wifebeaters Re: Closets and Wardrobes

[Carol]

Ali:
> Tank tops are what women wear.  They're generally regarded as the
spaghetti strap contraptions.  Though I've seen wifebeaters referred
to as tank tops, it doesn't change the fact that women are generally
the only ones who wear tank tops.
> 
> However, I would follow your instinct to change the color, if only
because men's wifebeaters are rarely anything but white.  Designer
wifebeaters (yeah, that's not wrong) come in a million colours and
sometimes have crazy designs.  If your author is 22, she (or her
character) might be the Urban Outfitter type, and her wifebeaters are
shorter, more fitted, and meant to be worn somewhat layered (aka throw
an unbuttons shirt over it) or completely by itself.
> 
> 
> >  Carol, who thinks that the author chose "wifebeater" because
she's about twenty-two and hasn't considered the connotations of the word
> 
> Ali:
> What can I say?  We're a strange bunch, us 20-somethings (I'm 25).
The term wifebeater, by the time it got to us, had lost all
ethnic/whatever connotation.  It's still considered somewhat "redneck"
a la King of the Hills for those who watch American TV) but not offensive.

Carol again:
How about the connotation of a man who beats his wife, the literal
meaning of the word? Doesn't it imply a false standard of masculinity
(male domination and violence)? That, not the ethnic origin or
"trailer trash"/"redneck" connotation, is what troubles me. (And to
market a product with that name to women and kids and have them or
their parents buy it, thinking nothing of what the product is called,
is highly disturbing to me. I certainly wouldn't have bought any such
thing when I was eighteen or twenty or twenty-five (or any age), nor
would I have dated a boy or man who wore one and referred to it by
that term. I did, however, buy and wear tank tops, as did some young
men of my acquaintance, but I don't remember what the boys called
them. If the term was around thirty years ago, and I'm not doubting
anyone's word here, why have I never heard it until I read this
manuscript and why isn't it in the dictionary? It must not be a
respectable term, or maybe it wasn't respectable until marketing
blurred the actual meaning of the term.

Anyway, thanks for your perspective, Ali. It's probably similar to my
clients. Please forgive me, but I get the idea that your generation
just hasn't given the word any thought. (That in itself disturbs me,
actually. And it's odd that the advocates of political correctness, so
ready to criticize old-fashioned terms like "Indian giver," haven't
jumped on this one as well.)

I've been checking the Google shopping links online, and it seems as
if "Wifebeater" may be a brand name. At any rate, some of the shirts
advertised have sleeves, and there was even a sleeveless version
marketed as "a cute lil wifebeater for kids"!

And here's Justin Timberlake in a black "wifebeater," more or less the
sort of image our young author is trying to portray:

http://images.marketworks.com/hi/55/55265/pst2204jus.jpg

Anyone have teenage or college-age sons who wear the things?

Carol, still looking for another word to describe a men's sleeveless
A-shirt (and few people use that term, to my knowledge) in a color
other than white