I've been using the following rule to determine a real thong- I think it's nearly the same. Let your eyes go halfway up the ass crack then halfway across the cheek and if there's bare skin at that point it's a thong!

For me, I consider a thong to require a butt strap that can not be seen when viewed from an angle, which means a strap about an inch wide. The top one or two inches of the strap may be used as a triangle connection to the waist band. In all cases most if not all of the butt crack must be exposed. In the older days, some places used "full back" (minimal butt exposure), "3/4 back" (some butt exposure at the sides), "1/2 back" and "1/4 back" were also called Rio or similar names. "No back coverage" would be a thong. What is obvious is that each viewer will have their own ideas of what a thong is. This is one of the most obvious reasons that defining a thong in legal terms is almost impossible. Someone said something like "You can tell it's a thong when you see it." but this is obviously very subjective. I regard any movement so show more buns to be great and try to compliment people who wear such swimwear. Usually, my compliments become more positive as the amount of skin shown grows.

I have my suits custom made and ask that they be 1/2 way between a rio back and a thong. It isn't quite a thong however there is a lot of butt exposure. I really like the look and feel of it and feel more comfortable than in a thong. I feel that I can wear it anywhere without a problem and haver worn them where men wearing thongs is not socially acceptable.

When not wearing a thong I prefer a cheeky as possible. For rear coverage I like the Skinzwear Sunseeker suit with a 3 inch back. I have a few others that are equally the same. I’ve never been a fan of the full back suit on men or women. In my opinion it is not at all flattering and the wider the butt the less flattering a full bottom coverage becomes. Even when I am wearing a cheeky or Rio cut suit I am more likely than not to make it as close to a thong as possible.

I wear this to do laps at the gym. My woman friend who does laps refers to it as "your thong". It's definitely not a thong. https://www.koalaswim.com/PUMPED-UP_p_335.html

I agree -- not a thong. Randy and I has some suits with even narrower rear coverage, but no actual butt-crack exposure. Some he has had for years. He has never been challenged at places where thongs are not permitted for wearing a thong when he has this on. As a note, a center seam up the butt crack and letting some of the material slip down into but not totally in the butt crack helps things to stay centered.

My guess is that my JS Capri suits and Skinz rios cover about 40%. I have a Skinz M84U Cheekini that covers about 25%

I agree with the definition of a thong given by ithongit : most of the butt crack must be exposed. According to me, that is to say at least half of the butt crack must be exposed. If your thong has a triangle connection to the waist band, it means that you can have the top of yours buns covered, until 25%. So, i will give the 3 categories : - classic bikini : less of 25% of the buns uncovered (10% for the men) - cheeky swimwear : between 25% and 75% of the buns uncovered (10%-75% for the men) - thong : more than 75% of the buns uncovered. An othe method to know how cheehy is my swimsuit is to lay my hands flat on my buns. If my hand is totally laid directly on my skins, it is very cheeky, close to a thong. If i can't lay totally my hand, it is moderately.

With cheeky rears we seem to have three basic ways the rear of a suit is reduced: - One is to reduce the suit from the sides, leaving a strip down the middle covering the crack. This often leads to a tall narrow rear. The sort of suit often worn when they said No thongs. What we might have once called a Rio. https://www.muscleskins.com/files/65141938.jpg - The second is to bring the bottom up like raising a blind, so there is just a wide waistband left above a thong rear. Some of the Chinese Joe Snider copies for men are fine examples. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Men-Sexy-Fast-drying-Underwear-Briefs-Shorts-Waist-U-Convex-Pouch-Spandex-Underwear/32969582392.html (A good deal at less than $2 including shipping) - The last is to shrink the sides in diagnonly to give a triangle back, often with curved sides. Each shows a lot of cheek. The first leaving the extra fabric in the middle covering the crack, the second leaving the extra fabric at the waistband, and the third resulting in a triangle which may or may not cover the crack. In the past the triangle rears were lower, offering some plausible deniability, and allowing the owners to scrunch them up or let them slip in, depending on the shape of the bum and movement of the body. The triangle was lower, and if sitting some of the suit was under the bum. However the current trend for womens suits with triangle backs is not to attempt any sort of crack coverage, but cut the suit so the triangle above the gluteus, to frame the two halves of the buttocks to make the booty look bigger or rounder. In the same way that the front of bikinis got lower in the 80's, the triangle rear has gone up, from covering the rear to covering the lower back, and framing the rear from above. The rear triangle is as high as the top of the hip bones, and covers the lower back rather than what we might have traditionally called the bottom. There is no way a women could sit down and be sitting on part of the suit. On our recent boat trip to party at Boca Bash the rear of the most of the women's suits were variations of the high cut gluts displaying suits. Unlike last year none of the women on our boat were wearing a full on thong, although some of the other women from the boats we rafted up too were wearing what were undeniably g-strings. We had about twenty five to thirty women on our boat, out of which only three were wearing a one piece. At least one of whom regretted the choice. She told me that she had a son, and this was the first time she was wearing a "mum swimsuit", and she spend the day scrunching the already narrow rear to make it into a thong.

