The agitated history of the underpant and 6 curiosities that you might ignore

It is not easy to determine exactly when men began to wear underpants.

What we are clear is that it turns it on, now essential and for universal use, has suffered a tremendous evolution.

The so -called ice man, Ötzi, who lived about 5 ago.300 years and whose mummified body was found in the Alps in 1991, wore a rough panties made of goat skin.

Now, more than fifty centuries later,Cristiano Ronaldo poses in the advertising fences of half the world wearing Armani slips manufactured with cotton and elastane, a synthetic fiber of great elasticity.

The first overwhelming evidence on the use of underwear itself is found in ancient Egypt.

Thus, when in 1922 the tomb of Tutankhamun was discovered, among its funeral trousseau appeared a linen diaper that could be considered an antecedent of the current underpants.

According to the historian and anthropologist Tim Labert, the Egyptians considered the male superior to the woman;Therefore, underwear was an exclusively masculine attribute.

The women had nothing under their dresses;Except for the concubines that enjoyed the rank of favorites and high -class prostitutes, which used primitive lingerie garments (as the old Egyptian paintings attest).

In 1700 a.C. apareció enCreta el que se considera el primer sujetador conocido de la historia, una especie de correa que elevaba los senos femeninos aunque no los cubría.

And in ancient Greece, men (unlike the Egyptians) got rid of the panties.

According to Labert, it was a time when male beauty was worshiped, and consequently, to the nakedness of the body of man.

The underwear was an exclusive attribute of the great heroes, such as Achilles and their mirmidones, which, according to Homer's story, carried a kind of suspensory that protected the genitals when they entered into combat.And also of the goddesses ...

Because according to Greek mythology, Hera, wife of Zeus, asked Afroodita, the goddess of beauty and love, to seduce her husband.

This gave him a girdle (a primitive species of girdle).Thus, when Zeus saw his wife wearing that garment under his robe and how he tuned his figure sensual, he fell back to his charms.

THE ROMANS

It was in the Roman Empire that the use of underwear motivated by a greater concern towards personal hygiene was generalized.

The men under their tunic had a second long garment called subucula and the use of the subligaculum, a kind of male diaper that covered the entire genital area and that the gladiators made very popular when wearing it in the sand of the circus.

The women held and enhanced their breasts with the so -called mamillare or fascia pectoralis, a kind of fine tissue girdle, and the Strophium, a soft leather tape that held the bust.The females of high society used a redecilla manufactured with gold or silver threads to hold the breasts, and the nipples were painted with golden, silver or reddish tones, according to taste and combination.

He was born, at least among female sex, the custom of using intimate garments as sexual fetishes.

But from the Middle Ages, that libertine spirit would be cut off root.According to the historian Tim Labert: “The Church considered the human body as something sinful that should be hidden;Therefore, the Bachelor of the Roman garments were replaced by whole body nightgen that the women had under the dress.

Although it is true that those of high position were manufactured with quality fabrics and elegant ornaments ”.Men also wore long shirts to cover their intimacies, although over time they were allowed to use a more comfortable and tight garment, Culotte.Curiosamente, con el pasar de los siglos, ese accesorio ha pasado a ser de uso principalmente femenino.

The French Revolution

The woman was the main protagonist of the great change in the world of underwear.After the French Revolution, as explained in 1949 the philosopher Simone de Beauvoir in the second sex: “A paradoxical situation was created, since the female body was worshiped but at the same time a contradictory sensation of modesty was manifested before the same.

That paradox resulted in that the authorities prohibited the use of corset, but the women freely chose to put it on because they felt more beautiful ”.For women, dressing began to be a real odyssey, since its usual clothing included several pieces: shirt, pants, corset, cover, enaguas ... Everything, adorned with many flying, lace, embroidery, tapes and tapes and ties.

There was none comfort, although the use of these garments, especially the corset, was considered synonymous with distinction (obviously the peasants could not use it for their daily tasks).The health problems that caused were terrible, although it must be recognized that this garment had an unexpected utility as a protective vest.Not surprisingly, Queen Elizabeth II of Spain left an attempt in 1852 thanks to her corset damping the stab she received from a revolutionary priest named Merino.

We had to wait until the end of the 19th century for female lingerie to acquire a definitively sexy air with the appearance of the first silk and league soils.Although its use was reserved exclusively for the intimacy of the bedrooms and for the so -called "women of bad life".

And the men?Well, if the women became servants of the silk, the men ended up as slaves of the wool. A partir de 1880 surgió en Europa el Movimiento para la Salud con el uso de la Lana bajo los auspicios del doctor Gustav Jaeger, ex profesor de Fisiología en la Universidad de Stuttgart y fundador de la JaegerCompany, fabricante de prendas de lana.

Dr. Jaeger proclaimed the benefits that the use of rough and porous wool represented in contact with the skin, since it allowed "breathing" to the body.In England, this movement had supporters as distinguished as Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw, and for more than two decades dominated the male underwear sector.

The twentieth century

It was in the twentieth century when underwear, both feminine and masculine, finally began to become comfortable. Las bailarinas Isadora Duncan e IreneCastle fueron dos de las pioneras en abandonar los corpiños y usar prendas íntimas más ligeras, casi deportivas.In 1914, Mary Phelps invented the modern bra, but the garment did not popularize until 1940, when actress Jane Russell wore a really spectacular one designed by aeronautical engineers in the film The Outlaw.

And after World War II, Ida Rosenthal patented a new cup -shaped support model that caused female breasts to acquire a pointed form similar to the head of a missile.The garment was very successful among male staff.Rosenthal was also the first designer who made fasteners of various sizes.

The male underwear was not outside the historical events: the long panties until almost the knee, which had been the usual interior garment since the beginning of the 20th century, were shortened following the economic crisis of 1929, when the shortage forcedManufacture more brief garments and, above all, much cheaper, which led to the creation of the first SLIP in 1934.

CURIOSITIES

Video / The Chinese company forces its employees ‘For Bad Sales’ in underpants

La dirección de una empresa de la ciudad china de Jiangmen impuso un insólito castigo a sus empleados responsables de ventas.

Forced them to run down the street, in groups and in underpants, for the bad results in the collection of customers.

"I accept the punishment with pleasure," said one of the dependents, whose words collects Daily Mail.

In his opinion, humiliation was deserved for being ordered by the boss to "dishonored".

"I think it's a good challenge for us".

In total, 30 men went out.

For women, managers from the ‘fitness’ center devised another punishment: they were forced to do flexions.