(Mostly about men’s bodies and sexuality. But there’s some language stuff too.)
From Daily Jocks yesterday, a penetrating gaze:
(#1)
The accompanying copy (reproduced here without editing):
Go interstellar with the new Astro range from Teamm8!
The form enhancing briefs and trunks are made from cotton and elastane and feature a thick metalic waistband to give you support where you need it.
Featuring striking stars and geometrics, they are bound to be your next underwear draw favorite!
My caption, using this material:
Astronaut on earth, or the
Steely cruise of the Voltron BlasterAnthony treasures his Astro time
In space, but now he
Revels in his career as the
Blaster, at $200 an hour,
Out or in.
Now there will be notes.
Note 1, on Teamm8. That’s “team mate”, Company site here. Underwear, swimwear, etc., seen with a gay eye, as here:
(#2)
Hey, he’s on sale.
Note 2, on rentboys. Like the Blaster. Or, maybe, the guy in #2. Discussion in this posting.
Note 3, on elastane. From Wikiedia:
Spandex, Lycra or elastane is a synthetic fiber known for its exceptional elasticity. It is stronger and more durable than natural rubber. It is a polyester-polyurethane copolymer that was invented in 1958 by chemist Joseph Shivers at DuPont’s Benger Laboratory in Waynesboro, Virginia. When introduced in 1962, it revolutionized many areas of the clothing industry.
The name “spandex” is an anagram of the word “expands”. It is the preferred name in North America; in continental Europe it is referred to by variants of “elastane” … and is known in the UK, Ireland, Portugal, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and Israel primarily as Lycra.
Spandex has come up a number of times in underwear postings on this blog, usually in nylon/spandex items, but I haven’t discussed the substance before.
Spandex items can be found on many sites, most notably the Spandexman site, which seems to specialize in unitards, wrestling singlets, and active tops and bottoms, sometimes decidedly playful, as in this selection of “fantasy unitards”:
(#3)
Note 4, on unitard. From NOAD2 on the word:
a tight-fitting one-piece garment of stretchable fabric that covers the body from the neck to the knees or feet. ORIGIN 1960s: from uni- ‘single’ + leotard
The word is a somewhat eccentric type of portmanteau.
Note 5, on underwear draw. Back to the ad copy.
You can find sites with draw underwear: from Cafe Press, referring to underwear with drawings on it; and from other sites, referring to underwear with drawstrings (that is, drawstring underwear). But in the ad copy, we’re faced with underwear draw, clearly a reduced variant of underwear drawer. And there are plenty of occurrences of this variant on the net, for instance here:
(#4)
Even speakers who are normally rhotic might well reduce drawer, especially in underwear drawer, since the context is heavy in instances of /r/, favoring what’s been called “r-dissimilation” (as in February and a substantial number of other words; see Nancy Hall’s paper on the subject, on her website).
