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After decades of banishment from mainstream wardrobes, one of fashion’s most divisive garments — the men’s swimming brief — is making a tentative return across the globe
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- Title
- Speedos: Are tiny swim briefs back in fashion? | CNN
- Published
- Jul 13 2023
I grew up with these, and as the article acknowledged, "swimming briefs" never went out of style here in Brazil. I happen to think they're comfortable (and can be sexy), and never really understood why my friends from the US treat them like they're taboo.
It's easy, speedos were popular with two groups in America. Europeans and certain homosexual groups, and some Americans would have a tough time picking which was worse.
Add in Americans average BMI (which might make the Speedo disappear from certain angles) and you've got a recipe for a cultural acceptance of 'modesty' in swimwear... Unless you're hot.
The cultural outlook was Micheal Phelps a few years back? He's fine in a speedo. No complaints. But if a man is in decent shape while actively deciding to wear a speedo? Well, he might be gay. After all, who takes care of their bodies except gay men and narcissists?
Now, young adults doing what their parents didn't is a tale as old as time. And the resurgence in speedos will certain embolden all the balding men who haven't worn under a size 40 waist in a decade to shake what their mama (and Busch light) gave them.
This comment is bringing me back to school in the the 00's where the word metrosexual got used very liberally for a boy/man who was probably gay and/or cared a lot about his appearence.
I'm haven't heard the word in many years at this point, but it's such a weird fallacy that those two things were supposedly connected. I wonder where it even came from?
Had a hair style that wasn't from supercuts? Metrosexual.
Have a wake up routine that's longer than "put on your least smelly t-shirt"? Metrosexual.
Wore deodorant today? Might be metrosexual.
I think the emo acceptance of makeup and the later hipster routines of beard oil and lotions made some men realize they don't have to have itchy, painful faces which certainly helped the death kneel of that term...
Oh, and the mainstream acceptance of gay people and everyone deciding to stop calling everything gay opened up the world to all the things straight men can admit they (always) liked.
This comment brought to you by a distinctly American viewpoint. Results may vary worldwide.
I think it's equal parts not wanting to stand out, not feeling 100% comfortable with one's body, and not wanting to show off one's "bulge" (or lack of one). Since it's more common here to wear shorts, it draws attention to yourself to wear something different. I'm a 41 year-old dude who's a little overweight (though I suppose I have a pretty good "dad bod," as they say) and don't especially want to subject anyone to any more of my skin than they want to see. Briefs would be a little much. Further, after swimming, I'm frequently subject to "shrinkage," and so am a little bashful about showing that off.
I'm sure my opinions aren't universal, but I also bet that partially sums up the U.S. opinion of them.
I understand what you've said, and I know that it must be a fairly common mentality shared with many, but it broke my heart to read that you don't want to 'subject anyone' to your body, as if your physicality is something to be ashamed of if it isn't perfect. I'm just some stranger online, but for what it's worth, I would earnestly encourage you to fight against that feeling. Your body is yours, and it's the only body you'll have, and there's a beauty in that.
I appreciate your kindness here, and I'm sure I should take it to heart. I'm mostly joking--I don't really feel disgusting or unworthy or anything like that--I've more just internalized some Curb Your Enthusiasm jokes about people showing too much skin. I'm perfectly comfortable on the beach and mostly comfortable even in the locker room after hockey games. But maybe I should stop making silly comments like that, even to myself! You're probably right that it isn't good for me. Thanks for trying to steer my mind in better directions.
I think it's funny. I can shower with six other dudes in the open shower at the gym and feel nothing but it'll take at least a rum and coke before I slip anything shorter than a seven inch inseam. I'm a hairy guy, I think more revealing stuff just looks better when you're smooth.. You ever seen a grizzly bear in a speedo? Probably a good reason...
While I certainly wouldn't describe American culture as puritan, there is a bunch of strange and ephemeral taboos in regarding to sex and sensuality that are still sticking around. Even though women have historically suffered the worst of it, that doesn't mean that men don't have them too.
