The social impact of the thong has been covered extensively in the media, ranging from a ban on wearing thongs to thongs for the underaged. The rise of thong usage has been asserted to be linked by at least one author to a rise of sexualization in society and a rise in a desire to go unclothed.
Contents
Overview
When discussing the trend of wearing thongs Sharon Daugherty comments in her book What Guys See That Girls Don't: Or Do They? that the fashion industry "may have changed the mindset of our society", which was followed by the observation that "the whole idea of wearing so that no panty line or bumps can show isn't substantiated" and that "the thong was created by fashion designers to arouse sexual thoughts".
Monica Lewinsky gave evidence during the Lewinsky scandal that she was flirting with Bill Clinton in Leon Panetta's office, and that she lifted her jacket to show him the straps of her thong underwear above her pants. Some of the news media in America used thong underwear as a metonym for smut in the Starr Report. According to feminist commentator Carrie Lukas, Lewinsky "with her thong-snapping seduction, forever changed the image of the D.C. junior staffer from aspiring policy wonk to sexual temptress."
Marketing analysts Marian L. Salzman, Ira Matathia and Ann O'Reilly observed in the book Buzz: Harness the Power of Influence and Create Demand that thong brands are riding on the wide media coverage of thongs to create buzz. Photographer Lauren Greenfield wrote in her book Girl Culture, "Understanding the dialectic between the extreme and the mainstream – the anorexic and the dieter, the stripper and the teenager who bares her midriff or wears a thong – is essential to understanding contemporary feminine identity."
In 2004, political commentator Cedric Muhammad wrote in essay The Thong versus the Veil, "We wondered at the end of the day, of the two groups of women most prominently featured on American TV these days, who gains more respect for their intellect and spirit – the Afghan woman who is so totally veiled that you can't even see her eyes or the Black woman in the R&B and Hip-Hop video who dances while wearing a bikini and thong?"
School restrictions
The dress code for St. Ambrose Academy, a Roman Catholic middle school and high school in Madison, Wisconsin, specifically addresses swimsuits with "thong-cut legs" as inappropriate. At Dixon High School in Dixon, California, the dress code specifies that all undergarments – specifically listing thongs, along with bras and briefs – must be covered. University of Victoria Law School briefly put the school logo on thongs, but quickly pulled them from sale after controversy sprung up.
In 1999 a Miami University male professor was banned from using the school's recreation center because he refused to stop wearing thong swimwear. The professor challenged the school in court. In 2000 a Salinas High School principal was in the center of a variety of controversies including bans on clothing to the extent that "thong panties were unofficially banned." One student alleged that she was given a dress-code violation note for wearing a thong. This story made national headlines in the United States.
In 2002, a female high school vice principal in San Diego physically checked up to 100 female students' underwear as they entered the school for a dance, with or without student permission, causing an uproar among students and some parents and eliciting an investigation by the school into the vice principal's conduct. In her defense, the vice principal said the checks were for student safety and not specifically because of the wearing of thongs. In 2003, the head teacher of a British primary school voiced her concern after learning that female students as young as 10 were wearing thong underwear to school. This incident led to a media debate about the appropriateness of thong underwear marketed to young girls.
Sports
Bans
In October 2002, Florida officials banned thongs from Daytona and other public beaches.
Thongs for younger girls
The 2000s saw a rise in the popularity of thongs among younger girls, who have been dubbed "thong feminists" by comedian Janeane Garofalo. The trend has been attributed to pop idols like Britney Spears and Jennifer Lopez. In 2002 Abercrombie & Fitch released a line of thong underwear targeted for girls ages 10–16, though critics pointed out that children as young as seven could fit one of the thongs. A spokesman for A&F, Hampton Carney, stated that he could list "at least 100 reasons why a young girl would want thong underwear." This controversy spawned a great deal of free publicity for Abercrombie, including a chain letter that received wide circulation. British retailer Argos produced child-size thongs and padded bras for girls as young as nine, eliciting a similar response from the public. Etam, another British retailer, produced sheer tops and thong underwear for girls of similar age. In Japan, photobooks and DVDs of underaged girls in T-back thongs has become popular as "T-back Junior Idols", which has come under scorn as a new form of child pornography.