Whale tail
Encyclopedia
Thong (clothing)
The thong is a garment generally worn as either underwear or as a swimsuit in many industrialized societies around the world. It may also be worn for traditional ceremonies or competitions such as sumo wrestling...
or g-string
G-string
A G-string is a type of thong underwear or swimsuit, a narrow piece of cloth, leather, or plastic, that covers or holds the genitals, passes between the buttocks, and is attached to a band around the hips, worn as swimwear or underwear by women and men...
when visible above the waistline of low-rise jeans
Low-rise jeans
Low-rise jeans, worn by both men and women, are jeans intended to sit low on, or below, the hips. They are also called lowcut jeans, hipsters, hip-huggers and lowriders. Usually they sit at least 8 centimetres lower than the belly button...
, shorts
Shorts
Shorts are a bifurcated garment worn by both men and women over their pelvic area, circling the waist, and covering the upper part of the legs, sometimes extending down to or even below the knee, but not covering the entire length of the leg. They are called "shorts" because they are a shortened...
, or a skirt
Skirt
A skirt is a tube- or cone-shaped garment that hangs from the waist and covers all or part of the legs.In the western world, skirts are usually considered women's clothing. However, there are exceptions...
that resembles a whale
Whale
Whale is the common name for various marine mammals of the order Cetacea. The term whale sometimes refers to all cetaceans, but more often it excludes dolphins and porpoises, which belong to suborder Odontoceti . This suborder also includes the sperm whale, killer whale, pilot whale, and beluga...
's tail
Tail
The tail is the section at the rear end of an animal's body; in general, the term refers to a distinct, flexible appendage to the torso. It is the part of the body that corresponds roughly to the sacrum and coccyx in mammals, reptiles, and birds...
. Intentionally or unintentionally, a whale tail is exposed above the trousers mostly when sitting or bending, or even while standing. The frequency or occasion depends on the style of trousers
Trousers
Trousers are an item of clothing worn on the lower part of the body from the waist to the ankles, covering both legs separately...
, the style of underwear, and the way they are worn. Flashing whale tails became popular in the early 2000s, together with the rise of low-rise jeans and thong underwear. The trend, popularized by a number of female celebrities including Christina Aguilera
Christina Aguilera
Christina María Aguilera is an American recording artist and actress. Aguilera first appeared on national television in 1990 as a contestant on the Star Search program, and went on to star in Disney Channel's television series The Mickey Mouse Club from 1993–1994...
, Victoria Beckham
Victoria Beckham
Victoria Caroline Beckham is an English singer-songwriter, dancer, model, actress, fashion designer and businesswoman. In the late 1990s, Beckham rose to fame with the all-female pop group Spice Girls and was dubbed Posh Spice by the July 1996 issue of the British pop music magazine Top of the Pops...
, Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. She made her recording debut with the release of her eponymous studio album in 1990, under the guidance of Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola, whom she later married in 1993...
, Melanie Blatt
Melanie Blatt
Melanie Ruth Blatt is a singer, actress, television personality and was a member of the multi-million selling girl group All Saints. Following their split she launched a solo career.-Early life:...
, Paris Hilton
Paris Hilton
Paris Whitney Hilton is an American businesswoman, heiress, and socialite. She is a great-granddaughter of Conrad Hilton . Hilton is known for her controversial participation in a sex tape in 2003, and appearance on the television series The Simple Life alongside fellow socialite and childhood...
, Jordan
Jordan (Katie Price)
Katie Price , previously known under the pseudonym Jordan, is an English media personality, author, former glamour model, occasional singer and businesswoman....
, Anna Kournikova
Anna Kournikova
Anna Sergeyevna Kournikova is a Russian retired professional tennis player. Her beauty and celebrity status made her one of the best known tennis stars worldwide, despite the fact that she never won a WTA singles title. At the peak of her fame, fans looking for images of Kournikova made her name...
, and Britney Spears
Britney Spears
Britney Jean Spears is an American recording artist and entertainer. Born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, Spears began performing as a child, landing acting roles in stage productions and television shows. She signed with Jive Records in 1997 and released her debut album...
waned within the decade.
