Closets and Wardrobes

[Carol]

Carol earlier:
> >  Then you're the person I need to consult! The manuscript I'm
editing now calls a man's sleeveless tank-top shirt (what the Brits, I
think, would call a "vest") a "wifebeater." I was appalled by the term
and couldn't find it in the dictionary, but I did find it in common
use on shopping sites. Am I being an old fogey or is "wifebeater" an 
acceptable term? Is there a better one that wouldn't sound so 
offensive? ("Vest" won't do; it's an American book.)

Ali responded: 
> Wifebeater is a very appropriate term, especially if it's an
American book - it sounds a little appalling but I promise it's not
insulting and very much common language.  Just ask any 20-something or
younger what they layer underneath their tees.  :)

Carol again:

Thanks, Ali. The writer is American and her characters are in their
early twenties, so I expect that she's about the same age. I wonder,
though, how somewhat older readers would respond to it. (It's a
romance novel, which might, theoretically, be read by women in their
thirties. I doubt that many men would read it just because of the
genre, even though one of the narrators is male.

Still, I'd like to have a few more reactions. I confess that the
reference is specifically to a black wifebeater, and I thought at
first that it was a racist remark! (Maybe she should change the color
to gray? Or am I just being squeamish and old-fashioned and seeing
things that aren't there?)

Carol, who really dislikes the term "wifebeater" and hates the idea of
legitimizing it through potentially published fiction