Post #305

Putting your underwear on backwards

17th March 2004, early afternoon | Comments (41)

A painting of some underpants

Last night, as I was getting undressed for bed, I noticed that I had my Marks & Spencers underpants on back-to-front.

I’m pretty sure I hadn’t taken them off during the day (why would I?) which means I must have been walking around with back-to-front knickers on for about eighteen hours, and not noticed anything amiss.

Hello, I thought, that’s a bit odd. How did that one slip by you?

How, indeed.

I see two possible reasons for this oversight:

  1. I have highly adaptable underwear; or,
  2. My nether regions are lacking in sensory astuteness, possibly due to lack of use.

In order to determine which of these is true, I am going to be wearing a variety of ‘makes and models’ of underpants back-to-front for the rest of the day, swapping to a new kind every few hours.

If they all feel comfortable, I’m going to conclude there’s something physically wrong with me. If only some of them feel comfortable, I shall put yesterday’s underwear faux-pas down to clever design on behalf of Messers Marks and Spencer.

I’ll let you know how it goes, tomorrow.

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Comments (41)

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  1. Kevin:

    You have my full support.

    Posted 1 hour, 43 minutes after the fact
    Inspired: ↓ Christopher
  2. Trent:

    Hmm, so you're saying inside-out underwear is isomorphic to regular underwear? I can see the MIT phD thesis now: "Topological Properties And Transformations Relating To Tighty-Whities".

    Posted 2 hours after the fact
  3. Web:

    If you come to the conclusion that your...

    "nether regions are lacking in sensory astuteness"

    I have a heapload of spam I can send you which promise great things.

    Posted 2 hours, 11 minutes after the fact
  4. Brian Mars:

    How ironic that this follows an entry on "Cox"...

    Posted 2 hours, 33 minutes after the fact
  5. Mark Wubben:

    I think your underwear has been talking to your socks.. but instead of leaving you, they decided to trick you and turn around. Perhaps you need to keep an eye on them to see them turn around?

    And hey, I won't possible be asking for a webcam so everyone can keep an eye on them. Seriously.

    Posted 2 hours, 46 minutes after the fact
  6. Mark Wubben:

    Off-topic: nice highlight on your (mine) newly posted comment. Never noticed it before (but then again, I don't post much here).

    Posted 2 hours, 47 minutes after the fact
    Inspired: ↓ Dunstan
  7. Stuart:

    You're a weirdo, you know that?
    I mean, quite an endearing weirdo, and it's fascinating to hear about these things, but you're still a weirdo. :-)
    I await with bated breath the results of your research project.

    Posted 2 hours, 53 minutes after the fact
  8. Chuckg:

    'How ironic that this follows an entry on "Cox"...'

    He's got a point.

    Posted 3 hours, 6 minutes after the fact
  9. Michael Heilemann:

    You know, have you asked yourself the question that maybe, just maybe, they're facing the other way because it's kind of nasty being buried in pubic hair and other nastiness? I mean how would you like that?

    Posted 3 hours, 15 minutes after the fact
  10. Garoo:

    Geez, you had achieved something with those pictures of yourself, and now you ruin it all and lead us to make unflattering assumptions about your nether regions.

    Was being a gay icon too heavy a burden, really?

    Posted 3 hours, 27 minutes after the fact
  11. Garoo:

    Off-topic suggestion: you could deactivate "Post your comment" when the textarea's contents have been modified. I actually meant to preview again the modified comment, not to post it, and the form should have guessed it :)

    P.S. Um, there's a stripslashes() missing here. Don't know if the backslashes will remain or if they're just displayed, but there's a problem.

    Posted 3 hours, 30 minutes after the fact
    Inspired: ↓ Dunstan
  12. Kitta:

    I'm sure that you could probably get grant money for some of these experiments. The public must know if wearing underwear backwards is comfy!

    Posted 3 hours, 32 minutes after the fact
  13. Huphtur:

    Time to bust out the old Kris Kross CDs again?
    http://www.allmusic.com/cg/a...

    Posted 3 hours, 47 minutes after the fact
    Inspired: ↓ Chris Vincent
  14. Sian:

    I quite often rush to work with my jumper back to front or inside out, so I can't really pass comment. I'm very sure that I would soon realise that my bra was back to front as things would become very floppy.

    I vote for you to try out a pair of Brown Y-fronts :)

    Posted 3 hours, 56 minutes after the fact
  15. Dunstan:

    Hmm, I won't deactivate it, Garoo, what I'll do is:

    If the textarea has been modified I'll make 'Preview' bold, and 'Post' normal.

