RapidBlue, I noticed a change about four years ago. Unlike during the heyday of the thong in the late '80s through the '90s -- well, in this small part of the country, that was the timeline -- I seem to be the only guy wearing one most of the time. Last year, I had to lay out somewhere besides the beach area due to the strong winds blowing sand around. I chose a spot near the rocks that line the border of the land and the lake. Many other people had the same idea. I found an empty spot and laid out. Now, the area everyone was sunbathing in is close to the walkway, so I had some misgivings. However, no one walking along the path said anything, other than one guy saying to his wife that he ought to get a camera. Mild stuff, in my view. It turned out to be a pretty good day, after getting away from the blowing sand. There was a gymnastics group across the walking path, with several young ladies in cheeky or thong suits. So I had that group's activity to watch while I sunbathed. (Two of the women in thong-like suits were very active. The young woman in the one-piece thong was riding around on the electric scooter and I would have had to keep a constant eye on her to keep track of everywhere she went. Zip here, talk to people, zip around some more, return, etc.) Several hours passed and no one said a thing about my suit. I was quite surprised. Today's younger people seem to have the "live and let live" attitude of the hippies of the '60s.

We all know acceptance of a male is seriously dependent on the location. Learned from experience that most  type of people visiting the beach don't agree with thong wearing especially from a male. Only beach i can thong is clothing optional even then early in my  thonging career was not something people accepted man wearing. Females could wear thongs in fact considered sexy, male was oddity even mocked, as wearing female swimwear being labeled a cross-dresser or simply crazy. Thankfully more time i spent as regular on the clothing optional beach, more people recognized my thong wearing habits, and began to get use to it, in fact told me i pull it off wearing it well.

Textile beaches i given up hope to wear a thong, the reactions were obvious maybe novel for some to observe. Always thought the attention i got, shock and surprise, pointing fingers, on a textile beaches was ridiculous uncomfortable not a welcome atmosphere.

Had comment thrown out so i could overhear that my visit to the textile beach was a wrong place for me and i should go discover the "gay beach". That person felt i looked uncomfortable surrounded by others, and made suggestion i be better off with different type of community not sticking out like sore thumb not enjoying myself at judgemental temperaments. Don't know if they mistakenly assume i was gay  because of my tiny swimwear, since i was alone  pitied me clueless of social fashion norms and styles for that particular beach...

 Hate to say it, they were right. Not that i'm gay it  was clothing optional beach that fits in my fashion thonging style later changing to nudist lifestyle  only small minority about half frequent it are gay, as well for many hetro couples alike that were more open and comfortable with choice of swimwear i would wear..

Since then i made decision and slow observation average people don't tolerate males in thongs. Clothing optional beach with gay presence makes thonging less uneasy for people surrounding me for male to wear in fact it showed more thongers  to observe. In fact clothing optional beach thonging was least shocking to witness since some were nude. Different aspects of society groups were comfortable to visit shemales, bondage, kinky couples etc.. Which made thonging tame compared to the so called freaks...

While years visiting clothing optional beach exclusively, i'm intrigued to observe the textile beach community how they react to male walking along in a thong. Having a textile beach adjacent to c/o beach i like to gauge the acceptance from ordinary folk families moms with kids young adults in large groups wearing the modest uniform we all recognize beach wearers for years attire. 

Just walk in my muscleskins poser skimpy string sides thong i observed reactions from textile beach community lifeguards etc.. For only short walk i noticed the same judgemental reactions as years before. Mothers wide eyed holding  on shifting their kids away from my direction the disapproval snear stares. The groups of young modestly clothed adults pointing their fingers to their friends look at him over their, smug smirks, the odd confused  stares from females in modest bikinis. The college age lifeguards trying to ignore me not being friendly with polite  hello yet staring from distance reviewing rules on textile beach is he allowed to wear that... Having female lifeguards ignore me, while male lifeguards voicing the message of the water pollution levels are high with sewer leak informing other beaches are safer for water entry.

 As more immigrant families  frequent textile beaches in the custom modest fashion attire so prevalent. Thonging will continue to be unique and oddity to observe. Only because some gay labels stigma with beaches have clothing optional freedoms. Many surrounding textile beach visitors will be aware some "gay" community are involved in more of a female fashion style transexuals. Thonging will be labeled as LBGQT by the textile family visitors thus in a politically correct world cannot say bad thing about it or get into trouble as discriminatory.   

Yet that doesn't stop ordinary families being uncomfortable around thong males. Moms and Dads don't want a beach visit to include a lesson of sexuality. Mommy why is that man wearing your underwear can see his dingaling? He is one of those that likes to wear ladies clothes being naked.. Why? Only because he wants to show off. to little boys and girls... So is that wrong? Yes! it's very wrong, boys don't wear women's clothes showing their PENIS! having himself exposing his naked bum... Simply put families get their point across for the thonger to overhear as many other like minded families support. Basically telling a thonger indirectly go to your community of freaks don't come confuse my son or daughter none wants to look at your disgusting body..

