# Is the word "panties" offensive? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 14, 2010, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-panties-offensive/524979 "2010-01-14T20:26:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-panties-offensive/524979/61 "2010-01-15T12:39:56Z")
I haven’t taken a survey, but adult women I have known universally call them underwear. Men may call them panties, but I really don’t hear women do it. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-panties-offensive/524979/62 "2010-01-15T12:51:01Z")
This thread is getting my already moist panties wet. I prefer “man-barrier” for ladies’ underpants. ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-panties-offensive/524979/63 "2010-01-15T13:05:06Z")
What about pantaloons? No love for the pantaloons? ---
**Author:** ![dhkendall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9adbd/32.png) [@dhkendall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dhkendall)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-panties-offensive/524979/64 "2010-01-15T13:16:14Z")
Like most of you, I’m shocked that there is controversy, as I always thought That’s What They’re Called. That being said, though, there is a time when I am actually offended by the word panties (but I try to curtail my rage, in defeerence of my love for the speaker), my wife sometimes slips up and uses the words “panties” to refer to the undergarments of both our kids, the girl and the boy. As in “can you get me a new pair of panties for Christopher?” I do remind her quickly ab out how boys **do not wear panties!** but, as I said, because of my love for her, plus the realization that that’s the word she’s more familiar with, being a woman and all, has me keep most of my white-hot rage inside. Strangely, I don’t get upset at all if she was to say “can you get me a new pair of underwear for Chantal?” Maybe it’s because “underwear” is gender-neutral, or it’s because I’m a mal chauvinist pig. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-panties-offensive/524979/65 "2010-01-15T13:26:00Z")
> [@SecondJudith](#): > > I would find it a bit annoying if someone referred to my underwear as “panties”, but that’s never happened. I think of underwear names like so: > > Panties - worn by girls up to about age 12 > Pants, underwear - gender-neutral, worn by adults (“underwear” is my own preferred term) > Knickers - lacy silky underwear worn by adult women. > > I think “offensive” is an odd word to describe it, but if someone referred to my “panties”, I would assume they were implying that I was a 12-year-old girl. You’re obviously British or Australian or something. As I’m sure you know, in the U.S. “pants” are trousers and “knickers” are those knee-length pants that old-fashioned newsboys used to wear. > [@outlierrn](#): > > Anyway, I just wanted to ask, since I have to go through belongings with pts that are being admitted to the hospital, what would you like a male nurse to call them? > > Ok, so you have a wallet, watch, wedding band, sneakers, jeans, bra and panties is my usual speech, but Og knows I wouldn’t want to traumatize anybody That wouldn’t bother me at all. Just because I hate the sound of the word doesn’t mean that I don’t want people to use it. ---
**Author:** ![horhay\_achoa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ccd318/32.png) [@horhay\_achoa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/horhay_achoa)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-panties-offensive/524979/66 "2010-01-15T14:21:03Z")
Thanks all. As I suspected, it does not seem there is a much of a debate. My sister in law has her panties in a bunch over nothing. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-panties-offensive/524979/67 "2010-01-15T14:30:03Z")
How do we feel about undies? Or underoos? I think I’m more likely to use undies as a cutesy word rather than panties. ---
**Author:** ![tacoloco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tacoloco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tacoloco)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-panties-offensive/524979/68 "2010-01-15T14:31:43Z")
I prefer to call women’s underwear “gatekeepers”. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-panties-offensive/524979/69 "2010-01-15T18:45:45Z")
> [@not\_alice](#): > > Really? If you made panties bigger, I don’t think you will end up with pants. > > Nor will you end up with panties if you make pants smaller. > > At least in the corner of the fashion world I have always lived in. > > How about you? They’re made “smaller” or “bigger” by shortening or lenghening the leg length, obviously. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-panties-offensive/524979/70 "2010-01-15T18:51:52Z")
> [@not\_alice](#): > > Really? If you made panties bigger, I don’t think you will end up with pants. > > Nor will you end up with panties if you make pants smaller. I should have made clear that I was talking about the word rather than the referent. But for that matter, yes, if you cut down pants far enough, you would end up with panties - sort of. In the 18th and 19th c, women’s undergarments were long linen drawers - something like modern capri pants. As fashions changed and hemlines rose, these had to get smaller, at the waist and in the leg. Eventually, they become a garment that only covers the pelvic area - panties. I’m simplifying, of course - early drawers were not sewn together at the front, crotch or back, merely tied at the waist - but you get my point that in most people’s minds, panties (and all underclothes, for that matter) are diminutive versions of outerwear. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-panties-offensive/524979/71 "2010-01-15T19:04:18Z")