The fact that women can't go topless, men can't, but men also can't wear short-cut bottoms like women do doesn't make sense to a lot of us either.
Nudity specifically is over sexualized in American culture (and I say this as an American). Compared to Europe this might be the case for other countries in the Anglosphere too, but it's especially the case for Americans. I'm not sure where it comes from historically, but it's definitely there. You can especially see this if you bring up the idea of naked saunas or nude beaches -- both quite common in parts of Europe but shocking to most Americans. Non-sexual nudity just isn't acknowledges as a concept there.
A speedo (what I've always called these "swimming briefs") is about as close as you can get without being fully nude, and it's quintessentially European (people known for their relatively open attitudes toward sex and nudity among most middle Americans ime). So it's not surprising to me that it ends up in the same category.
It is my understanding that speedos are very common in Rio. It's not nearly as common in Salvador. I don't know anyone my age that wears a speedo, and I haven't owned one since I was a child.
Wearing a speedo in Salvador is something fit gay dudes will do, as well as older men -- like people in their 60s.
Ah, I show my provinciality. Yes, it's super common in Rio, to the point that I find myself noticing when people wear board shorts instead of sunga. We also have a strong gay beach culture, which I would think spreads to the general beach culture as a whole. I don't think I've ever seen an older man in board shorts.
It's really tough to explain cultural preferences outside of context. I don't know what to tell you.
It's the same for me. Coming from a costal city, it was even more natural. Curiously enough, shorts were a fashion imported from surfers and I remember people being ashamed of wearing a type of brief that showed less skin because it was associated with muscle definition.
Yeah. I'm not sure being overweight or obese while wearing a speedo is any sort of majesty, machismo or not.
If I looked like Ricky Martin or Luke Evans, I would also wear a speedo. Holy hell they look fantastic. Even the older gentleman in the top picture looks god. It's board shorts for me though, and everyone is the better for it.
That said, Jack Black in a Speedo (and this link includes video of Jables twerking, forewarned is forearmed) is a fully figured guy and he definitely has a certain machismo majesty. He might be the definition of a certain machismo majesty.
The speedo itself is neither here nor there for me in what I'm about to say, but I often wish that, as a gay guy, other guys could climb inside my brain for a moment and see guys the way I see them. Seemingly every dude thinks that if he doesn't look like Luke Evans he's hideous, or, even worse, that guys as a whole gender can't even be attractive in the first place -- that we men are the ugly foil to women's beauty.
I don't want to make anyone too squicky here, as I realize I'm widely known as a wholesome teacher and people get weird if we talk about our attractions, but if I put on my dude-loving-dude hat for a moment, I assure can you and every other guy out there that there is absolutely a majesty to men that has been societally downplayed to nearly the point of extinction. Y'all can be attractive and yes, even cute, and yes, even beautiful, and yes, even hot, and, trust me on this, you don't need perfectly chiseled abs and defined pecs to pull that off. Not even close. It is absolutely something your garden-variety, everyday kind of dude can be.
I’m straight, and I definitely held the attitude you’re describing for a long time. What helped (and is still helping) me get past that attitude is thinking about my own attraction towards women: I found numerous “average” women to be very attractive, so why wouldn’t it go the other way?
You've done that thing that where we take an offhand comment and make it deep!
Thank you for reminding me that we can be beautiful too, and we don't have to look like Luke Evans (though man, that is quite a picture). There's nothing squicky about your comment, and I absolutely get it; we have certainly been trained for years to not acknowledge that men can be beautiful. I feel like maybe, hopefully we're moving past that collectively (or maybe it's just my social group)? Now I feel like it is okay to acknowledge beauty in other men as I did above with Evans and Jack Black. And I recognize that I'm beautiful too, but maybe more beautiful like Jack Black than beautiful like Luke Evans, and that's okay with me.
Heck, the whole dad bod trend specifically started because straight women were into chubby guys. It got pretty fucked by the media calling everything that wasn't a chiselled actor in his mid-shooting dehydration "dad bod", but it's a thing women find cute too!