  

I was not around or too small to notice thongs during their last hey-day. What I have gathered from others and reports on this board aere that men and women wore thongs openly at the time and that there was public tollerance to them. When I say tolerance, I mean that people in general did not complain too much and the look grew for a while but then things went the other way and many of these same people decided that thongs were not okay or acceptable in public and rather quickly thonging became a "bad" thing that was not socially acceptable. People from the time have told me that there was a lot of staring at people in thongs and while there might have been less staring in places where thongs were common, this staring was quite common. Now women have thongs again. They were ushered in by a gradual move towards cheeky swimwear and now cheeky swimsuits are not all the uncommon. As the cheeky suits gained popularity, many shrank and became true thongs. So cheeky swimsuits are quite common now on women, and true thongs are moving up in popularity, with many predicting that the thonging ladies will continue to have more and more acceptance of their thongs. What I find interesting is that even 5 years ago, thongs had not gotten too common and women who wore them were oogled and stared at quite a bit. Now, it seems that with the exception of some of the sexiest, tiniest, or most outragious suits, thongs are truely being treated just like another type of swimwear. Go to a beach and perhaps only 5-10 percent of women will be wearing thongs, but people around them simply take a quick glance like they would with any other swimmer/sunner and then get back to whatever they were doing before. To me with this attitude being almost universal, women who wear thongs now have moved to a new level of openness about their thong wearing. Thonging women are just accepted almost off handedly and this is one of the differences between the 1980s thonging times and the 2020s.

In Britain, the defining factor is whether there are children around. I often walk along the coastal footpath wearing a thong or g-string, but as I approach a popular beach (especially in school holiday time) I put some short shorts on from my haversack, which is also handy for covering my bottom if I encounter a family on the footpath - very seldom happens. Once while walking near (not on) a golf course, I heard a golfer make a remark about perverts. The British can be incredibly immature.

As we know, thong and cheekie swimsuits are becoming more popular among women. I think this rise in popularity doesn't help male thongers. If we continue to see more and more female thongers in public or on social media, people will start to think that thongs are only for women. Hence, a male thonger might be viewed as a crossdresser or as queer.

@kiyoothong I don't agree with you. The fact that thongs are very popular among women help male thonger. There is a general trend about gender equality. So if thongs are OK for women, they are OK for men too. Even if people are not used to see men with thongs, I am convinced that we, men, can take advantage of the thong women trend. That is exactly what I do in swimming pools. There is always some women with thongs. So, I take advantage for wearing my thongs. However, I wear only conservative thong (solid matt and dark color, lined, with a drawstring, no G-string, no string sides, etc.). i choose thongs that are similar to male briefs so there is no doubt that it is a male thong and not a feminine thong.

I’m not sure how long this current trend will last, but I hope it last a longer time than previous. The past weekend I was in Carlsbad, California. Walking down the beach I saw many many women wearing thong and very cheeky bikinis. Of course all the men were in the usual shorts. This trend toward more cheeky and thong bikinis has been noticeable everywhere I have traveled from Pennsylvania, Arizona, Florida, Ohio, Michigan and California. The male gender seems to be not catching up to the trend of more exposing swimwear at the same rate as the female gender. More and more it seems that the women who choose to wear thongs and cheeky bikinis are accepted as wearing swimwear just as normal as any other swimwear. It is a good throng for everyone. Personally I find that when there are more women wearing thong and cheeky bikinis there is more tolerance for men wears no smaller swimwear and thongs.

I personally think part of the issue with a lack of men catching on to wearing thongs (both underwear and swimwear) is a lack of obvious or marketed availability. If you walk through the Mens swimwear section at Walmart, Target, etc., you ONLY find board shorts. I'm guessing that most men (or wives/gfs) aren't aware that thongs exist for men. Unless you are actively looking for one online, they are a bit difficult to find for the general shopper that doesn't know otherwise and thus would not purchase or consider purchasing one.

I agree with underwhere4 in post number 109. The mass market sort of perpetuates itself. People will buy what is available to them. As more people buy the same thing, there is a stronger demand for it. As more people buy it because it is the main thing that is available, then based on sales figures the product becomes more popular. We see this in technology based products. There are Microsoft, Apple, and Android products available, and each has found it's own nitch in the consumer markets. Apple is big in cell phones for example and is considered top-of-the-line by many. Microsoft based systems have an edge in laptop and desktop computer systems. Android is big in tablets. Each company makes or supports other devices, and each has good and bad points. As an example, if you couldn't by a Apple phone locally, their popularity would almost certainly go down. I am not trying to change this discussison to the merits of different technologies, but am only using this as an example of how market share can be changed by availability of a product. You could make the same argument for other things. McDonalds and Subway are probably top sellers in sandwiches. Starbucks is probably the major player in coffee places, etc. If there were half as many McDonalds as an example, people might start going somewhere else. If there were only 100 McDonalds, someone else (Subway for example) would almost certainly be the industry leader. As far as exposure of a product to the public goes, if you never had a cup of coffee at a Starbucks, you might be more likely to just make instant coffee. Likewise, if you never saw or wore a thong, you might wonder why anyone would want to. So sales can be attributed to both seeing others in thongs and where can you buy them. Increases must be made in both areas for a change to occur. Making a style more popular and not being able to swiftly sell the item will not work very well. Having items for sale, but not making them popular also will not work. The two go hand-in-hand. Sure, someone might go online and find something but going on line, even with next day shipping, is not subject to impulse buying. I think if major stores like Macys, Target, etc., sold men's thongs at most brick and mortor stores, the number of thong sales would increase since there would be more impulse buying. Also, if someone sees a thong on a local beach and then the next time they go into a brick and mortor store, thongs are available, I think this would be another impulse type reaction. Online certainly has a place by offering a greater variety of products than a store could stock but the shipping and delay in delivery will always hamper online sales at times. The last post suggests another topic. Most board members probably think that having more thongs on beachs will make them more common and acceptable to people. Same goes for thongs in stores. Seeing more thongs in real life, regardless if they are on people on the beach or racks in a store will make them more common and acceptable to many people. But this is not the only reason for the lack of interest in minimal swimwear for men. Take Speedo (or racing style) suits as an example. A small percentage of local retailers that sell other products might sell Speedo type swimwear, but at the same time, almost every serious sporting goods/athletic based store that sells swimwear will have some competition suits available. So men who see a Speedo they like could go to a sporting goods store to get one, but rarely do. Even these stores seem to be overstocked with board shorts, with Speedo's being only a minor sideline. Only specialty stores that sell team related apparel and very little consumer products is likely to have many Speedo type swimsuits available. You might even find some that have fewer board shorts and competion type swimwear.

@ Mary it wasn't that long ago I bought my first thong underwear at a store that had them on the rack (K-Mart, about 7 years ago). Of course K-Mart is no more and I haven't seen this in a while. Last year I saw my local Target had brief (closer to a bikini cut) and squarecut swimsuits for men. I bought a few and they were decent. They don't seem to be out this year or available on-line.

Mary0826: *Very* well said. Unfortunately, there is no "break through" point in sight for men who wear minimal swimwear--not just thongs/g-strings, but even just a bikini (often mis-called Speedos). Back in the mid 90s to early 2000s male body shaming and sensuality shaming came roaring forward for hetero "middle of the road" men. It seems that there's a "normal" hetero male side, and then there's the LGBTQ+ side which is constantly promoted and we're told my the mass media needs to be accepted by society, and there's no middle ground in between. That middle ground includes men who like to dress a little sexy, which would include bikini/thong/g-string swimwear. It's extremely frustrating. I wouldn't want to be a very young man growing up today--they get so many mixed messages. I also agree about that men's minimal swimwear will be promoted better if we see it in the mainstream stores. That guy who's "on the edge" of buying minimal swimwear will be more inclined to think to "just go for it" if he runs across it in the store he frequents. It's quite the catch-22. Stores won't stock a product if they don't think there's a buyer, and buyers can't buy a product if it's not stocked. Inherent in this is the fact that women have *always* had more range in fashion acceptance than men. A woman can dress conservatively, or she can dress sexy, and it's easy for her to go to a mainstream store and get either product. So frustrating for guys!!!!

Slimsuit (Post #111) I grew up in the period you mention and my male freinds from that era are not confused about different ways to think. They mostly believe there is a single "right" way to think. These guys were conditioned to believe this perhaps from schools or other places and while they might be "closet" people with regards to topics for younger people, they rarely if ever will admit this publicly. As far as women having more dressing options -- it sure it true! Any you didn't mention that women have had the rights (at least since the middle of the last century) to wear men's cloths or something that looks like mens cloths and people in general don't care. The days when women were expected to wear dresses all the time are long gone, and few people seem to care.

I agree with SlimSuit. There seems to be no in between for males; either gay or macho. I have no sexual interest in other men, but love bright colours and minimal underwear/swimwear. Why are guys expected to swim in boardies which mean swimming with a gallon of water gathered inside your dorks? To be fair, I have swum in hotel pools in thongs and even g-strings without problems, but not with family or friends - I know they wouldn't approve.

Maybe the problem is not so much public perception, but the perception inside the minds of many men who want to thong. An expectation that others in their social circles would automatically disapprove. Maybe the problem is more in your head, based on things you learned many years ago. I have noticed that once men summon up the courage to wear thongs in public, they discover the sky does not fall. Once they have the courage to wear them around their family or coworkers acceptance is generally much better than expected (with the exception of a few grumpy spouses). Women have the advantage of having been over judged as young girls for what they wear and how they do their hair. From this they build up a thick skin and a little more courage to be out there, or try rocking something a little more flamboyant.

