H has always called them "A-shirts," as opposed to "T-shirts," which were originally called T-shirts because of the shape of the garment laid flat, with the sticky-out short sleeves. It follows that a shirt made with scooped-out armholes could logically be called an "A" shirt, if you squint.
Muscle shirts were originally tees, or usually sweatshirts, with the sleeves ripped away to show off the shoulders and biceps. Often, the sleeves were more neatly cut. Manufacturers took note and quickly profitted by making sleeveless t-shirts, no need for ravelly ripped or cut-out sleeves.
Heh, momentary distracton = inevitable Xpost.
I don't think men who beat their wives are a protected class.
I'd never heard "jewed him down" until I was like 25, and then my facial expression was enough to make the speaker stop and think about what he'd just said. And admit that he'd never thought about it before.
This is the same person who taught me "tramp stamp" and uses it all the time.
"Tramp stamp" bugs me, for why Trudy said, and "wife beater" doesn't, for why Sean said.
Seriously? How do you feel about "jewed him down"? I mean, assuming you don't hate Jews? Or "gyped"? And please don't tell me what you call Brazil nuts.
Jewish, Gypsy, or Brazilian is what a person IS; "wife beater" is an action a person chooses to take. Thus, I think this is comparing apples and oranges.
I also don't think it's implied that everyone who wears a sleeveless tanktop with nothing over it is an abusive partner.
I can see that the term "wife beater" for the shirt trivializes the nastiness of the crime, and so for that reason I'd change my usage.
Yay for tubeless Drew!!!!
Steph, I thought I was getting het up about this, but you're waaaaaay out of line jumping to flat out calling me a racist. Back the truck up.
I didn't call you a racist. Nor did I say that you use racist terms, or engage in racist activities/speech.
What I did was make a comparison to other parts of speech that have fallen out of use because their connotation is inflammatory and considered by some to be not acceptable.
If I called you a racist, please show me where. Because I did not.
Further note on the garments, both tee shirts and a-shirts or armhole shirts were originally made as undergarments for men, almost exclusively in white. Jean Seaberg famously catapulted the tee shirt into fashion as an outer garment, and I believe Brando in Streetcar did the same for the A-shirt. Sometime in the mid-century, FotL, and Hanes took note again (no flies on them) and produced both garments in colors, adding a cigarette pocket to the tee.
/more than anybody ever wanted to know.
Yeehoooo, Drew! Congrats, man.
I grew up with "gyped," and "jewed him down," as well as every other racial and ethnic slur you can probably think of as my daily lexicon. I've worked hard to eliminate the ones I recognize, and to recognize the ones that, through familiarity, still slip through the filter occasionally. I don't use tramp stamp, nor ass antlers. True to my rep for being pedantic, it's a lower-back or above the tailbone tattoo. A-shirts (white), or tanks (colored), because I won't use the term wife-beater. Whether it refers to the action or a class or whatever, the term makes me flinch, so I don't use it.
Frogs and hoptoads do escape my lips once in a while, but I try to be vigilant.