JM — Similar to your observation about the triangles moving up: as I wrote in the "Women's Jeans" thread, I liked how you could get them with a very low front rise, like seven or eight inches. Today, those are becoming increasingly harder to find. I understand why women find higher rises more flattering, but on my male hips, I find jeans ride better down low.

My thought on this is if the triangle of rear coverage begins at the crotch then it is a bikini.If the triangle starts above the crotch and shows bottom of butt then it is cheeky. If it begins at the tailbone and shows 3/4 of butt,then it is a thong. If it is just a t junction of the strap at the butt cleavage then it is g-string.. Some women’s thong starts above the tail bone but has a triangle that covers the back but the cheeks are exposed. I am good with all. Keep them coming.!!

Poimbeach, that's not a bad set of definitions. Good thinking.

In Mpls. it seems rare to see a guy in a thong. It is still risky but for women is is just fine. I would say on the "hip" body beautiful beaches thongs are accepted and common now. Boy shorts are common. In fact, I saw a woman running working the Aquatennial event in boy shorts.

Well, my thongs and g's are pretty cheeky ;) My Briefs go from regular 'Speedo' to 'not-quite-a-thong...

Almost every suit I wear is cheeker than that. I find the a t-backed thong or g-string looks better on me than one that cuts across the cheek. So it tends to be either micro short shorts, OR a thong that is close to a g-string. I have suits that are in between, rio, scrunchy, cheeky etc. but they don't get worn.

A cheeky suit is just that a cheeky suit with about 25% cut off the rear so the buns are pushed out. See them all the time.

When we go to the beach in Indiana (where they've got that whole anal-cleft = nudity thing), I wear A Skinzwear SunSeeker2 https://skinzwear.com/product_detail.php?prodID=14641&name=Sunseeker2-Tanning-Swimsuit-in-ThinSKINZ-Tye-Dye Surprisingly it's not too shear... I think the tye dye patterns camouflages things nicely.

Nice suit JayByrd. I like the minimal seat cut very much. Because of the narrower front I prefer the Sunseeker (without 2).

@navythong. I prefer the cut and lines of the Sunseeker (without the 2), but the front just does not fit me right. Which is kinda weird because the stuffit is even smaller but stretches nicely to contain everything.

JayByrd: I like the Sunseeker also (without the 2). Some of the materials are more stretchy than others. Make sure you read the material description. However, the material descriptions don't always use consistent terminology, so you kinda have to take a chance on a new material.

I have several M84U styles from Skinzwear. They can easily be worn as a Brazilian bikini or pulled up in the ass to almost make a thong. They are fun to wear but not really a thong per say. Bryan

I have 2 of these suits as well. One in the thinskinz material my wife tells me turns somewhat seethru when wet. When we are at the lake , these have been the suit of choice last year and this year so far. They are very comfortable . The front has a good cut to them and the back tucks in to be as small as you like . When I feel I need a little extra coverage . I just pull it out a bit . It’s really more phycological then anything . I’m not sure how having the small of your back helps you think you are covered, but it works!!