Offensive or not offensive: calling a tank top t-shirt a "wife beater"

[Bertha Venation]

Poll question: Offensive or not offensive: calling a tank top t-shirt a "wife beater"

On edit: state the reason for your opinion

[MrCoffee]

1. Not offensive

[motely36]

2. Don't know if it's offensive,

but I don't like it or use the term myself

[azmouse]

3. It's just a dumb thing to say.

I guess some might find it offensive and since the shirt has a regular name why wouldn't someone just use that name and save the hassle of possibly insulting someone?

[He loved Big Brother]

21. To quote Harold and Kumar

"Totes".

[BlueIris]

4. Offensive. (And are those not the ugliest shirts EVER?)

Just saying.

[Dora]

5. Just as offensive as calling it a "guinea."

And "guinea" is what we call those shirts at Chez Dora.

[Chan790]

6. Offensive

I think we've lost this one unfortunately...it's offensive but it's just offensive when a woman wears one and they call it a "boy-beater". I unfortunately don't see either term fading away into obscurity anytime soon.

[old mark]

7. Robb is a dingbat.

Who is Robb, anyway.....


No, it's not offensive.
( And BV, I know because I am fucking sensitive.)

mark

[Bertha Venation]

30. old mark

You are fucking sensitive? Then you're probably someone I'd fucking like in fucking RL. ;)

[old mark]

37. BV

;)


mark

[mcctatas]

8. Not offensive compared to the things in this world that are really

offensive. Of course on a good day I can get offended about pretty much anything, but then I go into GD P and remember that it makes me look like a douchebag too :P

[Zavulon]

9. Not offensive to me.

If one tries hard enough, it's possible to find anything offensive.

[RetroLounge]

10. When we were kids they were called Dago T's

I'm not offended, but I prefer to just call them tank tops.

RL

[PeaceNikki]

12. That's what they called them in the Chicago area when I was there.

Even the eyetalians called them that.

[RetroLounge]

13. Yup, a Chicago thing...

:hi:

RL

[skygazer]

11. Not offensive

Just stupid.

[mykpart]

14. Sorry, I don't get it.

Never heard it called that, and I don't understand the reason.

[ogneopasno]

15. Offensive, because it normalizes domestic violence and makes it acceptable, even funny.

[darkstar]

17. Well said....

[ogneopasno]

20. Thank you.

[Zuiderelle]

16. Not offensive to me personally, but definitely an offensive term.

Most certainly potentially offensive to a woman who has been beaten by her spouse, and also offensive to the demographic it's referring to, as if any poor white married man beats his wife.

I don't think the term's going away though, it has a certain macabre ring to it.

[Bucky]

18. I never knew it was called that

Is it a shirt that a woman wears that gets her beaten, or a shirt a man wears when he's going to beat his wife, or a shirt of the sort that, having been worn, inspires a man to become abusive, or a shirt that's easily wrapped around a man's fist so that it's an aid in the beating of a wife, or is there some esoteric pun on "beater" going on here, indicating not so much physical abuse as sexual inspiration, such that the woman in question is so aroused by her fella that she swoons and loses her resistance to his formerly unwelcomed advances, or is it more meant as a wife beater in that it's a comfortable shirt and, like fishing, ultimately a more satisfying experience than sexual arousal?

Or is there some other obscure permutation of this "wife beater" concept I haven't sussed out?

[TreasonousBastard]

23. Last I heard, you can thank Marlon Brando for it...

Tt's what he wore in "A Streetcar Named Desire" while tossing Vivien Leigh around. Such things do enter the lexicon without overwhelmingly dark intentions.

(We're talking the Fifties here, and no one was going to call that thing a "Stanley")

[Bucky]

31. If it was Vivien Leigh then it should be called a sister in law beater

which, as horrible a crime as it is, is certainly less of a social problem than wife beating

[krispos42]

28. I think the general premise was...

...your typical working-class guy comes home, perhaps on a warm spring or summer day, and relaxes by removing his work shirt and exposing the "wifebeater" underneath. The wife has dinner ready, so they eat then retire to the living room to watch some TV before bed.

Working-class guy has a few more beers, gets into a disagreement with the wife, decides to smack some subserviance into her.

Real macho stuff, you know... :eyes:


I always imagine it as Archie Bunker coming home and deciding to smack the "dingbat" out of Edith.

[Oeditpus Rex]

19. I find it offensive because it trivializes a real problem

I don't use it, and I wonder why any self-respecting woman would — or man, for that matter.

[Shine]

22. I totally agree.

:hi:

[Lil Missy]

24. Well, I voted yes. Because the only time I have ever heard the term used, it was racially motivated.

[krispos42]

25. We can call it an "a-shirt" instead

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeveless_Shirt#A-shirt

Short for "athletic shirt" because it is often worn in sports, such as basketball and track-and-field events. Also known as a wife beater, Guinea tee (from guinea, an ethnic slur against Italians), or (in British English usage) a vest,<1> (cf. American usage of vest) or in Scots as a semmit,<2> as a singlet in Australia, an A-shirt is usually worn as an undershirt, although it is also commonly worn as a single outer layer. It gained popularity as worn by men, but is now often worn by women, as well.

The build of an A-shirt is simple: the neck and armholes are often reinforced for durability. One usually has large armholes and a neckline that can reach down as far as mid-chest. They are also sometimes made long to make tucking easier. In almost all cases, they are buttonless, collarless, and pocketless. An A-shirt is generally tight and made of ribbed cotton or other fiber, however, over-sized A-shirts, while otherwise generally considered a fashion faux pas, are sometimes used as nightshirts. Common A-shirt colors include: white, black and grey.

The slang, "wifebeater," comes from the popularity of the shirt among post-war working class men, who are stereotypically imagined as violent or abusive.

The string vest has fallen from favour in the United Kingdom,<3><4> but a string semmit as an underclass fashion item was made famous by Rab C. Nesbitt, leading character in the TV sitcom of the same name.<[br />

[Jamastiene]

26. A friend of mine loves those things and calls them "wife beaters."

He's the nicest guy ever. I would say he is like a brother to me. He'd never actually hit a woman. It's just the name of the shirt. I know he doesn't mean anything anti-women when he calls the shirts that. It does sound bad, but I think most people do not really mean anything against women.

[Iggo]

27. I voted "not offensive" but...

...what I really meant was "I'm not offended."

If anyone gets offended by anything, then that thing is offensive by definition.

[txwhitedove]

29. Not offensive to me. Descriptive, like calling boots...

'shit-kickers'.

[undeterred]

32. Offensive, unless you think domestic violence is inoffensive.

[rcrush]

33. I dont think the undershirt has feelings.

You can call it whatever you want.

[petronius]

34. Triply offensive: they're ugly as fuck-all, the name treats violence as a joke,

and the joke is based on a socioeconomic stereotype about the people who are usually assumed to wear them.

Not the most offensive thing in the world by a long shot, but it's a term (and a 'style') I could do without...

[Schema Thing]

35. Charm offensive: Your tits look mucho doable in that wife-beater, babe.

[kath]

36. Well, as someone whose sister-in-law was murdered by an abusive ex-spouse

(shot in the head in front of their two little children)...

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

38. I'm voting for not offensive

I call them wife-beaters. I don't even think of it in a domestic violence sort of way. Just like I don't think Guinea Tee is offensive. Italians I know call them that.

[MrSlayer]

39. It's sort of what it's known by now.

It's lost any real meaning as it was absorbed into popular vernacular. Not offensive.