A pair of purple women’s knickers lies discarded in a laneway in Enmore, Sydney. “There you go,” I say. “Give ‘em a wash and you’re right!”
“Ewwww!” is the reply. But why? If the knickers are washed, then they’re clean. Can there possibly be anything worse on these “found” knickers that isn’t already in, say, a 3-year-old’s poo-filled pants — which likewise get washed and worn again? In with the rest of your washing, no less!
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Tags: hygiene, knickers, used knickers
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There’s a bit of a difference between washing and reusing one’s own knickers and someone else’s. But the argument holds true for hankies – I don’t understand why people think hankies are disgusting when they’re prepared to reuse their own underwear.
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@Quatrefoil: But what is the difference? Dirty cloth goes through washing machine with chemicals, becomes clean cloth.
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Well, yes, in theory. I have to say that with my elderly washing machine I’m not convinced that the effect is a as total as it might be. But rationality aside, I’m willing to wear second hand clothing (and frequently do), but underwear is different, because, as everyone knows, you can get pregnant from toilet seats, so surely you’re going to get some raging STD from found undies.
That said, I might make an exception if they were really nice undies. Silk for example. But I might need to disinfect them in the microwave after I’d washed them, and when my friend did that (with her own underwear) she ended up with charred ruins.
And I have given very slightly used underwear away to close personal friends, but only after asking them if they were ok with the concept first.
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@Quatrefoil: These friends who have your used underwear… can I have their phone numbers…?
Actually, I know one young guy who makes a reasonable profit selling his once-used underwear on eBay. Maybe that’s a story for another time.
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Well, if you know someone with a kink for Target cotton underwear of the kind worn by the no-longer-young, traditionally-built woman …
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Well I have always liked the thrill of wearing used cotton knickers esp. the older type full cotton, or the old type school cotton knickers. There is something very exciting about wearing somebody elses knickers!
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@navyknicks3: Having started this whole discussion, it would be hypocritical of me to label any comment “too much information”. But I am tempted sometimes.
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@Quatrefoil: You know when you get that feeling that you never should have started a particular conversation topic…? I think I’m having it now.
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Well, considering the creative displays you blokes seem to make of said items during bucks nights, Xmas parties etc. …. you’d think there’d be no problem with the idea of wearing properly washed, found underwear.
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C’mon for the sake of entertainment
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At the risk of extending this discussion even further, the knickers in question are still in the laneway — though a little less pristine after a fortnight exposed to the weather. Should I get another photograph?
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Why not, I say.
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please do!
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Only if you’re wearing them on your head ….
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There you go. Here the idea of your portrait.
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Pingback from Stilgherrian · Used knickers, revisited on 04 January 2008 at 9:24 pm
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Pingback from Stilgherrian · Knickers in the corner on 08 January 2008 at 6:25 pm
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Pingback from Stilgherrian · We have the used knickers! on 13 January 2008 at 6:59 pm
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How do you know those abandoned knickers belonged to a woman?
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@angela burke: You’re right. The knickers are “women’s knickers”, because they’re shaped for female hips and have the kind of lacy edging which men’s knickers generally don’t. However I have no way of telling who owned this knickers.
I own them now. Maybe that makes them men’s knickers?
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