Why Panties?
The first question that seems to come up for most people learning about my preferences is: why? Often that question comes with assumptions - and a quiet hope for either confirmation or refutation of those assumptions. My goal here is to clarify what drives me and how I arrived not just at the idea of wearing womenâs panties, but at choosing to wear them fullâtime.
Heads up: this post includes some discussion of anatomy and... situations... unique to men. My intent isnât to be crude; itâs to explain clearly so that these hidden, private drivers can be spoken about openly. My hope is. that some other man reading this sees that he is not alone. And maybe even some women whoâd like to understand the men in their lives a bit better. With that caveat out of the way, onward.
To fully answer âwhy,â we need to go on a bit of a journey. Much of this I didnât understand about myself until adulthood. It took asking the right questions in the right places to finally discover what was going on with my own body. Youâve probably heard the terms âgrowerâ and âshowerâ (âshowâer,â not the thing that sprays water on your head to bathe you). Slightly less common is another concept often referred to as âturtling.â Iâm not a medical professional, so Iâm sure there are more accurate medicalâsounding names for these phenomena, but Iâll stick with the colloquial terms for simplicity. Iâll explain more, but suffice it to say: I fall squarely into the âturtlingâ and âgrowerâ categories.
Letâs get terminology out of the way. The more common âgrower vs. showerâ distinction refers to how a manâs penis behaves at different levels of arousal. A shower is someone whose overall size doesnât change much when fully aroused. Other characteristics change (Iâll let you do your own research there), but the size doesnât. The term implies that what you see through clothing in everyday situations is pretty close to what youâll see in more intimate settings.
A grower, on the other hand, is someone whose size changes - sometimes dramatically - between flaccid and fully erect states. The term generally suggests that while the size may not look impressive in dayâtoâday life, when the occasion calls for it, the true size reveals itself. This isnât about extremes like âmicroâpenis,â which is a separate issue dealing with overall size regardless of arousal. When a grower is fully erect, that size still varies from man to man. Being a grower doesnât imply a lack of erect size, nor does it imply an extreme excess of size; it only describes how things change from flaccid to fully erect.
Finally, thereâs turtling. This is the term for when a manâs genitals retract significantly into the body. It affects growers more often, but no man is completely immune. Itâs part of the bodyâs natural way of protecting sensitive, exposed anatomy. When a man turtles, it isnât voluntary; the body does it automatically, often in response to some stimulus - cold, stress, physical activity, etc. - though for some men it can essentially be a ânormalâ resting state.
If you arenât a man, how this works might not be immediately clear. Iâll do my best to explain. Men have an area behind the genitals called the inguinal canal. I wonât try to explain its full purpose (thatâs a job for a medical professional), but one key function is that the testicles can retract into the body by pulling up into the inguinal canals. Often at the same time, the penis retracts as well. At the extreme of this retraction, the muscles in the penis pull back into the pubic mound and the skin of the penis bunches up, covering the head.
This happens regardless of circumcision status; circumcision just changes how much skin there is. For many men, even at their most retracted, the head still protrudes - it simply looks like they have a temporarily smaller penis. For other men, the head is almost completely covered, and if it werenât for the extra skin in the area (penile skin plus the âsackâ the testicles have temporarily abandoned), the area between the legs would be essentially smooth. So turtling happens to varying degrees. And this doesnât even cover the medically significant situations where the retraction is painful or so extreme that it causes other issues. If you think that might be you, please talk to your doctor. Donât assume what I describe means your situation is ânormalâ and you just have to deal with it. If thereâs a problem, doctors can help - just ask.
Okay. Thatâs your quick anatomy lesson. How does this all apply to me? Well, as I said before: Iâm a grower and I experience fairly extreme turtling as my resting state. Not enough to warrant medical attention, but enough to completely change the calculus around proper support from undergarments.