Specially designed trousers such as low-rise jeans
Low-rise jeans
Low-rise jeans, worn by both men and women, are jeans intended to sit low on, or below, the hips. They are also called lowcut jeans, hipsters, hip-huggers and lowriders. Usually they sit at least 8 centimetres lower than the belly button...
or hip-huggers and higher cut thongs lead to greater exposure of the whale tail. The trend was also associated with the trend of sporting lower back tattoo
Lower back tattoo
A lower back tattoo is a body decoration. Such tattoos have become popular since the late 1990s. They are commonly derided as suggestive of promiscuity and often referred to as "tramp stamps" and other slang terms. The German term Arschgeweih can be translated as 'ass antlers'...
s. The word was selected by the American Dialect Society
American Dialect Society
The American Dialect Society, founded in 1889, is a learned society "dedicated to the study of the English language in North America, and of other languages, or dialects of other languages, influencing it or influenced by it." The Society publishes the academic journal, American Speech...
in January 2006 as the "most creative word" of 2005. The concepts of visible panty line
Panty line
A visible panty line is the situation when the outline of a person's underwear is visible through the clothing. The underpants may be seen as a ridge or depression in the clothes, or as a result of the clothing material being sufficiently transparent....
, buttock cleavage
Buttock cleavage
Buttock cleavage is minor exposure of the buttocks and the gluteal cleft between them, often because of low-slung or loose trousers. The crena is another formal term for the cleft between the buttocks.- History :...
, and sagging
Sagging (fashion)
Sagging is a manner of wearing trousers below the waist, hanging below the waist area and therefore revealing much of the underwear. Sagging is predominantly a male fashion...
are closely related to the whale tail.
History
The increased popularity of low-rise jeans led to increased exposure of the whale tails in the early 2000s, which quickly became mainstream as a GucciGucci
The House of Gucci, better known simply as Gucci , is an Italian fashion and leather goods label, part of the Gucci Group, which is owned by French company PPR...
model revealed one on the catwalk, Melanie Blatt
Melanie Blatt
Melanie Ruth Blatt is a singer, actress, television personality and was a member of the multi-million selling girl group All Saints. Following their split she launched a solo career.-Early life:...
of All Saints
All Saints (band)
All Saints were a British/Canadian girl group. Founded in 1993 as All Saints 1.9.7.5, the group consisted of founding members Melanie Blatt and Shaznay Lewis, and sisters Nicole Appleton and Natalie Appleton...
was photographed flashing her thong as she got out of a taxi, and Victoria Beckham
Victoria Beckham
Victoria Caroline Beckham is an English singer-songwriter, dancer, model, actress, fashion designer and businesswoman. In the late 1990s, Beckham rose to fame with the all-female pop group Spice Girls and was dubbed Posh Spice by the July 1996 issue of the British pop music magazine Top of the Pops...
suggested that her husband enjoyed wearing her G-strings around the home. Britney Spears
Britney Spears
Britney Jean Spears is an American recording artist and entertainer. Born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, Spears began performing as a child, landing acting roles in stage productions and television shows. She signed with Jive Records in 1997 and released her debut album...
has been portrayed as a major contributor to the whale tail's popularity. Her whale tail flashing
Exhibitionism
Exhibitionism refers to a desire or compulsion to expose parts of one's body – specifically the genitals or buttocks of a man or woman, or the breasts of a woman – in a public or semi-public circumstance, in crowds or groups of friends or acquaintances, or to strangers...
has been referred to in such creative literature books as Married to a Rock Star by Shemane Nugent, Thong on Fire by Noire, The Magical Breasts of Britney Spears by Ryan G. Van Cleave
Ryan G. Van Cleave
Ryan Van Cleave is an American poet, editor, and creative writing teacher. In 2010, he published Unplugged: My Journey into the Dark World of Video Game Addiction, which was the first memoir on video game addiction; subsequently he became a popular speaker on digital addiction & recovery at...
, and Off-Color by Janet McDonald
Janet McDonald
Janet McDonald was an American writer of novels for young adults as well as a memoir, Project Girl, about her own upbringing and education. Her best-known children's book is Spellbound, which tells the story of a teenaged mother who wins a spelling competition and a college scholarship...
. The Oregonian
The Oregonian
The Oregonian is the major daily newspaper in Portland, Oregon, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 1850...
