This just made my day...

I have been waiting for thongs to die for a long time. Seriously, they look dumb and I like having an extra layer to keep my butt warm when I'm wearing pants. Finally, others are realizing how ridiculous it is to wear a string of cloth in your bottom. I mean, why would you want a permanent wedgie?


From Cosmopolitan
Until recently, cheekless undies were everywhere. But as sales dip lower than the hipster jeans that were designed to expose them, a new power pantie is poised to take over.
A little more than 10 years ago, the Macarena was a hit, the Rachel haircut was in, and wearing a thin strip of fabric between your butt cheeks was considered daringly sexy. Thankfully, the dance is now socially unacceptable, and those layers have grown out. But what about the thong? Although our love for it has endured, its popularity appears to be fading, and recent figures show another style is taking over. We conducted an investigation to find out how thongs went from hot to not and target the man-melting undies you must own now.

The lead-up to the thong's run began more than three decades ago. In the '80s, Jane Fonda became a leotard-clad fitness guru, inspiring women to strip down and get fit. "This built a momentum," says Jill Fields, PhD, author of An Intimate Affair: Women, Lingerie, and Sexuality. "In a few years, the idea of fitness became normal, and the everyday woman wanted to show off her aerobicized body." As a result, women started dressing in clingier, more revealing clothing to accentuate the tight backsides they had earned in step class. Not only did this call for an undergarment that would eliminate the dreaded visible pantie line (VPL), but a skimpy thong was also in keeping with the supersexy sensibility (i.e., casual sex) that dominated the era.

The thong made its way into more and more women's wardrobes and, in 1995, truly had its coming-out party. That's when Victoria's Secret put on its first-ever public runway show, and lingerie became visible in a way it never had been before. "Underwear fashion shows have been around since the 1930s," says Fields, "but back then, it was a private trade show that only undergarment buyers could attend." After the whole world saw that, yes, Heidi and Tyra were flossing, demand for the thong skyrocketed. "Retailers responded by turning them out in an array of fabrics and colors," says Fields. "And denim brands like Juicy Couture and Frankie B began to cut jeans superlow for the sole purpose of exposing the cute new designs."

But another saucy style is gaining ground as the undie with the most erotic allure: The butt-hugging boy short (with or without NVPL technology) is the new craze. "Sales of our boy shorts are more than double our thong sales," says Ali Mejia, creative director and cofounder of Eberjey, a lingerie line sold at Shopbop and Saks Fifth Avenue. Guido Campello, vice president of branding and innovation for lingerie line Cosabella, confirms the trend: "Our boy short is our fastest-selling item," he says, "and women have told us guys absolutely love it."


No doubt, male fans appreciate the fact that boy shorts make our asses look so amazing. Let's face it, unless you're blessed with Gisele–like DNA, it's likely that a string bisecting your backside wasn't doing your figure any favors. Most boy shorts have a seam running down the middle of the butt, which accentuates the curvature of the bum for any body, giving the illusion of a Kardashian–style keister, says Campello. And even seamless boy shorts enhance your bootyliciousness by exposing the very bottoms of your cheeks. "For a man, seeing that part of the buttocks is a great turn-on," says Daniel G. Amen, MD, author of Sex on the Brain. "His mind wants to fill in the rest of the picture."

The final thing the boy short has going on that the thong doesn't? It doesn't give you a permanent wedgie — it's actually comfortable. And can we just say boo-yah to that?