square wrote:

Team leader Beatrix Nutz gasped to BBC History Magazine: "We didn't believe it ourselves. From what we knew, there was no such thing as bra-like garments in the 15th century."

Nutz clarified that medieval women didn't wear knickers, and that underpants "were considered a symbol of male dominance and power"

Dominance and power my ass - it was to prevent the fucking chafing.

Actually it wasn't so much about chafing as it was reducing the laundry pile.  Male or female.

As a "dominant" male, I certainly don't advocate women wearing undergarments of any kind.  Go commando or go home.

GooberMcNutly wrote:

It wasn't to prevent chafing. Underwear was invented to prevent laundry. Back when you had to boil 20 gallons of water over a fire every time you wanted to rinse your stinky pants it just made sense to be able to wash 20 pair of undies for every full sized dress. So you swapped your "smalls" every couple of days and washed your outerwear before major feast days. Most commoners only owned 1 or 2 sets of clothes, so it was important to be able to keep from getting your dingleberries all over them.

Now that you can just chuck them in the swish-swosh machine and have them clean and now it's perfectly acceptable to wear undergarments as street clothes, the need for regular underwear has gone the way of the buggy whip and personal responsibility.

do you even read the rest of the thread before you post?