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I had something on my mind and thought I would ask you guys. Why do you think speedos have wider sides then women's bottom swimsuits? Is it because guys have more of a square figure and for more modesty? Why hasn't string sides been the default through out history for male speedo style swimwear just like it has for women? It would be interesting to hear your feed back. When I refer to string side I'm referring to the ones like the swimsuit I'm wearing below. This was a picture I took today at the beach!

Looking v.good Frankj !
I think you are correct. It's a combination of modesty, sexism and male dominance in society, that mean women are expected to show as much as possible, and men are not.
Good to see you wear what you feel happy in.

Its all in the engineering. Man's swimsuit has to support more load.

clear the forest

Haha Matt I'm proud of my forest jk. I know I've going to at least trim down there.

Red^^Speedo wrote: Its all in the engineering. Man's swimsuit has to support more load.

Ditto that

i like a 2 to 2.5" side length. i like the shape and think it fits my body the best. i think its just a personal preference more than anything.

Briefsdave wrote:Looking v.good Frankj !
I think you are correct. It's a combination of modesty, sexism and male dominance in society, that mean women are expected to show as much as possible, and men are not.
Good to see you wear what you feel happy in.

Yes sexism does play into it I totally agree with you.

Besides modesty and engineering, I think it also goes with the current conventional standards of beauty for men and women... the archetypes of "perfect" proportion.

Visually, the narrow sides create a rising "arc" of fabric at the top of the leg, which heightens the appearance of the leg by "stealing" skin from the hip.

That works great for women, where the standard of beauty is thin mile-high legs, carrying big boobs. (Same reason for high heels... extra leg height.) The string sides also draw less attention to overall width, for a thinner waist.

But for guys, the standard of beauty is sturdiness: a tall wide torso, visually supported by strong wide legs. Increasing the leg height creates spindly proportions... a heavy torso on unstable stilts. The square lines of the wider-side suits shorten the leg and emphasize the width of the legs, appearing more stout. (Taken to the extreme, you get board shorts.)

Well ... back to the original question. Speedos are a technical suit designed for swimming and to reduce drag. Their prevalence in many of the Olympics and the number of medals attributed to those wearing them only helped to gain popularity and more so, especially when the company started using different blends and cuts (thus the heights and materials) which only added to the competitive edge and the legend was born.

Along the way, there was controversy about the athletes showing "too much skin", but again, the use of the suits was attributed to winning, so it became a standard, then an icon of swimming.

The worlds probably collided when casual pool and beach-wearing individuals started wearing competitive suits, then some 'other group' of people started wearing them, and Speedos suddenly became synonymously associated to the gay crowd and the uptight people that some are, afraid of seeing skin and bodily bulges deemed this sort of apparel 'evil' and that's where we are today.

It's probably not modesty, but more about someone's definition of 'acceptable'

Which is all very sad ... because that's all I want to wear while doing my laps in the pool or laying out at the beach ... and for me ... the briefer, the better!

Wow ExBex, what a well written and informative response. Thank you for sharing your line of thinking.