So when did it become synonymous with a man's white undershirt? It seems the association of male anger with white tank tops built slowly over the course of decades, starting around the midth century — with a viral news story, of course. In , a man named James Hartford Jr. In the stories about his arrest and trial, which went national , there was a picture of Hartford in a scraggly and stained white tank top; beside the picture, articles would refer to him as "the wife-beater.
Around the same time, Hollywood steeped in further the link between male rage and white tanks. Post-World War II, filmmakers became transfixed with films about violent, abusive and outright dangerous men, and the tight white tank top became a regular onscreen occurrence. Think A Streetcar Named Desire. Think Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Think Bonnie and Clyde. In each of those films, as the men started to get increasingly heated or upset, their go-to move was to rip off their shirts — only to reveal a white, sweat-stained undershirt.
Even as they started popping up in almost every gangster movie, the shirts still hadn't earned the name "wife-beater" and were still referred to as "undershirts. In , Valerie Steele of the Fashion Institute of Technology, told the New York Times she first started hearing "wife-beater" referring to the tank top in the late s. Jesse Sheidlower, then-principal editor of the Oxford English Dictionary's American office, also told the Times the term emerged around , in what was a confluence of rising "rap, gay and gang subcultures.
Pop culture cameos and fashion subcultures, from Marlon Brando to queer disco, have transformed the wifebeater into an intersectional symbol — and satire — of masculinity. In , when Detroit man James Hartford Jr. Pop culture gradually normalized wearing the wifebeater by itself, by leaning into the sexuality of such a body-hugging piece. With each decade, the wifebeater touched every point of the masculine spectrum — rockstar costumes, Hollywood action heroes, Compton rappers, and every bodybuilder in between.
As simple as the A-shirt is, such a revealing garment actually disrupts the heteronormative boundaries of menswear, where men are still gawked at for wearing anything remotely feminine.
As the wifebeater built a hyper-masculine persona through pop culture, evolving past and overcompensating for its lowly origins, it was only a matter of time before the machismo bubble burst into camp. Free shipping on all orders anywhere in US! If you own what is officially known as an A-shirt or an A-style tank top, you probably call it by a different name.
This type of shirt is much more commonly referred to as a wife beater shirt, a wife beater tank top, or simply a wife beater. While today that term may be politically incorrect, there is a very interesting history behind the naming of this shirt.
Here, we will discuss why it is called a wife beater and how it has evolved as a fashion garment over the years. The fact is, there is not a single, agreed-upon story as to why these A-style tank tops are known as wife beater tank tops. There are several stories though about the origins of where the term comes from that span from the medieval times to the s. While each story is slightly different about the exact origins, the idea behind all of them is the same.
Over the years, this shirt has become a shorthand symbol in pop culture of drunken, slovenly men who either beat their wives or look like they do. And, while domestic violence is a serious issue, this name for the shirts is referring to a despicable class of men, not condoning what they may do. When Hollywood first started making movies in the early 20t century, they had picture shows before they had the ability to add sound. This is why the first big movies were silent films.
To communicate the story and the character traits in these silent movies, Hollywood had to develop a shorthand for different ideas. For example, people with black hats were bad and white hats were good.
To denote a husband character who was mean and possibly beat his wife, they would put him in a ratty sleeveless undershirt, which would become the reason they started calling that type of shirt a wife beater tank top.
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