What do you call this kind of shirt?

[elshiva]

I've heard some people call it a "wifebeater," which is an awful name for a sexy shirt. Martin O'Malley , Maryland's gov, used to wear this shirt during his band's, O'Malley's March, concerts. So, the Baltimore Sun started refering to the band as O'Malley's Muscles.

What is your nick name for this shirt?

Note: The picture is not O'Malley, but someone else...

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. My dear elshiva...

I call it an undershirt...

:shrug:

[elshiva]

4. I used to call it that, but what is it under?

If you wear it like the man in the photo, is it still an undershirt? Yes, sometimes it is used like that, but please don't tell that to Ed Norton. I don't want him to put anything over it.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

8. The man wears it under street clothes...

But lots of men wear them like this guy is...

No shirt over it...

No matter how he wears it, it's still an undershirt.

[elshiva]

10. Thanks.

:rofl: I don't know why, but that is hilarious.

[goldcanyonaz]

2. Woman beater?

[elshiva]

5. Why? Just curious.

The shirt does not beat up women. Don't blame the shirt.

[harmonicon]

63. !!!!!!!!!!

must.not.laugh.

[Oeditpus Rex]

3. I call it a 'men's undershirt'

I reFUSE to propagate that hideous term, "Wife Beater," which I've heard even many women use. :wtf:

[goldcanyonaz]

6. ermm, sorry.....see above.

[elshiva]

7. Yes. Shirts don't hurt women!

[Chan790]

39. I call it a tank-top.

A great many of my friends call it a wifebeater (which is crass), but they tend to be equal-opp-offenders...they call it a boybeater if worn by a woman. It's still tacky.

FWIW, Hanes website says it's called an A-shirt or a tank.

[DarkTirade]

9. I hate the name 'wifebeater', but since that's what people know it as, that's the word I end up

using to describe it.

Undershirt works sometimes. But until I moved to a place where you needed layers to deal with the temperature changes, I never wore it under anything. :P When I was living in FL, that would just be my shirt. Anything else would be too hot.

[Inchworm]

11. Duh.. wifebeater

gawd..

daggone yankees!

:patriot:

[elshiva]

12. Hey! I'm a Marylander, not a yankee!

[Inchworm]

16. thats wut all teh gurls say

:yoiks:

[Monk06]

13. In the 70's we Canucks called it the Stanfield. That's because the leader of the

Torie Party owned the company that made them.

He came within two seats of winning an election
facing Pierre Trudeau which is real close considering
his habit of eating bananas during debates in Parliament.

[KSinTX]

14. It's a man's tank top

[Lil Missy]

15. I've heard this kind of T-Shirt or tank top described as a slur for a "wife beater" shirt.

And usually against African American Men.

I'm just sayin' .....

[Kat45]

77. Interesting that you say that--

I've honestly never heard it said against African American men. I've heard it said against "white trash" and I've particularly heard it in reference to Italian men, as seen in some of the other names folks in this thread mentioned hearing the shirts called.

[TreasonousBastard]

17. Could call it a muscle shirt, but "wifebeater" came from...

"A Streetcar Named Desire." Brando wore them in the movie, and, well, it was Brando, man, and it just took off as "wifebeater."

FWIW, some people call Stella Artois beer "wifebeater" because there was a Stella in the movie...

But, yeah, calling anything "wifebeater" in most circles isn't cool.

[Lady Freedom]

24. I thought that it was called a "wifebeater" because...well,

Have you ever watch the show "COPS"?It seems that the guys that are "accused of assault" on a wife or girlfriend are wearing those shirts.

[TreasonousBastard]

37. Seems that way, doesn't it? Dunno if the lowlifes...

got the idea from Brando's Stanley Kowalski or Brando got the idea from the lowlifes of the time.

Either way, I seem to remember hearing the term long before "Cops" was around. Lowlife's just seem to like undershirts.

[crimsonblue]

18. tank top or wifebeater are what I've heard (I don't wear them)

and that's Edward Norton.

[CC]

19. Here is the Governor...

I am pretty sure he was still mayor in it though.

