What I’ve always found silly about men’s underwear are those ridiculous openings on the front of jockey shorts.
What are they there for? Really?
It is not physically possible to piss with your male ‘unit’ in the shape of the letter Z. - I asked my husband. And the hole isn’t big enough to get more than a couple of fingers in. Who is it made for?
Shoot, I don’t know. I’ve often wondered the same thing. I think it started as a way to relieve oneself without undoing belt and pants and such, so that one could merely unzip and poke out to shake the dew off the lily. But as you pointed out, this is impossible if one’s shlong is thicker than a spaghetti noodle. Maybe it is for catheterized para- and quadrapelegics.
I guess it’s possible.
However, this only happens with the flap type. I have noticed that the button type works great for pissing through one’s pants. I think that this is somewhat akin to the flap on the back of long john’s.
“And on the eighth day, God Created beer
to prevent the Irish from taking over
the Earth.” ~SNOOGANS~
There seems to be an epidemic of poorly designed briefs or grossly deformed penises. My Y-fronts open to about 4 inches in diameter, which is more than enough to pee through. The fly can be useful with dress slacks. With jeans, it’s more trouble than it’s worth.
No, it is easiest to manufacture the bikini style, with no openings at all in front, just the flat piece of fabric. The fly opening, with 2 layers of fabric overlapping, is much more difficult to manufacture and takes more cloth. It wouldn’t be done that way except that customers want it that way.
Coming from Minneapolis, MN, home of Munsingwear, and originators of the one-piece union suit, the forerunner of jockey/briefs style underwear!
This seems ot be a subject of enduring interest. We had a thread on it a couple of weeks ago.
I suspect the problem is that some of you get low-cut briefs. Although they have the fly opening, there’s not enough height to make using it practicable. With full-cut briefs, the opening is more than ample, no matter how well enowed you might be. And using it involves just a quick, simple zip and flip. Much easier than unbuckling and unbuttoning, and still easier than dropping the front of the briefs.
I can’t use those damn underwear fly things worth a damn. But it’s easy to pull the wasteband down a little. The fly in my jeans works fine. I don’t get it either.
Of course the original purpose of the fly in men’s underwear was to facilitate urination without undoing the pants; this is also the purpose of having the fly on pants located where it is, although having the fly in the front middle also makes it easier for a man to use a urinal with the pants undone.
But very few men actually use the fly to urinate, especially when wearing briefs. It is much easier to undo the pants and pull down the underwear. So why do even the cheapest discount brands have the layered flap in front? It’s so that men’s underwear don’t look like women’s.
We’ve long since arrived at the point where women can freely wear pretty much any and all men’s clothing without repurcussions. It was a fad a few years ago among teenage girls to wear men’s boxers as shorts. Though a little strange for my taste, nobody really considered it deviant. However, we are still a long way away from it being acceptable for men to wear women’s clothing, especially underwear, where the difference is greater than with much outerwear.
So one important reason why men’s underwear has a fly is so that it’s easily distiguished from women’s.
No, actually, the original purpose of the fly was to facilitate rape! Developed by the Turkish soldiers, I think. I can’t locate the cite right now, but I’ll keep looking – maybe it was by Cecil himself?