@JM Runs - "grumpy spouses" - yep! It is true that once you get your head right, it becomes so much easier. (repeat to myself..)

The problem is : 1 - the conformity bias 2- the social pressure We are subject to psychological biases. There is a lot of different biases. Conformity bias is the tendency people have to behave like those around them. Social pressure, well, you know... We, men, think that social pressure is the main problem (what others think, what others says, what others accepts, etc.) when we want to thong. But, in fact, I agree with JM_Runs, the conformity bias is the main problem for thong versus boardshort. Since I understood that I was not able to thong freely due to this conformity bias, I decided to overpass this bias, and to thong freely. And then, I noticed my conformity bias was much bigger than the social pressure. Social pressure is when someone tell you something about your thong, or give you a very loud second look. But this kind of behaviour is rarer and rarer. For overpassing the bias conformity, I overpassed gender categorization. If a thong is OK and normal for women, it is OK for men too. And this is true. When beachgoers see tens thongs on women, they don't care to see a thong on a man. It is just a thong more on the beach. Overpass the bias conformity is the key.

I jumped a little when I read what you wrote @JM about girls having had the “advantage” of being overly judged. I’m really not sure if being judged by one’s appearance is good for anything. Well sure, a thick skin may help you in life but everyone do not develop a thick skin by this. Some live through life overly self conscious and/or with low self esteem. It’s probably not your point, but I’m not going to raise my soon to be be born son with an overly judging attitude just to make him thick skinned. Maybe what you’re aiming for is the adolescent revolt, the going against norms, against what is expected of you from parents or society etc? Be it (maybe?) as a result from judging people or from any other circumstance.

Unfortunately teen girls have to quickly learn to brush off or ignore the leering looks and crass comments of boys in school and older men too. They quickly learn to turn a cold shoulder and walk on. Learning to discount and ignore or rebel against the attention. Not just of parents telling them how to dress, or teachers telling them to button up their blouse, but all the looks and comments they get from boys and men and catty comments from other girls. 35 year old men are flummoxed when someone makes a comment or when another man hits on them because of the way they are dressed. Teen girls have figured out how to handle that shit before they leave school. By the time they are 16 to 18 they are wearing cloths around their street and town that they know their mother or father wouldn't approve - Yet 40 year old men can't wear thongs near their home town because someone might know them. So when it comes to the hometown beach, the girls are going to be the ones more comfortable pushing the limits on more revealing swimwear. While it is going to be few and far between to find boys and young men with the same confidence that the sky won't fall and they will not be ridiculed or ostracized. In the US the extreme homophobia of the past, often perpetuated by fundamentalist religions, does not help when it comes to young men be more confident in their own clothing choices and daring in their swimsuits.

JM_Runs Post #118 You miss one important point. Unfortunatly girls that age SHOULD learn these things and practice them at least in some situations. But many girls for one reason or another (Need for companionship, need to equal if not exceed the actions of other girls their age, trying to be cool, simply revolting against others or their parents or teachers, etc.) are different. They find that hanging out with older men, or doing the "bad things" they are told not to is fun or at least satisfies them in some way. They may be craving attention (especially if parents or clicks at school say they are unattractive) and do things to get the attention they want. Once started along a bad path, they often have trouble finding their way back to a normal life, and many never do get back that way. Just look at all the battered women who refuse to work with police to have their predatory husbands locked up and repeatedly move back in with them when they feel the need for companionship again. While there are many reasons for teen pregnancies, some can be attributed to a girl not knowing how or not wanting to walk away from a man of boy who wants more than to simply look at her. Some of this requires better education. Programs like the anti-drug progams do not always work. Some of this requires a better home like -- one where other members of the family including siblings work and talk with each other on solving issues. Some of this depends on meeting good adults who are not likely to try to dominate a relationship and truely have no alterior interests in the teen. While your discussion is about shunning off people who take inappropriate interests in a teen girl, the same is true for boys. Look at the messes the Boy Scouts and Priests have had when relationships beween these leaders and the boys entrusted to them are warped by a "bad" man. I believe that most people are generally good. Most people like parents, teachers, scout leaders, priests and yes people at the beaches have good intentions in general. The trouble is that a person looking at a teen as an adult-type person with adult logic and real-life experiences could be bad for the teen if the older person is unable to control themselves and permit their actions to become the actions of an adult dealing with another adult. Worse is an older person who simply looks for a teen to dominate because the are unable to deal with a relaitonship with someone their own age. And some adults are immoral and simply don't give a shit about anything but their personal desires. Combine an older man who can not control themselves with a teen girl (as an example) who craves attention and love and another mess will happen. These situations involve two people, and either can prevent them from going too far. Unfortunately, a teen simply because they are young and not as experienced is likely to be weaker and the adult who probably has had the same focus for years will have refined his or her ways to overcome many teens ability to react in an appropriate way. The older person is being on the offensive and the teen should be on the defensive. Defensive actions can be trained into people. Things like Karate, the millitary, and sports train defensive actions. Now the issue is how do we train teens defensive actions when they won't listen, don't care, have different agendas etc. If they really are interested and want to learn, there is no problem training them. If they are defiant, lazy, think they see short-cuts to life issues, etc., then unless someone comes up with something better, things will remain messed up and there will be a lot of miss-directed actions by all people involved.