[mcctatas]

20. It depends on the physique of the man inside the shirt...

if it's George Clooney, it's a tank, if it's Rush Limbaugh, it's a crime!

[oedura]

21. ???

That's a wifebeater?

I always thought that term referred to those sleeveless Ts with the extra large armholes that almost looked liked they'd been ripped open, hence the name. Guy beats on his wife, she grabs his shirt at some point...

To me, the shirt in the pic has always just been a plain old tank top.

[last_texas_dem]

22. Undershirt, tank top, or t-shirt

(Thought with the latter term, you pretty much have to distinguish it from a t-shirt with sleeves so it's kind of a pain to describe it that way.)

I avoid the term "wife beater" 'cause it gives me the creeps...

I believe a technical name for the shirt is an A-shirt (as in, athletic shirt) but I've hardly ever actually heard someone call it that. I think that's the description used on some of the packages that sell them, though.

[Broken_Hero]

23. tank top, or sleeveless shirt, nt

[datasuspect]

25. they called those a "dago t" when i was growing up

[PeaceNikki]

31. Clearly you grew up in Chicago.

[davsand]

38. Downstater here, and we called them that too. Must be an "Illinois thing."

:shrug:


Laura

[stanwyck]

60. How downstate?

I grew up in Iroquois County. Watseka.

[davsand]

65. Champaign County. Just south of Iroquois!

Small old world. I have family in Watseka, including an aunt who taught for years in the schools up there.

:hi:


Laura

[stanwyck]

74. What is your aunt's name? My parents taught school

in Watseka. And I went to school there until college.

[datasuspect]

46. why yes i did

2249 w. cullerton st. to be exact

[regularguy]

40. We called it a Guinea-T in NY.

Not a nice term in retrospect, but better tha wifebeater I suppose.

[Reverend_Smitty]

47. I've heard of it as a Guinea-tee too where I come from

I suppose you would complete the "look" with a few gold chains and a velour track suit...yeah not the most PC term

[LostinVA]

57. Don't forget the hair gel!

[billyoc]

70. OK, thanks, I didn't want to be the first. Ginny T's, we call them.

:rofl:

[RetroLounge]

71. It's a Chicago thing.

That's what we called them back then...

:hi:

RL

[tjwmason]

26. Vest

That's the normal term over here.

[Bear down under]

27. A singlet

At least that's what we call it in Australia and, I think, in British English also.

In Oz there is a distinction between a white one, which is definitely underwear, and the dark blue (sometimes black) version worn without a shirt by shearers and other rural and outdoor workers and which is traditionally called a 'jackie howe' after the champion Queensland shearer and trade unionist John Robert Howe(c.1861-1920).



When it is designed to be worn as a shirt(fancy colour, contrasting edging, design printed on the front, big price tag etc) then we would call it by the American term 'tank top'. (Though the managers of fancy restaurants are likely to say it's still a singlet and demand you put a 'proper' shirt on over it.) 'Wifebeater' is definitely an Americanism, and I agree it's not a particularly attractive one.

Edited to add: The picture isn't of John Howe: it was taken by Reiner Irmer in 1991 and is in the State Library of Queensland.

[UndertheOcean]

29. That pic is disturbing

[Bear down under]

32. Why? It's just a man shearing a sheep

He's using electric clippers, and taking the fleece off the sheep's belly. It's not a particularly dignified position for the sheep, certainly: but he would only hold her in it for a minute or so -- it takes a shearer about 4 minutes to trim the fleece off from the whole body.

[ronnykmarshall]

53. They look so cute after.

I remember when my uncle did that to their sheep. They would jump around and play strutting around. PLUS is would get so hot in Bakersfield in the summer, they were happy to get rid off all that fleece.

[LaurenG]

28. This is a white cotton "Athletic Tank Top" made by many top designers

including fruit of the loom, munsingwear and hanes, it is normally made of cotton and is maufactured in several countries.

This shirt is coveted by both men and woman and some designers market them in colors as well.

:7 I thought I'd try the fashion announcer hat today.

