Why do some people call tank tops "wife-beaters?"

[Lavender Brown]

I went to the Gap, and the girls working there insisted on calling them this. It's one of the stupidest things I've ever heard. :shrug:

[KissMyAsscroft]

1. Because it's a Hollywood cliche....

The drunk abusive husband always is wearing a stain white tank top undershirt when he's holding a beer and screaming like an idiot.

It's not condoning abuse, it's more of a reference to a silly cliche that everyone has been exposed to their entire lives through television.

[sniffa]

2. athLetic tanks are wife beaters

not aLL tanks. it's kinda hystericaL actuaLLy.

ever see the tv show, 'cops'?

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

3. Stereotypes

When you see your typical drunk, possibly red neck guy on television who beats his wife, a great deal of them are shown wearing these shirts. The phrase got popular when I was in high school and the administration cracked down on kids using it, so we switched to the more politically correct "spousal persuaders".

on edit: added in the "television" part, which was most important

[tjwash]

4. All the cops episodes started that...

http://web.bvu.edu/students/brosmat/images/Pics-Twins%20Friends/twins-friends-Disney98-whitet's.jpg

[northzax]

5. what, you prefer the other name?

I give you...the Italian Dinner Shirt.

[Lavender Brown]

6. Oh. I've never seen Cops.

It's still kind of a dumb way to sell a t-shirt, if you ask me.

[slackmaster]

7. I thought only kapok trees were called wife-beaters

The bark is covered with nasty spines.

[madrchsod]

8. back in my day

we used to call them "dago"`or "whap" t`s

[cheezus]

9. why are boots clod-hoppers?

it's what some people do in them?
(i wonder what clod hopping is.... something to do with manure, i'd guess)

[Bridget Burke]

11. Plows break soil into "clods"

When you walk across a field covered in clods, you use them like stepping stones--to avoid stepping in a hole & breaking an ankle. I never got good enough to "hop". Besides, I was mostly barefoot in those days.

Fields used for cattle contain other perils.

[Angelus]

10. Because on the tv show Cops...

the guys who get arrested for beating their wives are often wearing tank tops, or, "wife beaters."