Mary0826 in post 119 seems to imply that only older men improperly influence teens. That is not quite accurate. There have been many documented cases of female teachers, coaches, or parents abusing teens of all genders.

There are entire industries based on influencing teens….celebrities, magazines, social web etc. I am still baffled by societal prudish attitudes yet body image and allure of sex is used to sell everything.

I didn't get the idea that Mary says 'only' older men influence. If so, I'm pretty sure it wasn't said to then make the illogical step to people ignoring the undeniable fact that there are cases of women abusing teens. The evidence is very clear that *most* abuse is carried out by men on women because it's tied in with a power dynamic.

I don't know how long it will be before social norms change around the world, or around my country, but I knwo how long it takes to change social acceptance at a local pool It takes less than 1 month for a man in a thong to be considered normal in a swimming pool. As soon as the all the staff and all the regular swimmers have seen you 3 or 4 times, they don't care to your thong. It is novelty and originality that intrigue people. But as soon as they have seen you a few times, there is no more novelty. Yesterday, I swam with my thong at my local public swimming pool. I chatted 2 minutes with a lifeguard when I arrived, 5 minutes with an other swimmer from my triathlon team during the session, and 5 minutes with a professional relationship (woman) which walked by the edge of the pool when I was in the water. Social acceptance will change only if men are brave enough to wear a thong in public (beach, swimming pool). And when we will be brave enough to do it, it will take less than one season.

If you watched the Met Gala red carpet coverage the you witnessed the continuing battle to be the most outlandish, and in some cases the most transparent.

There were a fair number of thongs, bedazzled thongs, g-strings and even public thongs on display. Not to mention a few very transparent gowns that showed the wearer had no underwear. This trend of more reveling and transparent gowns has been going on for some years. Hopefully, at some point, the red-carpet daring will trickle down to the high-street.

Here is a link to Zoë Kravitz response to critics of her almost naked Met Gala 2021 dress, with video >>  https://pagesix.com/2021/09/17/zoe-kravitz-responds-to-critic-of-her-naked-met-gala-dress/

She said "Being uncomfortable with the human body is colonization / brainwashing. It’s just a body. We all got em.”

I think the trend towards men wearing dork shorts is due to the increasing egalitarianism in western culture. It's a well studied and established relationship that the more egalitarian a society (i.e., the more rights women have) the more distinct gender differences become. It's counter-intuitive, but well documented after multiple studies. I think this helps to explain the rise of dorks shorts (male) vs tiny bikinis (female) as female empowerment has risen (since the 60's in the USA to today). A lot of other cultures across the world are becoming more liberalized like Europe and the US did over the last 50-60 years, and the same trend is following suit (no pun intended). Unfortunately (or fortunately for equal rights), I don't see the trend changing anytime soon. At best, you'll see a general "tolerance" of minimal male swimwear for the forseeable future.

Cyberluc, that is a bunch of misogynistic horse shit.  My evidence: 

Exhibit #1 - Victorians, who were not egalitarian and the sexes dressed very differently.

Exhibit #2 - Saudi Arabia, in the ten lowest-ranked countries on the World Economic Forum’s 2021 Global Gender Gap, women are full vailed.
Exhibit #3 - Europeans, where society is more egalitarian than the USA, where women wear bikinis and men commonly wear speedos, unlike in the USA where there is still a lot of racial and sexual prejudice, with plenty of homophobia, so men commonly wear more conservative board shorts.

When the roll is highly defined and there is prejudice against anything in-between that you find very different clothing. The more equal the gender rolls the less people feel the need to dress according to the sex stereotype, and more likely that they will feel comfortable wearing what ever they want.

I’m not being misogynistic - it’s social science - look it up. When you can’t differentiate the genders by power, then humans find other means to differentiate - including dress and appearance. It’s not a hard cut rule, but rather a social trend. Yes, Europe is more egalitarian and has more men in minimal swimwear, but the post I was responding to was pointing out that it seems the trend everywhere (including Europe) is progressing towards shorts for men. Of course there are other factors, social sciences are never Univariant, such as the effects of homophobia (your point #3). Or that repressive regimes/societies don’t influence dress and appearance (your points #2 and #1). I’m just saying that as women become more equal with men, the sexes naturally develop other means to differentiate. My assertion is part (not all) of that is reflected in swim wear trends.

