I always thought boyshorts were called ‘boyshorts’ because the are like the female equivalent of the boxer short. Which, I suppose, would mean bikinis are the female equivalent of the tighty whitey… or maybe tighty whiteys are the male equivalent of the bikini. Why, then, aren’t good old tighty whiteys called ‘girlshorts’? Hmmm? Is it because we’re living in a man’s world? I think the answer to that is no (although we are living in a man’s world), no I don’t think that’s the reason. I’ll tell you what I think the reason is… it’s because ‘boyshorts’ are NOT in fact named thusly due to their resemblance of a boy’s short on a woman. They are called ‘boyshorts’ because BOYS LOVE THEM. They were my last boyfriend’s favorite style of panty by far. For years I thought maybe his love of the boyshort was just some latent homo thing- haha no, I’m kidding, but I did think that it was a personal preference and not the majority opinion. For some reason I just assumed that most men liked thongs and lacy things. I guess I’m a female chauvinist, I don’t know.

I was surprised to notice that men shopping in the store almost always favor the boyshorts. They make a b-line for the Bodas Smooth Tactile Boyhort without even glancing at our wonderful lacy Pearl Thong by Vera Wang, they’ve already snapped up almost all of the Cocotte Lace Boxer Shorts by Princesse TamTam and only rarely think to add an Araks Olivia Y-Thong to their purchase (those Y-Thongs are Amazing!). I’ve found that women, on the other hand, are much more likely to buy bikinis before anything else. It was a puzzle to me that men love the boyshorts so much and many women seemed to be lukewarm about them. Luckily, because I, myself, am a woman, I think I’ve been able to solve the puzzle. After much thought and absolutely no research I came to the conclusion that it all had to do with perspective. Literal perspective. Boyshorts are not as flattering in the front as bikinis are. The boyshort cut makes the thighs look a little bit smaller and chunkier, while a nice high bikini gives the effect of a longer, slimmer thigh. Women usually only see their underwear from the front, so it’s natural that they’d lean towards the seemingly more flattering choice. What boyshorts lack in thigh flattery, they give back 3 fold in booty flattery. You can put a respectably fine booty in a pair of boyshorts and it is immediately transformed into the stuff that 90’s rap videos are made of. And seriously, what man doesn’t love a nice booty? You better believe that if a man is sitting around the house and his lady friend walks past in her underwear on her way to take a shower… well, I doubt he’s looking at the tops of her thighs.