They’re an article of clothing, apparently popular in the hip hop community, and I get the impression I should know exactly what they are and I see them all the time, but don’t know them by that name.
Thanks in advance.
It’s the kind of men’s undershirt that has no sleeves and big armholes. Starting a few years ago, I started reading that they were called “wife-beaters.” I assume it is some kind of ethnic or class slur. I don’t know when the term “wife-beater” was coined.
FWIW, when I put “wife beaters” in Google, I unsurprisingly got a number of battered-women-related sites and a few clothing sites that lead me to believe that a wife beater is basically a tank top.
If that’s the case - what’s the difference between a wife beater and a tank top?
AFAIK it just means a sleeveless undershirt. The “wifebeater” thing is to conjure up a “White Trash” image.
On a few occasions that I’ve worn them, I’ve warned my wife to watch out…
I get the feeling “wife beater” comes from (of course) episodes of COPS, where the guy in the domestic violence call is always wearing either that for a shirt (or is shirtless), and is more often than not barefoot.
Wordman-WifeBeaters tend to be tight. They stretch out and have a slight vertical ribbing sort of look. They are my undershirt of choice.
I would agree with the others that I think they do conjure up the White Trash or Hispanic Trash type image. Muy macho. (not that I really give off that vibe in them…sadly) As I recall, Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire wore wifebeaters…
Ooops. I just did a google. I was wrong about Marlon. I guess I just turned his ripped teeshirt at the end into a wifebeater…in my mind.
Sorry.
Absimia
It is a tank top, basically. I believe it got it’s name from a long standing stereotype of an alcoholic husband: dirty undershirt, beer gut, unshaven, beer-swilling alcoholic prone to sudden, violent rages.
It’s an old depiction dating – think of an evil version of the Honeymooners. Strangely, I’ve only seen the depcition featuring white men in a “poor white trash” kind of way. And for some reason, I always think of the archetype as being from the 1940s.
Extremely common on TV and in movies. And, of course, now that I need one I can’t think of an example…
Was Col. Cascio’s father in “Fail Safe” wearing a wife-beater?
Whether he was or not, that’s the way I remember him.
And he wasn’t poor white trash. He was. . .
Dare I say it?
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Eye-talian!
AKA “Guniea vests”, “Guniea shirts”, “Ginzo shirts”. It’s conicidental that this follows Mjollnir’s post.
My mom always called those “Italian dress shirts”
http://wife-beaters.com/shirts.html
I went to a halloween party as white-trash. I wore a “wife-beater” (white, tight, ribbed tank top) with pizza sauce stains and cigarrette holes.
Funny, I was going to say that Stanley Kowalski wore one in Street Car named desire but I guess he didn’t.
I am pretty sure (hey almost positive) that DeNiro wore one as Jake LaMotta in Ragging Bull.
I am thinking of Onslow, the inlaw of Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced ‘bouquet’) in “Keeping Up Appearances”.
http://kuacentral.com/pics/imagepages/image7.htm
Watch an episode of COPS, and you will likely see some drunken twit running around wearing a wife-beater shirt.
Sounds like the one I wear every sunday, except mine isn’t a costume…how sad is that?
The east coast’s guinea vest, is the midwest’s dago T.
Wifebeater is a recent appellation.
Most people I know who are versed in “hip-hop culture” insist that wife-beaters must be white. This might be a regional idea though.
The shirt or its occupant?
I love the look of a wife-beater. When I was a kid,we called it a Dago-Tee. Politically incorrect, I know. It was the 60s.