Here’s Wikipedia’s entry on the Gender-Equality paradox.  I think it would be an interesting study to see if there’s is a direct correlation between this paradox and swimwear trends.

(A) This so called "Gender-Equality Paradox" has been heavily debunked.
https://kinesismagazine.com/2021/04/12/debunking-the-gender-equality-paradox/

(B) Your attempt to further extrapolate from bad STEM conclusions to clothing is a bridge that is way too far.

The simple truth is that when the law and society treat men and women equally, they can then wear and do what they want without repercussions.  Hence the gay and others coming out of the closet.
It is when people have to conform to gender, religious or society norms that you see push back against people doing and expressing themselves as they wish.
This is one more reason why the waning of religion is a GOOD thing. 

Cyberluc, you're a bad person and you should feel bad for not holding system approved opinions about sex and gender.

Women and men are exactly the same and if you disagree we'll get you fired from your job and kicked off social media.

I think that the trend of more men around the world moving to shorts from bikini style is the influence of American media on the rest of the world. If American TV and movies showed men in bikinis and thongs in a way that was normalized, not comedic or scandalous, a few years later that would be what you saw on the beaches. I noticed a slight uptick in smaller suits on men after Quantum of Solace’s Daniel Craig wore a square cut on the beach drinking a beer. Unfortunately not many other movies followed suit ( pun intended)

While I find the Gender Equality paradox theory interesting, it doesn't seem convincing to me as an explanation for why previously more speedo friendly cultures are reverting back to board shorts. I suspect Marty is right. For whatever reason, board shorts are the current norm for Americans, and we tend to export our cultural norms. It would not surprise me to see a few male influence start a male thong movement in the next decade or so. There's obviously a big undercurrent of men wearing thong underwear without any kind of cultural representation. That is basically free money sitting on the table for whichever male celebrity decides to pick it up.

Indeed, US americans export their social norm. With movies of course. But with social network too. On social network, you can see a lot of girls with thong. But, if it is a male thonger, you have to confirm that you are an adult for watching the photo. By doing this, social networks send a message : Female thongers for girls are OK Male thongers are nasty, lewd. Social networks don't respect gender equality. If a female thonger is OK, a male thonger shouldn't be x-rated

I hadn't realized social media sites treated photos of men in thongs differently than women. That's certainly not fair. I wonder if its because a lot of people are flagging photos of men in thongs as inappropriate whereas they don't with women or if they're algorithmically pre-flagging those photos. I guess the real question is this causing different norms or is this the result of our different norms. We'll never be able to say 100%

Been watching dozens of beach walk videos on YouTube.. 100s of women in cheeky to thongs to g strings. Not even mentioning topless. Around kids, families, on very crowded public beaches. Not a single male in a thong. Rarely see a Brief.. Sunga on the Brazilian beaches. I think Sungas are ugly baggy things.. Kinda reminds me of TeenyBs "ditch the diaper" videos. Really wish it was more prevalent. I would not mind if my whole family could wear thongs on a public beach without raising any eyebrows.

If you want change, BE THE CHANGE. Make a new year resolution to wear thongs at every opportunity and be seen by as many people as possible, on as many days as possible in the year. When will attitudes change? When you grow a pair and get out in public. When men, and women, get out and thong publicly they generally find the negative reactions they feared don't materialize, or are less than they expected. They also find unexpected positive responses, or more commonly just neutral reactions. Most people are living their own lives and don't care. A) The fear is in your head. B) Even if someone says something rude or negative, just remember words can never hurt you, unless you give their unsolicited opinion weight. If someone says anything at all, just smile, give them a friendly wave, and disarm them with charm. Show them you don't care if they bark like a Pekingese Puppy. Yesterday, new years eave, I was paddle boarding in a thong. The day tripper boats were full. When passed by a two story paddle boat there were about a hundred tourists lining the rails who were waving and cheering. Attitudes are changing. Now I am sure there were a few people who turned to their companion and said "I don't want to see that" and then looked the other way. However I heard no negative comments, so I guess if there were any the positive ones drowned them out. If you want attitudes to change then GO - THONG - PUBLICALY - With a smile on your face and a heart full of joy.

@JM_runs I listened to your advice. Today I wore a thong swimwear at a waterpark (siam park - canarias islands - spain). No issue at all. My wife wore a thong too. We were with our 3 kids. For sure, my daughter will wear a thong next summer because she tries to take those of my wife. By thonging freely at the water park, I am convinced that I encouraged male thong acceptance. Just wear your thong swimwear. Be as courageous as female thonger !

JM-runs is totally correct. We are the ones to make the change. thong in public and do the things you would normally do in dork shorts. It takes a little confidence, but confidence is sexy. The more you wear a thong or g-string in public and act friendly the quicker will see it as normal.