    If the textarea hasn't been modified I'll make 'Preview' normal and 'Post' bold.

    If I hide the 'Post' button when the textarea has been modified it would mean if you made an alteration, and then changed your mind, you'd have to preview again to get the 'Post' button back.

    I'll go with changing the emphasis, rather than hiding/showing. But great suggestion, thanks very much!

    And thanks for the stripslashes thing, the change of server has thrown up some interesting bugs :o)

    Posted 4 hours, 11 minutes after the fact
    Inspired by: ↑ Garoo
  16. Dunstan:

    Thanks, Mark, as you probably worked out, I stole the idea off the 37signals guys.

    I really wanted it for when people post comments that require moderation - people weren't realising their comment hadn't been posted straight away, so I hoped to draw their attention to the comment place holder, and the message it contains.

    Posted 4 hours, 14 minutes after the fact
    Inspired by: ↑ Mark Wubben
  17. [m]:

    I wonder why anyone hasn't wished that M&S has such a great staff of designers...

    Anywhoo, good luck! I don't hope you'll need it! ;)

    Posted 4 hours, 33 minutes after the fact
  18. Chris Vincent:

    Lord no!

    Posted 6 hours, 52 minutes after the fact
    Inspired by: ↑ Huphtur
  19. Sarah:

    La la la la la, la la la la la la, la la la lalalala... Thiiiing, thing a thooooong...

    Memo to self: Point out to Sian that the outline of her nipples (saucy) is showing beneath the leg elastic of her knickers...

    Memo to Dunstan: find a hobby (oooo the irony....)

    Posted 7 hours, 4 minutes after the fact
  20. Sian:

    Whats the extra gusseting on the M & S pants for? Hipster's? posh name for a pair of extra long Y-fronts!

    Posted 7 hours, 11 minutes after the fact
  21. Ian:

    Ah the old back2front combo. Are you sure you wern't just trying to get another days wear out of them?
    Remember, there are four good days wear with one single pair.

    Day 1: Normal position
    Day 2: Back to front <---------- Dunstan is here
    Day 3: Normal position - inside out
    Day 4: Back to front - inside out

    That means you have two solid days left in the cycle, use them wisly my friend.

    Posted 7 hours, 41 minutes after the fact
  22. Pete:

    Yes but remember, they don't have to be consecutive days.

    Posted 7 hours, 48 minutes after the fact
  23. DarkBlue:

    "I must have been walking around with back-to-front knickers on for about eighteen hours"

    Only 18 hours - that's no way to treat underwear. You're supposed to wear them for months. Did you never watch "The Young Ones"? (see: http://tinyurl.com/2ya3m)

    What kind of a man are you? :-)

    Posted 9 hours, 47 minutes after the fact
  24. Ryan Brill:

    Tighty-whities? If you'd wear boxers, you wouldn't have to be too worried if you found out you were wearing them backwards. ;)

    Posted 10 hours, 34 minutes after the fact
  25. Amit Karmakar:

    Interesting! Has happened to me before though! LOL! 'We' think outside the square we live in. LOL LOL

    Posted 10 hours, 42 minutes after the fact
  26. Sparticus:

    While I approve of your experiment, you obviously haven't considered all the variables. Have you not thought that perhaps it was due to yesterday's warmer temperatures that caused the pants to expand and thus not intefere? Or perhaps they are made of a special material that includes that mythical aloe vera stuff that all the adverts say makes all your aches and pains go away? Where they freshly washed and ironed? Where you sitting down most of the day? Walking? Lying down?

    I'm sure someone could find you a sterile lab to conduct experiments in.

    Posted 18 hours, 35 minutes after the fact
  27. Kevin Francis:

    Uh oh. Reading an entry with the title 'Putting your underwear on backwards' does nothing to improve yout reputation at college. I now have a bunch of people wondering what is wrong with the author, and myself. *sigh*

    Posted 18 hours, 56 minutes after the fact
  28. Chris:

    Sarah wrote: "Memo to self: Point out to Sian that the outline of her nipples (saucy) is showing beneath the leg elastic of her knickers..."

    I don't get that.

    To Dunstan: clearly your 18-hour backwards-wearing stint didn't include a trip to the toilet. For then you would have realised they were the wrong way round!

    Posted 19 hours, 29 minutes after the fact
    Inspired: ↓ Sian, ↓ Sarah
  29. Lindsey:

    Dunstan, why would you want to admit that you had worn your underwear backwards?

    As you say, it could be that... "my nether regions are lacking in sensory astuteness, possibly due to lack of use".

