Do Speedos Still Divide the Straights from the Gays?
Over at GQ, style writer Alyssa Vingan notes that men's inseams are getting shorter. "You surely remember a photo of Harry Styles in Berlin wearing a pair of very short red shorts spreading across the internet like wildfire in April, indicating that inseams may be shrinking for yet another year in a row. (Last June, trendsetter Paul Mescal told GQ that he's 'a big advocate for men wearing shorter shorts.')"
She also points out that "bottoms are getting even smaller," and cites two celebrity examples: Walton Goggins appearing on the cover of Cultured Magazine in an electric yellow Speedo; and the Dolce & Gabbana's campaign that dropped last week for its classic Light Blue fragrance that featured another "White Lotus" alum, hunky Theo James "sunning himself on the rocky beaches of Capri alongside supermodel Vittoria Ceretti." And last summer French Olympian Jules Bouyer became a social media sensation over how he well he filled his Speedo.
Vingan goes on to point out that "labels like Bode, Todd Snyder, and Our Legacy's collaboration with Emporio Armani show that the brief is the style of the moment. All signs point to Speedos having a breakout summer stateside; while they've been a staple of the gay community and on European, Australian, and Brazilian coastlines for decades, they've yet to hit the American mainstream. Could the final frontier following the short-shorts explosion be straight dudes wearing briefs on the beach without blinking an eye?"
If straight men embrace the Speedo, it will be the latest step in a fashion trend that has blurred the lines between straight and queer culture. "Gay men, we have a history with Speedos; in a weird way, this feels like a natural continuation of straight men becoming more gender fluid in their presentation," Vingan's friend Alex Smith tells her. (He wore a Speedo as a college swimmer.) "We've progressed past the painted nails and the pearls, and now we're doing Hot Boy Summer with the Speedos."
The Speedo was born nearly 70-years ago at the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games; but it still hasn't broken through to the mainstream, in part because of those wearing them can be perceived as gay. Queer comedian Jay Jurden says, pointed out that water polo players and professional wrestlers often wear Speedos for their sports. "How much material difference is there between 3-inch running shorts and a Speedo," Jurden wonders "besides the fear that you're going to be seen as 'gay'? We give queer men permission to feel sexy, but we kinda strip that away from a lot of cis hetero men."
Jurden feels so strong about the issue he challenged a cis hetero friend to come to Fire Island for a weekend, but only one condition: he wear a Speedo. His friend did and, according to Jurden, felt free. "This is the kind of freedom we could all be experiencing," Jurden tells GQ. "It was both an exercise in equality, as well as: What kind of man you're going to be? Are you gonna be a man who's still tied down to all of these old-school ideas, or am I going to branch out into this fun, new modern man?"
For those — queer or not -- who want to give the swim brief a try for the first time, there are several brands, shapes, and cuts to experiment with to help you wade in. According to Doug Conklyn, Speedo's senior vice-president of global design, Speedo's best-selling Solar Brief has a 2-inch outseam, accommodates a wide range of body types and are ideal for recreational use and to achieve minimal tan lines. The brand offers even smaller cuts, and next year will launch a slightly wider shape with a 3-inch outseam. "We're going to continue to embrace this thing that at times can be polarizing," he says.
And Jurden asserts that both freedom of clothing and expanding definitions of masculinity can only help all of us. "The closer we get to straight men being comfortable in their skin, maybe they'll go outside, maybe they'll meet someone, maybe they'll vote the right way," he says. Could this even help cure the alleged male loneliness epidemic? "It's hard to be lonely in a Speedo," he adds.
The IG account Sexy in Speedo offers a sizzling array of hotties (profiled as #gay and #gayfriendly) in their Speedos. Here are some: