Cuz sometimes they're not under anything, I think. I've always thought of them as undershirts that are lucky enough to see the light of day, and hated men for being allowed to wander around in their underwear when women are looked at funny for just wearing their bras without a shirt.
Your def of hate may vary.
Why aren't they just undershirts?
How can you tell a T-shirt undershirt from an A-shirt undershirt?
I'd only use the term wife-beater if I was being deliberately and pointedly ironic, and it almost never worked, so I stopped. I felt the casual association between wife-beating and the people who traditionally wore the shirt was more than I was willing to make, so no skin off my nose. Find another term. Not tank top, because that doesn't imply the Y formation of the back straps. A-shirt isn't popularly known, but I'd rather explain myself every time than say wife-beater.
I do wear them. Was wearing them this weekend, in fact.
But underwear are still underwear, regardless.
The first is just a T-shirt.
a-shirts are the only undershirts I have.
But are they fun to wear?
The a-shirts I normally see worn outside are a heavier weight cotton than the ones meant as undershirts. I see it as the equivalent of a woman going outside in a sports bra - ultracasual, but not quite "in underwear."
The first is just a T-shirt.
To you. Not to all the guys at my work wearing them as undershirts right now, though.
Underwear is just underwear, but no one is going to ask me "why not just say underwear instead of panties?" are they? Except I've been led to understand that underwear here doesn't include bras, so I don't know what that's about. If I want to specify panties, why wouldn't I?
The a-shirts I normally see worn outside are a heavier weight cotton than the ones meant as undershirts.
The ones I wear are definitely undershirt weight, which is why I wear them doubled.
Ordinarily, since I haven't gotten out of bed yet, I'd be wearing an a-shirt but I'm wearing my retina burning jammies today- green and purple plaid bottoms with a purple and pink tie-dye tee shirt.