[NMDemDist2]

30. a muscle shirt, or muscle tee n/t

[DarkTirade]

72. Technically a 'muscle shirt' is actually different.

It goes all the way up to the neck, and it goes tight around the arms. It doesn't have the three big holes for the head and arms that the undershirt has.

I learned that one when I accidentally bought a pack of muscle shirts instead of a pack of undershirts. :P

[DU GrovelBot]

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[PermanentRevolution]

73. I've NEVER heard it called that, GrovelBot...

I think you're just making things up at this point...

[Tuesday Afternoon]

34. I call it a "skinny T" --

I have heard it called a "wifebeater"

[Puzzle]

35. Only one appropriate word for that shirt

when worn by Edward Norton:

HOT!!!

[Tikki]

50. Welcome to DU... Puzzle...

:hi:

Tikki
yes, yes.. Edward Norton is yummy..

[BarenakedLady]

36. Muscle shirt on a guy

When I wear them, they are called tanks.

[Iggo]

41. Up until about ten or fifteen years ago...

...I'd've called it a slingshot. Since then, a wifebeater.

[guitar man]

42. that's an undershirt

...now, if it has beer and bbq sauce stains on it,a couple of cigarette burn holes in it,hasn't been washed in over a week and it's deserately trying to cover a huge beer belly and not quite making it, then it's a wifebeater. :D

[LiberalEsto]

43. Back in NJ I heard it called

a guinea tee -- guinea being a slur against Italians. Of course this was many years ago.

[Gormy Cuss]

44. Weird ... I was thinking along the same lines.

A "Revere Beach T" being one Boston equivalent of cleaned up slang for Italian-Americans.

[NJmaverick]

48. That's what I have heard them called

[LostinVA]

58. They still call them that

In fact, I know a lot of NJ Italian people who call them that.

[Z_I_Peevey]

45. I guess you could call it a Kowalski

if you don't like the wifebeater term.

[montanto]

49. I call it a wifebeater and so does my wife.

Though I'm the one who's whipped.

[fizzgig]

51. i called it a wifebeater when i was a teenager

but then i realized what a horrible term that is. now it's just an undershirt

[mitchum]

52. A Jersey vest

[RainDog]

54. wife beater

[pokerfan]

55. wifebeater is what they're called around here

Wife beater, also wifebeater, and sometimes abbreviated as simply beater, is a slang term used in North America to refer to a tank top style shirt when worn as a sole, outer layer (as opposed to being worn as an undershirt). This term is often seen as demeaning and is often associated with the similarly derogatory phrase “white trash.”

The origin of the term is from the stereotype that the shirts are worn predominantly by men who beat their wives; black tank tops were often worn by Ike Turner, a notorious abuser of his wife Tina. In the 1980 movie Raging Bull, the main character, a boxer, is commonly seen wearing tank tops around the house, including in one scene where he beats his wife. Countless drunk and disorderly domestic abuse suspects who were arrested on the TV show Cops also wear such shirts.

http://www.mtannoyances.com/?p=166">Mother Tongue Annoyances: wifebeater t-shirt

[LostinVA]

56. My wife calls them wifebeaters

She wears them all the time.

[sarge43]

59. I wouldn't call it. It might follow me home. n/t

[latebloomer]

61. I find them very sexy (on the right man, of course)

Bought some for my huz way back, but he hardly ever wore them. Now that he's been pumping a little iron, maybe I'll get him some more.

[Left Is Write]

62. It's an undershirt.

[Generic Brad]

64. Not Mine

I no longer have the physique to pull of that look.

[Jamastiene]

66. Tank top.

I have heard them called wife beaters before too. I agree. It's a disgusting name for a shirt.

[bigwillq]

67. Wifebeater

Guinea T

[Steven_S]

68. I wear them...

I don't call them anything. But I remember years ago Dean Martin called it an Italian Smoking Jacket on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. :)

[northzax]

69. duh, it's an Italian Dinner Shirt

don't you know nuthin?

[Schema Thing]

75. oh, that's a S.O.D.

Significant Other Disciplinarian shirt

[khashka]

76. wifebeater

Watch COPS. Every guy who gets busted for hitting his wife is wearing one. But they are sexy....

Khash.