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Speedos back
Malcolm Mayhew
Knight Ridder Newspapers
We thought–and, boy, prayed and prayed and prayed–that Speedos, those skintight, waaaaaay-short bathing suits that people of the male persuasion sometimes try to wear, had gone away.
Then we saw a preview of "Swimfan," the new "Fatal Attraction"-in-the-water movie, with star Jesse Bradford wearing one. Awww, man. You don't see people wearing parachute pants anymore–why can't Speedos die, too?
But no, Speedos are just as popular as ever.
"People either love them or hate them, and a lot of people still love them," says Ken Short, a senior executive in KeToCo, an underwear-manufacturing company based in The Colony in Texas. "There's a reason why men still wear Speedos: They love to swim and they don't wanna carry around 40 pounds of cargo shorts. Try swimming in those things. It's not exactly easy."
Comfort and swimming ease are the two reasons why Speedos have lasted this long, swimwear experts like Short say. They've prospered for more than 70 years, to be sort of exact.
At the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, Speedos really caught fire: They were worn by the Aussie swimming team, which swept the medals. Nearly 20 years later, at the 1972 Munich Olympics, Speedo became the swimsuit supplier to all 52 nations competing. In 1996, at the Olympic Games in Atlanta, 77 percent of all swimming medals were won by folks wearing Speedos. And, from what we hear, champion diver Greg Louganis sure looks tasty in one.
That's the controversy that has raged for years, and will no doubt continue to do so well after you throw this story away: Are they obscenely comfortable or merely obscene?
"It's a double-edge sword," Short says. "Men are not comfortable walking around in them, and the world is not comfortable with seeing their anatomy. Traditionally, the man who wears them doesn't care that he may offend someone's sensibilities. He's very much anchored with who he is."
Short says he believes every guy should have the freedom to wear one. We tried to stop him from saying this but could not. Our apologies.
"My comment to any male is, `Wear a Speedo if you're comfortable with it,''' Short says. "I don't care if you're fat, ugly, you look good or you look bad. You're not wearing it for the rest of the world's consumption. If you've got the perfect build, people are gonna notice you. If you're too skinny or too fat, you should still be able to wear it. You wear what's comfortable, not what society says to wear."
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