I know, I know - the curiosity is burning. No, Iâm not âtinyâ. When the occasion calls for it, Iâm slightly above average for the male population. Not enough to brag about, but enough that Iâm confident as a man and donât worry about how my biology will interact with a partner. Can we move on now? Cool, cool.
The trouble Iâve run into over the years is that menâs underwear designers seem to universally be showers who almost never turtle - or at least they design as if thatâs the only thing that exists. Go look at almost any menâs underwear listing from any clothing retailer and youâll see very clear bulges. Yes, theyâre often âenhancedâ for marketing purposes. I donât care about that. The point is that they intentionally add extra fabric in the front to accommodate menâs anatomy. The newer trend is to add even more fabric and call it a âpouchâ for âcomfort.â I donât know - maybe that works for some men, but itâs literally the opposite of what I need. Because my resting state is... compact... all that extra room just makes the underwear feel baggy and lets it shift in uncomfortable ways. During movement, that extra fabric works its way into situations that arenât helpful at all. And on the occasions when my anatomy steps out for a breath of fresh air, things often end up in strange places that can be pretty uncomfortable. All because, for me, thereâs so little support, leaving too much room for movement.
And before you ask, yes - Iâve tried everything. From âscrew itâ and just wearing boxers, to the extreme end of menâs thongs, and pretty much everything in between. None of it works well for me.
So, whatâs the solution? Primarily, less fabric. After a lot of experimentation, Iâve concluded that âlessâ means basically no additional fabric beyond whatâs required to connect one leg hole to the other - as if thereâs nothing but smooth anatomy in between. Kind of like what a woman needs from her underwear. Someone will inevitably say, âBut, CP, thereâs this new brand that makes exactly what you need!â Maybe youâre right - I havenât seen that yet, but who knows. Still, Iâve landed on a solution that works for me, and Iâm content. I donât need another solution. Besides, womenâs panties come with some amazing benefits.
First, the fabric used in the vast majority of panties is both very stretchy and has an amazing ability to âsnap backâ to its original shape, even after a full day of accommodating anatomy. And Iâm not even talking about âathleticâ fabrics - those are obviously good too (and come in menâs styles, fwiw) - but this is true even of everyday panty styles. That hasnât been my experience at all with menâs underwear. Over the course of the day, menâs underwear loosens and sags until by the evening Iâm wondering what the point of putting it on was.
Beyond that, these stretchy, highârecovery fabrics in womenâs panties are also incredibly soft - almost to the point where it makes me a bit angry. Why on earth canât men have nice fabric like this in their underwear?! The difference is nightâandâday. Even in the pairs I wear for heavy âworkâ days - those with thicker fabric and stronger hold - the material is softer, smoother, more breathable, and just overall far superior to even the very highâend menâs underwear Iâve tried. I can buy a pack of 10 panties on Amazon for $18.99 and every single pair is better in fabric, construction, comfort, support, and style than the menâs underwear I used to wear at $40 each. Men, weâre being wronged. We may get pockets in our pants, but when it comes to underwear, weâre so far behind women weâre not even running on the same track.
And finally, I greatly appreciate the style options in womenâs panties. There are so many: different cuts, different fabrics, different colors, patterns, waistband styles, leg elastics (or lack thereof), coverage, trims, and on and on. You could wear certain panties the rest of your life and, unless someone looked really closely, they wouldnât be able to tell the difference from a tight pair of menâs underwear. Or you could go all the way to full lace, ribbons, bows, and superâlow coverage. And everything in between. If, like me, you enjoy colors and changing up your styles, thereâs simply nothing in the menâs world that holds a candle to whatâs possible with womenâs panties.
So why panties? Because I like them. Theyâre comfortable. They support me properly. And they give me an almost endless stream of options to keep things interesting. Even if nobody else sees it, I do - and I enjoy the experience.
Iâm sure you have questions. Check out my FAQ and reach out if you donât see your question answered there. Iâm happy to talk about it.
Until next time... stay comfy.
Published on by Chief Pantyist