As someone raised as a woman who's both fat and not high on the "traditionally attractive" scale, I often felt uncomfortable wearing women's swimsuits (even one-pieces) once I passed puberty. But that was honestly 99% shame over body hair, since I didn't have the desire to wax everything smooth enough down there and the expectation to be hairless as a woman was even stricter than other beauty standards ime. Luckily women's swimsuit options with shorts do exist these days, albeit less widely than more traditional ones.
Not Speedos, but maybe this video will change your mind? It shows just how majestic that revealing swimwear on fat men can be. ;)
I mean, so far every argument for an overweight person in speedos is Jack Black, and I think it might just be that it's Jack Black, and not that it's a good body type for speedos
Yeah, like @Tigress said, it works for him because he owns it, and the reason he is mentioned by so many people is because he is an easy, prominent example to point to. But I have seen plenty of other overweight men at resorts, beaches, clubs, and parties over the years who also managed to pull off wearing Speedos or other skimpy outfits, and they were able to do that because (much like Jack Black) they also didn't give a fuck what anyone else thought of them. That confident, DGAF, unashamed attitude is a huge part of what makes something majestic (projecting power, authority, dignity), and IMO is also what makes someone attractive regardless of their body type (which, like @kfwyre, I also say as someone attracted to men). And for another example of that, see: Bears. ;)
Maybe, but I think the reason it works is cause Jack Black owns it and has fun with it. So, could be at least a little of that is more attitude than Jack Black
^ while wearing most minimalistic or revealing clothing, but especially evident with a speedo. I guess it isn't a real concern in most of the world though, maybe if it makes a comeback people will be more body positive?
I just thought the article was interesting lol.
Speedo — the original purveyors of the much-maligned piece of skimpy swimwear — argue yes, reporting that in 2023, sales and orders across Europe, the Middle East and Africa are up by over 200% compared with 2022. Meanwhile in the US, the brand reports a 54% sales increase from 2020 to 2021 and are expecting to exceed this for 2023 (the brand say data for 2022 isn’t accurate due to logistical changes that year).
I'm personally a woman, so it doesn't impact my choices. I do think that an interesting point was made earlier in the thread that women are allowed and encouraged to wear skimpy bottoms while men are almost required to wear no top but encouraged to wear longer shorts. It's inconsistent.
Any trend has early adopters and at least in the US I think that's the stage we are seeing. Who knows if it will actually become popular.
Meanwhile, I recently found board shorts for women. Maybe what's really happening is that we're getting more choice? I really hope that's the case, I'm not looking forward to the next low rise pants cycle.
I definitely think we're getting more choice. I don't think there has ever been such a variety of 'acceptable' styles - so much so that I think even if low rise pants became popular again, not many would actually wear them. I see a lot of teens in them though I highly doubt me and my fellow 30+ peeps would buy into it as we remember the way it felt the first time around lol
Overall, societal pressure in terms of style definitely seems less powerful nowadays than they used to. Maybe it's just me getting older and giving less shits though, and wearing what I myself feel comfortable in instead of wearing what shops have on their shelves and try to push on me.
I’m in the US and feel most comfortable in a Speedo.
I also competitively swam for 14 years. That’s one of the double-edged swords I found. If you spend all your time in a Speedo you’re either going to REALLY hate your body or get really comfortable in it. And that’s regardless of body type I think.
I think that goes for every fashion statement. Recently, I got a Fannypack style bag. And it’s actually become very convenient and comfortable to wear and I don’t even have kids. But for the longest time when I first got it, it was very uncomfortable, socially speaking.
to be fair, those switched from being extremely socially unacceptable to being "in" weirdly recently
True, although I recall them being a big thing in the 80’s, but since I wasn’t around that’s only based off of movies and seeing old fashion.
GenX here, can confirm fanny packs were popular back then. As an aside, it took reddit to teach this american that UK citizens have a different meaning for the word fanny lol.