    Admitting things like these are hardly likely to increase your chances of using them are they? Or are you going for the sympathy tactic with the ladies?

    Posted 20 hours, 42 minutes after the fact
    Inspired: ↓ Andy, ↓ Dunstan, ↓ [m]
  30. Andy:

    LOL, it's getting harder for me to claim that this is a work related website for me.
    Especially when I start following links to view male underwear on a website.

    Oh, and please excuse my wife ;-)

    Posted 20 hours, 50 minutes after the fact
    Inspired by: ↑ Lindsey
  31. Rich:

    Dunstan wronte:
    "I see two possible reasons for this oversight:
    1) I have highly adaptable underwear; or,
    2) My nether regions are lacking in sensory astuteness, possibly due to lack of use"

    The third possible explanation is that the front and rear of your nether regions are the same size/shape. Although, I accept that this is far too horrifying a thought to take seriously.

    Might I suggest that you get an appointment to see a specialist if you think that the third option is at all likely.

    Posted 21 hours, 58 minutes after the fact
  32. Richard Allsebrook:

    I once put a condom on backwards...

    ... and went.

    (many, MANY appolgies, my therapist tells me its good to get it out of my system :-D)

    Posted 22 hours after the fact
  33. Runningtings:

    As regards the going to the toilet issue, I myself employ the over-the-top methodology instead of using the pointless fly in my scants.
    You have obviously used this as well, I mean nobody wants to be fumbling about with their underwear for too long in a semi-public place so I suspect most blokes do.

    Posted 22 hours, 10 minutes after the fact
  34. Rahul:

    That's it, I mailed this URL to all my female friends. We'll see what they think. Mwahahaha.

    Posted 23 hours, 43 minutes after the fact
  35. Markku:

    Good luck on the underwear-swapping adventure! I'm just as confused how you could go through a day without noticing the "problem." :)

    This blog is getting better everyday, and the comments just keep on coming. Nice work.

    Posted 1 day, 3 hours after the fact
  36. Dunstan:

    "Dunstan, why would you want to admit that you had worn your underwear backwards?"

    Science, Lindsey. It's all in the name of science...

    Posted 1 day, 3 hours after the fact
    Inspired by: ↑ Lindsey
    Inspired: ↓ [m], ↓ Christopher
  37. Sian:

    Memo to Chris: with reference to my post stating that if I put my bra on back to front things would get a bit floppy.

    Posted 1 day, 5 hours after the fact
    Inspired by: ↑ Chris
  38. Sarah:

    Sian wrote:I'm very sure that I would soon realise that my bra was back to front as things would become very floppy.

    There... geddit??? geddit???

    Posted 1 day, 5 hours after the fact
    Inspired by: ↑ Chris
  39. [m]:

    Far more sillier things are researched for the sake of sience. http://www.improbable.com For instance, Inow know that Kansaa *is* flatter than a pancake. That information might come in handy some day, you never know!

    Posted 1 day, 8 hours after the fact
    Inspired by: ↑ Lindsey, ↑ Dunstan
  40. Chris:

    Sian wrote:
    "I quite often rush to work with my jumper back to front or inside out, so I can't really pass comment. I'm very sure that I would soon realise that my bra was back to front as things would become very floppy."

    I understood that comment perfectly.

    Sarah wrote:
    "Memo to self: Point out to Sian that the outline of her nipples (saucy) is showing beneath the leg elastic of her knickers..."

    But that one has me stumped. My thought processes go like this: 'Why is she mentioning knickers in relation to a bra? ' The post *appears* to mix the top and the bottom areas of a woman's body, as if the bra or breasts reached down to the knickers! It then becomes too complex for my poor brain to fathom out.

    Posted 5 days after the fact
  41. Christopher:

    Dunstan:
    You can wear your underwear backwards (regularly) if you want. It does not matter.
    I wear my different brands of mens underwears, A-shirts (undershirts)/or T-shirt (all white) backwards almost regularly because it makes me happy, feel good and comfortable. So is my father and brother. Sometimes I wear my underwear inside out backwards. I also wear Marks & Spencer brand Canadian made underwear backwards too you do. I had seen some boys and men wearing underwears on backwards in a changeroom at schools. I keep watching boys/mens front neck areas to see if they wear T-shirts or tank tops (underneath) backwards outside or not this year. Some do. Thank you Dunstan for wearing the underwear backwards!
    Christopher - Canada

    Posted 1 year, 4 months after the fact
    Inspired by: ↑ Kevin, ↑ Dunstan

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