Gypsy Creams

Kif on 8 August 2011 @ 10am

You would think that women’s underwear would be about as far from gay men’s concerns as possible (I mean standard gay men and not transvestites or transexuals) but when we were kids of ten and above, and (in my set) already knowingly gay, it was odd (in retrospect) what a running joke the whole subject of “Ladies Underwear” was for all of my contemporaries. There were women teachers of course and our giggles may have been an anti authority thing. It may have been the ethos of the boarding school concerned, to giggle at such surreal and distant concepts (it was an all boys school and all the better for that, frankly; we had our own agenda) but endless giggling could be had witrh any remark about womens undies. Words like bloomers, knickers, the mysterious word ‘corsets’ , and the mysterious ‘roll-ons’, were guaranteed to have us helpless with laughter. Perhaps it’s just a little boys thing – but it was quite a fixation.

We were only 10 or 11, and the subject was in no way sexual. Mothers, grannies and sisters (not for me the latter) were our only contact with the female of the species, so it was a familial and not a gender thing per se. The word ‘corsets’ still requires me to suppress a giggle. I am not any sort of transvestite and so I still have no idea what a basque is. Is that the spelling?

This is a meandering and inconclusive comment, for which I apologise, but the advert caused me to recall how ‘non sexually’ obsessed with these objects of mirth some little boys could be then – and I repeat, it was not at all sexual. No one among my childhood contemporaries was sexually attracted to girls. Not one. At all. But that’s 1950s baby boomers in single sex boarding schools for you. I actually miss the certainty of those days. Though I do not support conformity today, it was a curiously comforting set of boundaries when one was nine…

Tanya Jones on 9 August 2011 @ 8pm

I’m not surprised you were all fascinated: they must have seemed like mysterious devices! A basque is a bit like the corselets above, except there’s no attempt to hold in any female flesh. It has suspenders on to hold stockings up, and it tends to be a lot frillier than a corset or girdle, so they’re often worn for bedroom entertainment. Ann Summers has an impressive collection of them, if you’re interested ;)

Charlie Albright on 27 August 2011 @ 9am

The thing about girdles is although they produced much merth amongst us young boys (as the previous poster said) in imagining they were bolted together with 9/16 AF steel bolts and nuts…suddenly one day they were gone and women never mentioned them again.Can’t remember that day around 1966 I think, when Britain suddenly woke up from its war tired slumber and was refreshed and ready to go.
I think things were getting desperate for Playtex in the 1970s as this tired looking advert in black and white use to come on the telly reminding ladies
“to leave their spare tyre in the car”. But I think the main reason for their demise was the fact that 60s 70s 80s British women didnt need them as the Peggy Mount battle axe woman was in demise and seeing a woman with a bikini brief visable panty line was actually rather er..nice.