August 11th 2023.
White tank tops have been trending lately, with influencers like Jeremy Allen White looking amazing in them. But the real change is the new name they've been given - "wife pleasers". This replaces the old, outdated term "wife beaters" which is not only triggering for those who have experienced domestic abuse, but also misogynistic and inappropriate.
The origin of the term "wife beater" is unclear, but there are two popular theories. The first is that it came from Marlon Brando's character in A Streetcar Named Desire, who is aggressive, rapes his sister-in-law and hits his wife. The second theory is that it arose from a Detroit murder case in 1947 where the man accused of killing his wife was wearing a white vest in the crime scene photos.
In 2018, Moises Velasquez-Manoff wrote a piece for the New York Times asking if the term was still appropriate to use. He pointed out that using the term perpetuated harmful stereotypes about working-class men being more likely to commit violence.
This seems to have been heard loud and clear by the youth of today, who don't want to be associated with such a trigger-inducing phrase. TikTok is now full of styling videos featuring the iconic vest, and the hashtag "wife pleaser" has more than 170k views.
Of course, there are those that haven't been happy about the change. Popular fashion TikToker Xander Torres posted a video about the term with the caption, ‘Wife beater is dead. Be better fellas.’ He said that whenever he uses the phrase ‘wife pleaser,’ there’s a ‘very vocal minority of incels… who insist that I use the term ‘wife-beater’.
However, if you just find the term wife-pleaser a little twee, you don't have to use it. Xander said: "If you think that wife pleaser is corny or cheesy or whatever, and you’d rather people say tank top, then fine, say tank top".
So, whether you opt for the new term, or the old one, or something else entirely, it's important to remember the implications behind "wife beater" and why it should no longer be used.
[This article has been trending online recently and has been generated with AI. Your feed is customized.]
