probably why you haven't seen it before.

I personally don't wear them (prefer тельняшки) or even use this word. But a lot of people do. So I guess 'people like me' are just stupid.

Originally Posted by Dogboy182

I think you answered your own question. You're a woman and who stated you have girls. I guess thats probably why you've never heard it.

Ummm... hmmm.. Well just remember, I do have a father and I am married. I'm not completely ignorant to men's clothing.

And last I checked, a retail store means anything from Walmart to Lord and Taylor to Macy's to Saks and all of those stores actually DO sell packages of these types of shirts.

You need to get out more Dogboy and expand your horizons!

Originally Posted by Dogboy182

I think you answered your own question. You're a woman and who stated you have girls. I guess thats probably why you've never heard it. Because mostly men use this term.

I'm an all-around, died in the wool American guy and I ain't heard of that term, cross my heart and hope to die. You dear challenge my manhood? I hope not. For the record, I aint some pansy who wears women's clothes.
By the way, following this logic I'm going to call a three piece suit or toxido a wife-cheater. Lol
Honey, today I'm wearing a wife cheater so don't wait up for me tonight. Hehe.

PS:
This is what a real wife beater looks like:
http://wylfwt.com/home/files/images/Wife%20Beater.jpg

And what is hie wearing? Prison overalls I guess. Don't make no mistakes about it: a wife beater is a big hulk of a guy beating on his wife.

Ok by all logic if you have three teenage boys you're 300x more likely to have heard the term than if you have girls. They, in turn will hang out with other boys who learn new words from them and copy each others styles, talk like each other, dress like each other ETC. As previously stated I heard this word for the first time when I was about 12 by hanging out with my friends. Someone used the word (probably learned it from another friend) and it stuck with all of us.

I guess that makes perfect sense.

Thats all I was saying. I wasn't challenging anyone's manhood or questioning whether or not anyone was married to a man. Kthnx.

I gotta admit I AM a little long in the tooth. The language is changing right before my eyes.

WOW!!! look at the opening for a book that won Amazon's Best Book of the month for Oct. 2010 and this is for ages 14-up.. it is a "young adult" book!!


REVOLUTION by Jennifer Donnelly

Those who can, do.

Those who can't, deejay.

Like Cooper van Epp. Standing in his room--the entire fifth floor of a Hicks Street brownstone--trying to beat-match John Lee Hooker with some piece of trip-hop horror. On twenty thousand dollars' worth of equipment he doesn't know how to use.

"This is the blues, man!" he crows. "It's Memphis mod." He pauses to pour himself his second scotch of the morning. "It's like then and now. Brooklyn and Beale Street all at once. It's like hanging at a house party with John Lee. Smoking Kents and drinking bourbon for breakfast. All that's missing, all we need--"

"--are hunger, disease, and a total lack of economic opportunity," I say.

Cooper pushes his porkpie back on his head and brays laughter. He's wearing a wifebeater and an old suit vest. He's seventeen, white as cream and twice as rich, trying to look like a bluesman from the Mississippi Delta. He doesn't. He looks like Norton from The Honeymooners.

How many 14 year olds are going to know about The Honeymooners or a "wifebeater"???