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Panties
Panties are undergarments.
Today, panties are used primarily for personal hygiene, just like underwear.
Some panties contain taller control tops, which act as a slight girdle for
women wearing tapered shirts or high cut skirts.
A wide variety of types of panties exist. High-cut, or control top, are cut
higher on the hip to slightly pull in and shape the stomach. Bikini cut are
cut traditionally, only the hip grips are small, like on those of beachwear.
Satin String Bikini are the most popular type of panties worn in the USA,
and they are similar to bikini cut 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. Boyshorts describe a type of panty that has a
lower, thicker cut of material around the hips, making them appear as
shorts; the thong, or g-string, is a panty with a string running between the
buttocks.
Panties are made of a variety of materials including satin, silk, PVC,
cotton, lace, nylon, and other fabrics and materials.
In other countries besides the USA, panties are sometimes referred to as
knickers.
History
Before recent times, women's underwear were made with the primary function
of body contortion. In the 1940s, Fredericks of Hollywood opened shop in
Hollywood 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 glamorized by models such as
Bettie Page.
Colorful, bright 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 then simple hygiene products and developed
into an icon of sexuality worldwide.
Since then, women in flattering lingerie have become a staple of several
functions of men'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 entity in themselves. Considered
by some to be taboo, the lingerie industry has boomed. 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 high school
and college age girls who are more likely to enjoy them than the woman who
grows 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 'panty shot'. Many websites on the internet make profits from
selling the aforementioned kind of pornography or voyeurism.
When a male or female wears clothes without undergarments, it is often
referred to as Going Commando or, in the male version, Free Balling.
Postpartum
Disposable panties are used in postpartum.
References in popular culture
* Probably the most famous panty shot in history, in 1954 Marilyn Monroe
stood over a vent and had her skirt blow up for the film, The Seven Year
Itch.
* In the 1980s movie Sixteen Candles, lead character Samantha loans her
panties to Ted so he can win a bet he has with his high school peers.
* In the Anime series, Ranma 1/2, the old lecher Happosai, is obsessed with
panties and commonly looks up women's skirt and steals their panties.
* In Korea, the term fanservice is used to describe an incident where an
attractive female (and occasionally male) show off their panties or other
elements in a provocative manner.
* In the Anime series, Dragon Ball, Master Roshi, is often trying to catch a
glimpse at the other female characters panties.
* During the Weekend Update segment of Saturday Night Live, presenters Amy
Poehler presented a mock debate about the use of the term "panties" in news
stories rather than the gender-neutral word "underwear."[1]
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