I’m an adult woman, and I say “panties”. I actually like the word. The one that makes me uncomfortable is “underpants”. “Underwear” is O.K., but “underpants” sounds creepy to me. OTOH, “hoodie” is one of my favorite new words, although I often use it incorrectly (to mean “hood” rather than “hooded sweatshirt”). ---
**Author:** ![not\_alice](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_alice/32/7283_2.png) [@not\_alice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_alice)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-panties-offensive/524979/72 "2010-01-15T19:06:49Z")
> [@slowmovingvehicle](#): > > but you get my point that in most people’s minds, panties (and all underclothes, for that matter) are diminutive versions of outerwear. No, I don’t accept that “most people” see “a panties and all underclothes” as diminutive versions of their outerwear? Perhaps you can tell us how you came to such a conclusion about “most people”? I am getting close to 30 years past the end of my teens, so I have been listening to people talk about their clothes, intimately and otherwise, a long time. I can’t recall anyone ever saying their underwear was like their outerwear, with the possible exception of the Madonna look of the 80s and similar short term, and ultimately limited in appeal fashion trends, in which the desire was to shock, not to demonstrate that “most people” see the underwear and outerwear as different sized versions of the same thing. Further evidence would be the number of school rules, and even attempts to make civic laws regarding the showing of underwear as part of one’s dress, such as boxers or bra straps visible. So that is my anecdotal reasoning. What do you have to persuade me otherwise? ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-panties-offensive/524979/73 "2010-01-15T21:02:28Z")
Sooo, here’s a fun story, a few years ago, in the ER I went to give a medication to another nurses pt. The pt was going to be admitted, and the admitting doc was at the bedside examining the pt. She was from a nursing home, 70 or so, stringy hair, sallow skin, but her eyes were bird bright, she was definitely home. the doc asked me to stay and chaperone him for a rectal exam, a common screen for GI bleeding. Being a sensitive guy I always ask if they need help with their clothes rather than just reaching, her response… ‘It’s been a long time since a man took my panties down’ ---
**Author:** ![Fritz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c57346/32.png) [@Fritz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fritz)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-panties-offensive/524979/74 "2010-01-15T21:51:28Z")
Panties…panties…panties… Sounds a bit tinny to me… ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-panties-offensive/524979/75 "2010-01-15T22:09:38Z")
How about 'step-ins"? I like that one, but unfortunately it has gone out of style. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-panties-offensive/524979/76 "2010-01-15T23:13:48Z")
> [@Fritz](#): > > Panties…panties…panties… > > Sounds a bit tinny to me… _screams, runs out of thread_ ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-panties-offensive/524979/77 "2010-01-15T23:31:36Z")
> [@LouiseE](#): > > It would never have occurred to me that this word might be offensive. > > My whole life, I don’t think my mother ever called them anything but panties. You mean the ones she laid out for you? ---
**Author:** ![SecondJudith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@SecondJudith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SecondJudith)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-panties-offensive/524979/78 "2010-01-15T23:50:26Z")
> [@Green\_Bean](#): > > You’re obviously British or Australian or something. As I’m sure you know, in the U.S. “pants” are trousers and “knickers” are those knee-length pants that old-fashioned newsboys used to wear. British. What’s your point? If this is a US-terminology-only discussion I’m sure the OP would have specified. **Freudian Slit** , I like “undies” as a diminuitive much more than “panties”! ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2010, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-panties-offensive/524979/79 "2010-01-16T05:35:14Z")
> [@dhkendall](#): > > Like most of you, I’m shocked that there is controversy, as I always thought That’s What They’re Called. > > That being said, though, there is a time when I am actually offended by the word panties (but I try to curtail my rage, in defeerence of my love for the speaker), my wife sometimes slips up and uses the words “panties” to refer to the undergarments of both our kids, the girl and the boy. As in “can you get me a new pair of panties for Christopher?” I do remind her quickly ab out how boys **do not wear panties!** but, as I said, because of my love for her, plus the realization that that’s the word she’s more familiar with, being a woman and all, has me keep most of my white-hot rage inside. Strangely, I don’t get upset at all if she was to say “can you get me a new pair of underwear for Chantal?” Maybe it’s because “underwear” is gender-neutral, or it’s because I’m a mal chauvinist pig. 🙂 Sometimes I call my husband’s undershorts his man panties, just to bug him. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2010, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-panties-offensive/524979/80 "2010-01-16T07:12:35Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > Hm… I always assumed that it was “lingerie”. Shows what I know. Nah, lingerie is a blanket term. Bras, panties, garters, nighties, etc…, every bit of cloth intended to hide what is to be shown while showing what is hidden (yes, I stole that phrase ;)) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-panties-offensive/524979.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-panties-offensive/524979.md?page=5)