I think this topic is the most suitable for my story, more suitable than the topic "pool laps". Friday, I went to the swimming pool. A female friend was in lane 7 when I arrived. She introduced me to 2 of her female friends. They were in the lane 6. To make the story easy, I will call them A and B. A and B said me "hello". At that time, I was on the edge of the pool so in full display. It was obvious that A and B were oggling my buttock. I was not very comfortable because I don't like to give a show. What is interesting is that I had ever seen B several times since september. I didn't know her. But it was obvious that she was avoiding me. If I was swimming in the same lane, she was changing of lane. Well, she thought I was weird. But, weeks after weeks, it seemed that she didn't care anymore that I wore a thong until friday when it was obvious she liked what she watched. So it took 6 months to convert her from "male thong hater" to "male thong lover". Her friend B, it was a little different. I had never noticed her before. She was watching me with a strange look, mix of interest and curiosity. Difficult to explain but her look was clearly not disapproval. A few minutes later, my friend told me that B was gay. Okay, I had understood before. Very strange and unusual to be oggling by a gay woman. I will never know what she really thought... but I am sure that she could be supportive.

Seems like things have changed a lot in the last 5 years. The last few years women have been getting bolder and bolder in their swimwear. Maybe it is the pandemic but some are skipping thongs are going straight to g-strings and V-strings! I am in the Minneapolis area and the city has been cool with thongs for the last 7 years or so. Now the suburbs are doing just the same. Every one of my former conservative suburban beaches has had g-stringers on it. So much so women walk from their cars to the beach in a g-string with no qualms.

My litmus test is walking adjacent textile beach as soon i arrive settling on the nude beach. I wear tiny poser thong and take a stroll observing reaction from the textile beach people. Have to say find no difference in reactions today then 10 years ago.

Male in thong is odd experience to observe. This should be lessoned only because the beach is adjacent to nudist beach with higher traffic and crowds. Not uncommon for textile beach visitors to lurk stroll along the shoreline along the nude shoreline. Once observing thonging  male like myself walking along their textile beach seems alarming uncomfortable to most to observe.

I agree with MNluvthongs, during the last 5 years things have changed. More thongs on women, especially locals, and some on men. For men not yet ready to wear thongs publicly they are at least wearing shorter shorts or speedos. 

For South Floridians thongs or very cheeky bottoms are now very common on women, epically young women. Out on the waterways I can tell a boatload of locals compared with northers, because the women northerners are wearing more one-piece and more bikinis with traditional bottoms. Boats generally have some women in thongs or if they are under 35, all the women in thongs.

Men show off with their expensive boats decorated with scanty clad bowcandy. The guys are buying expensive boats and paying the fuel and alcohol bills, so the pretty women are expected to dress to impress, but in swimsuits. It may help that there is competition between the female guests, simply because there are often more women invited to ride than rich men on the boat. 

I spent Saturday and Sunday paddle boarding with a female friends. Different friend each day. No negative comments about my thong or anything else. The usual cheers from passing boats. Most passing boats wave and are friendly. On Saturday my friend said the MC on one of the double story tripper boats excitedly said "That's the guy we told you about". The larger tripper boats normally give me a toot on the whistle and sometimes the entire boat cheers, or so it seams.

For lunch we paddle boarded up to the floating dock right under the deck of Coconuts, a crowded waterfront restaurant. I am sure they were watching. That place has good food. Once we made our way up to the front kiosk to find out if they had a table to two they asked if we had shorts. ( It is a shorts, shirts and shoes type place.) I put on my shorts which are really square cut swimsuit but nobody complained. We ended up eating at the bar.

After lunch we paddled over to the san-bar. As usual there are far to many women in thongs to even begin to count. Boats where one or more of the men a wearing speedos are becoming more and more common, but men wearing thongs like me are few. Yesterday there was one man at the sandbar dancing in a cow print thong, but I did not notice any other. Then again I was not on the lookout for men.

In addition to the women who came paddle boarding with me, a women came over to ask if I new who she was, and a past neighbor and her thousand came by to say hello. We ended up with our paddle boards tied to their boat for some hours.

The big change over the last few years, FAR LESS negative comments.  Drinking beer at a san-bar is a bit red-neck and a LOT of boats are owned by self styled "conservatives", as shown by the large number sporting Trump and/or DeSantis flags. Even so, I don't get the shouts of "Put some pants on" that would have been more common a few years ago. Not saying it never happens, but it is now rather rare. Amusingly when someone does say that it is common to here a women on the boat admonishing the shouter.  I am not sure people on boats with loud engines understand that although they need to shout to talk to each other, we can hear everything they say. Sound over water carries rather well.

Over time women are seeing more and more social leaders, popstars and fashion trendsetters in thongs. On stage or on beaches, if not in person on social media or TMZ. This gives them social permission. Young women often dress to impress, which means catching the eye of their future mates. So now that thongs are becoming more socially acceptable they are breaking out all over.

