Thong (clothing) - Society

Society

Attitudes to the wearing of g-strings vary geographically and across societies, as is usual with highly revealing clothing. Prior to its entrance into mainstream fashion, g-strings were primarily worn by exotic dancers. In the modern Western world, g-strings are more commonly marketed towards females but are worn by both sexes. By the late 1980s, the style (for females) had made its way into most of the Western world, thong and g-string underwear became more and more popular through the 1990s due to shows like Baywatch, where numerous females were recorded wearing thong swimsuits.

Recent surveys place the number of American women who wear thongs as their preferred underwear style at 28%. While thongs are available for girls as young as eight years it is common for parents to not approve of girls wearing them until they reach their teens. Many reasons exist why women and men may choose to wear thong underwear or swimwear: prevention of visible panty lines; prevention of ride up so one needn't pull at one's underwear in public; comfort; fashion consciousness, including the feeling of being more adult; and minimization of tan lines.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, some people wore thongs with low-cut hipsters and deliberately exposed them over the top of their trousers. This led to many designs of thong intended to be worn in this manner, which were adorned with jewels and motifs on the back. However, in the later 2000s, the exposure of a thong above one's pants became a less popular and the trend turned to the wearing of lower-riding thongs that hardly show above trousers, except when bending or twisting.