Dare To Ask Talk And News About Our Differences By PHILLIP MILANO
Question
I have “gone commando” (no underwear) for a few years. When I suggest it to other women to prevent yeast infections and for comfort, they think it is slutty or that I must be “secretly kinky.” Has anyone else run into this stupidity?
Rina, 22, Royal Palm Beach
Replies
I haven’t worn underwear in about two years. It’s better for you. Less bacteria, less infections, etc. I think it’s worse for girls to have thongs hangin’ out of their pants. That’s trashy.
Jen, 23, Mattapoisett, Mass.
I, too, have gone commando. When I reached adulthood it was my first official act. There is nothing wrong with not wearing underwear. We’re too restrictive as a society. Why should your underwear, or lack thereof, reveal secrets about your moral worth?
Kevin, 35, Jacksonville
If men can do it, why can’t we? I have a few friends who do it, and they are not perverted. I don’t, only because it is uncomfortable, as I wear mainly jeans and they can chafe. I have a teen daughter who is a virgin, and she is comfy going “bare down there,” and I would never think of her as a whore or slutty.
Reesa, 37, Ellensburg, Wash.
I have to wonder why you think it’s all right to suggest something as intensely personal as going without underwear to your friends. If a friend were to tell me that, I’d be somewhat offended. Perhaps you should stay away from sharing such intimate details of your life.
Melody, 40, Kansas City, Mo.
I went through a long phase of going commando. Maybe I was missing out on some side benefit, but I certainly wasn’t out there being promiscuous.
Emily, 29, Syracuse, N.Y.
The perception that because you have one less layer for a man to remove to get your “goods” that you must be sexually promiscuous is typical of the Puritan mentality that affects this country.
Ann, 37, Kansas City, Mo.
Expert says
With National Underwear Day being observed Wednesday (we report, you decide), we felt it important to discuss those in the minority who don’t cotton to wearing skivvies.
Of 20,000 responses to a survey by undergarment retailer Freshpair.com, 25 percent of men preferred boxers, 32 percent briefs, 28 percent boxer briefs, 4 percent thongs (yikes), 4 percent “other styles” and 7 percent nothing. Among women, 49 percent prefer panties, 28 percent thongs, 13 percent “boyshorts,” 4 percent “other styles” and 6 percent nothing.
Most who go commando don’t do so out of wanton depravity, says Michael Kleinmann, spokesman for Freshpair.com, which started National Underwear Day three years ago to promote more recognition of the so-called “unmentionables.”
“When people don’t wear underwear, the reason is for comfort, or they don’t want underwear lines,” he said. “It’s typically in the summer.”
Whether you do or don’t, be glad it’s not 1933 — the year before the world’s first truly functional vent was installed in boxers and briefs.