As negative reactions decline over time, not just women but men too find they can thong without hostility. Those of us with thick skin who like to be trend setters are being joined by other men who are emerging in thongs, or at least smaller swimsuits. This is the change, the lack of social hostility.  This goes for both men and women, at least in the parts of the world where homophobia is evaporating. 

Just yesterday I was talking with a women who got divorced eight years ago. Her ex-husband came out as gay three years ago. I asked how their kids were taking it. She said they don't care and just want him to be happy. The younger generations don't care for outdated attitudes, which is good. This larger social change is also changing attitudes towards thongs, and men in thongs. At least in the US and Western Europe. 

Let’s all send messages to the brands we like/love on IG to start making thong (swimsuits) for men (again) and use the words ‘gender equality’ in these messages. To make the point we want to be able to choose for our selves!

My daughters are now 20 and 18. They’ve seen me in all sorts of minimal swimwear over the years; mostly in the backyard but on vacations as well. When they were preeteen they usually didn’t notice until one of their friends saw me in my “speedo”. After that I was teased a bit but they liked some of the bright colo(u)rs. 

Once they hit puberty, they became less tolerant and were inly okay with it when we were in an international beach where there were other men in “speedos”.

Now my younger one will be off to college in the fall. We were talking about how the younger generation seems more tolerant and sometimes downright accepting of people’s differences. So I asked her about my the disdain for my swimwear preferences. She said something to the effect of,” that’s the only thing that we can’t deal with”,with a sheepish grin. Oh well, I’ll just have to spend their inheritance.

pkthong, There is a natural biological aversion to sexual relationships between siblings, and as teens age an automatic decoupling with parents. Think of as being like young birds that are biologically programed to leave the safety of the nest, even though fluttering down to the forest floor is more dangerous.

Teens naturally migrate from trusting the advice of parents to verifying ideas with their peer group. For a while they will reflect and mirror the social morals and ideas of their peers more and more, as they go through the natural decoupling from the family and start to establish independent lives. This is normal.

I wish there were "Now we have a teen, what should we expect?" classes for parents. However having been exposed to thonging as children they are a lot less likely to be hostile to thongers as adults, and may well thong when AWAY from parents, especially if they wore thong swimsuits when a younger teenager, during puberty when our ideas about our body identity are forming.

More than 10 years ago in this thread user 'abczyxabczyx' said: "Wear it with confidence and you will be accepted." I find this more and more true, even when around conservative people. At best I get a comment like "I like your smiley face" when at a pool party yesterday. I was wearing a bright green thong with a large yellow smiley face on the front. As more and more women are seen in thongs or very cheeky suits social attitudes are changing. Instead of asking for permission before hand, just wear a thong. So long as you are not wearing a transparent thong with cockrings or an erection, the worst that happens is someone in authority might politely ask you to cover up. Mostly, if you are being normal, not acting furtive or as if you have something to hide, people treat you perfectly normally. It does help if others see you having normal interaction with another group or even one person. A friend who came with you, or just striking up a conversation with a single mother who is watching kids. A lot of people take their social queues from others. If that person has no problem with you, then they don't either. If there is a lifeguard go say hello. Ask if they think it will rain in the afternoon. Lifeguards are the perfect target. If people see you talk to a life guard and then go about your business without covering up, they will assume the lifeguard things thongs are ok, even if that is not what you asked them.

You know it is accepted more when women do not even cover up and walk to their cars in g-strings and thongs. Seen this happening more and more the past 3 years! I have seen several women in Minneapolis walk from Lake Bde Mka Ska (Lake Calhoun) to their cars across 6 lanes of busy traffic, equal to the traffic near Central Park in New York City!

I had a bad experience at the beach last week. There were thousands of people on the beach, and yet I was the only guy in a thong. About one in ten women was in a thong swimsuit, and no one seemed to care. However, since I was the only guy in a thong, I became an easy target. I had guys throwing a football over me. I got comments in different languages and there were people ,mostly from Asia, who were laughing and pointing fingers at me.

I think western culture has become more accepting of different cultures, but at the same time, westerners cannot tell people from other cultures that they should conform to western values. Most of the pointing and comments I got came from people from Asia, where there is not much diversity. It's a shame that we cannot tell these people that everyone should be treated with respect even if they are different from you.

Before you say I am racist, I am an Asian male who has been living in Canada for more than 10 years. 

sorry to hear kiyoothong, try to learn to ignore them. deep down the guys want to thong also.

Hey Kiyoothong, here’s a bit of suggestion for those types of instances. Instead of being passive and such you can wave to people, you could try engage them, saying hello, saying good morning, standing up and showing even more. Making sure you’re doing things that normal people would do, like walk to the water or along the beach. Being isolated and out in the middle of nowhere by yourself, can send some people a message that you’re trying to be tucked out to the way. Therefore, you have to make yourself part of the environment, own it. You may also want to set up in an area where there are more people and you’re just another person enjoying your life and just happier to do it in a thong…