Mini Rant

[nix_this]

I fucking loathe the term wife beater to refer to a sleeveless shirt.

It's a joke, I get it. Because beating your wife is hilarious. No, wait, I have it all wrong! It's a joke on the guys who beat their wives! Right, of course! That's why guys wear them and laughingly refer to them as wife beaters. It's "ironic"! No, wait, I'm not seeing the joke

Comments

[thalialunacy]

The problem is that those alternatives all describe other things already, or are vague, and a wifebeater is a VERY distinct item of clothing. I own about twelve of them. We'd have to make up a whole nother word. Which would be awesome, but extremely difficult. I have yet to hear an alternative that makes sense and would stick.

[emmypenny]

Actually there is an alternative that specifically describes a wifebeater: athletic shirt (or I've some people use A-shirt).

[nix_this]

Thank you!

[nix_this]

What's actually on the package/label? If we started using that instead of "wife beater" it'd become more normalized. IDK, every time I see/hear "wife beater" I kind of want to puke. I'd really, really like to see it go the way of other slur-ridden slang like "nigger-rig", "ghetto", "getting jewed", "faggot", using "rape" as a comparison for anything other than rape, etc... and become gross and inappropriate

Google image results for A-shirt

Google image search for "wife beater shirt"

So, that's a start?

[prue84]

Hmmm. Hmm.

I have to admit sometimes I really don't know what to think about US people, really. Between this and the "rape" jokes...

*raises hands*

I'm almost happy to have the Pope here, when I hear things like these. Almost.