, a Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
, newspaper, wrote in 2004 that an abundance of whale tails had become a distraction on the campus. Social commentator Ann C. Hall identified this campus trend as an "apparent intersection between everyday campus fashion and soft porn". The layered clothing trend of the early 2000s was partly led by the whale tail style that incorporates hip-hugger jeans, crop top
Crop top
A crop top is a T-shirt or blouse with the lower part cut off, showing of some of the abdomen. The half shirt is a kind of shirt that is cut off from the bottom of the chest....
s and high riding thongs
Thong (clothing)
The thong is a garment generally worn as either underwear or as a swimsuit in many industrialized societies around the world. It may also be worn for traditional ceremonies or competitions such as sumo wrestling...
popularized by celebrities.
By the mid 2000s, whale tails became common to celebrities, providing opportunities to the papparazzi. Whale tail flashing spawned a new accessory — clip-on jewelry for the visible straps. Jess Cartner-Morley of The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
claimed that following pop star
Pop Star
"Pop Star" is a 2005 single from Japanese singer Ken Hirai. The single went on to top the 2005 Oricon Charts and is known for its remarkable music video, featuring Ken in seven different personas, including a raccoon and his own manager. The Video also helped Ken break into the US and Canadian...
s in the hipster trousers gave rise to the "low-slung jeans, whale-tail G-string era". On 17 September 2004, a writer for the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
stated, "Britney Spears
Britney Spears
Britney Jean Spears is an American recording artist and entertainer. Born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, Spears began performing as a child, landing acting roles in stage productions and television shows. She signed with Jive Records in 1997 and released her debut album...
and Christina Aguilera
Christina Aguilera
Christina María Aguilera is an American recording artist and actress. Aguilera first appeared on national television in 1990 as a contestant on the Star Search program, and went on to star in Disney Channel's television series The Mickey Mouse Club from 1993–1994...
regularly were photographed with thong straps riding high above their low-rise jeans. And even usually tasteful Halle Berry
Halle Berry
Halle Berry is an American actress and a former fashion model. Berry received an Emmy, Golden Globe, SAG, and an NAACP Image Award for Introducing Dorothy Dandridge and won an Academy Award for Best Actress and was nominated for a BAFTA Award in 2001 for her performance in Monster's Ball, becoming...
succumbed to the thong craze by attending an awards show with bejeweled thong straps peeking out from above her miniskirt." Actresses Gillian Anderson
Gillian Anderson
Gillian Leigh Anderson is an American actress.After beginning her career in theatre, Anderson achieved international recognition for her role as Special Agent Dana Scully on the American television series The X-Files. During the show's nine seasons, Anderson won Emmy, Golden Globe, and Screen...
, Natalie Portman
Natalie Portman
Natalie Hershlag , better known by her stage name Natalie Portman, is an actress with dual American and Israeli citizenship. Her first role was as an orphan taken in by a hitman in the 1994 French action film Léon, but major success came when she was cast as Padmé Amidala in the Star Wars prequel...
, Sarah Jessica Parker
Sarah Jessica Parker
Sarah Jessica Parker is an American film, television, and theater actress and producer.She is best known for her leading role as Carrie Bradshaw on the HBO television series Sex and the City , for which she won four Golden Globe Awards, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, and two Emmy Awards...
, Kim Cattrall
Kim Cattrall
Kim Victoria Cattrall is an English actress. She is known for her role as Samantha Jones in the HBO comedy/romance series Sex and the City, and for her leading roles in the 1980s films Police Academy, Big Trouble in Little China, Mannequin, and Porky's...
and Tara Reid
Tara Reid
Tara Donna Reid is an American actress. Reid has acted on television shows such as Saved By The Bell: The New Class, Days of our Lives, California Dreams, and Scrubs....
, MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
's Molly Sims
Molly Sims
Molly Sims is an American model and actress. Sims is known for her appearances in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issues and her role as Delinda Deline in the NBC drama Las Vegas. She is also an ambassador for Operation Smile...
, model Kate Moss
Kate Moss
Kate Moss is an English model. Moss is known for her waifish figure and popularising the heroin chic look in the 1990s. She is also known for her controversial private life, high profile relationships, party lifestyle, and drug use. Moss changed the look of modelling and started a global debate on...
, singers Beyoncé Knowles
Beyoncé Knowles
Beyoncé Giselle Knowles , often known simply as Beyoncé, is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Born and raised in Houston, Texas, she enrolled in various performing arts schools and was first exposed to singing and dancing competitions as a child...
, Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. She made her recording debut with the release of her eponymous studio album in 1990, under the guidance of Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola, whom she later married in 1993...
, Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lynn Lopez is an American actress, singer, record producer, dancer, television personality, and fashion designer. Lopez began her career as a dancer on the television comedy program In Living Color. Subsequently venturing into acting, she gained recognition in the 1995 action-thriller...
, Janet Jackson
Janet Jackson
Janet Damita Jo Jackson is an American recording artist and actress. Known for a series of sonically innovative, socially conscious and sexually provocative records, as well as elaborate stage shows, television and film roles, she has been a prominent figure in popular culture for over 25 years...
, LeAnn Rimes
LeAnn Rimes
LeAnn Rimes is an American country/pop singer. She is known for her rich vocals and her rise to fame as an eight-year-old champion on the original Ed McMahon version of Star Search, followed by the release of the Patsy Cline-intended single "Blue" when Rimes was only age 13, resulting in her...
and Britney Spears have been associated as propagators of the trend by American Broadcasting Company
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
.
In France, clothing brands started creating the thong or le string in styles that encourages a projection above low-hung jeans, such as designs that had little jewels or luminous stars sewn into the rear. In India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, thongs peeked out of low-rise jeans in page three parties
Page 3 Culture
Page 3 Culture is the name given to tabloid culture, India's partying, high society or upper class, metropolitan culture, specifically Mumbai and Delhi, which features on Page Three tabloid newspaper feature.-Description:...
and university bashes. India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n model Shefali Zariwala
Shefali Zariwala
Shefali Zariwala is an actress who has appeared in a number of Hindi music videos, and a Bollywood film. She first captured media and public attention through her controversial appearance in a thong in the music video Kaanta Laga, after which she became known as the "thong girl"...
flashed a whale tail in the MTV Immies
MTV Immies
The MTV Immies are held every year with an aim to award the best talents in the Indian music industry. In 2005 The Immies supported relief for the quake victims of India and Pakistan. Also, proceeds from donor passes were given to the Prime Minister's Relief Fund...
-winning music video "Kaanta Lagaa" and shot to fame and public debate in 2003. In Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, clothing company Sanna's brought forward an extreme low-rise hip-hugging jeans design with built-in thong whale tails. R&B artist Sisqó
Sisqó
Mark Durrell Andrews , known by his stage name Sisqó, is an American R&B singer and actor. He is best known as the lead singer of R&B group Dru Hill, and also for "Thong Song", a song from his first solo LP, Unleash the Dragon, that became an international hit. - Biography :Sisqó was born Mark...
rhapsodized about whale tails in his "Thong Song
Thong Song
"Thong Song" is a 2000 song recorded by Sisqó of Dru Hill for the Def Soul imprint of Def Jam. The song was issued as the second single from Sisqó's Unleash the Dragon LP in February 2000, and was its second biggest hit....
"
Legal debates
In 2004, LouisianaLouisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
, USA
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
State Representative Derrick Shepherd proposed a bill (HB1626), also known as the Baggy Pants Bill to Louisiana House of Representatives
Louisiana House of Representatives
The Louisiana House of Representatives is the lower house in the Louisiana State Legislature, the state legislature of the US state of Louisiana. The House is composed of 105 Representatives, each of whom represents approximately 42,500 people . Members serve four-year terms with a term limit of...
. The bill proposed that "it shall be unlawful for any person to appear in public wearing his pants below his waist and thereby exposing his skin or intimate clothing" and that violators would be subjected to three eight-hour days of community service and a fine of up to $175. The measure died in the face of opposition from the American Civil Liberties Union
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union is a U.S. non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." It works through litigation, legislation, and...
. The bill was proposed again in 2008 and was rejected by a state Senate panel. In two Louisiana towns, Delcambre
Delcambre, Louisiana
Delcambre is a town in Iberia and Vermilion parishes in the U.S. state of Louisiana, located twelve miles east of Abbeville on Louisiana Highway 14 in the Cajun Heartland of Acadiana. The Delcambre Canal, also known as Bayou Carlin, passes through the town and is home for much of the local fishing...
(a maximum penalty of $615 fine or up to six months in prison) and Opelousas
Opelousas, Louisiana
Opelousas is a city in and the parish seat of St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, United States. It lies at the junction of Interstate 49 and U.S. Route 190. The population was 22,860 at the 2000 census. Although the 2006 population estimate was 23,222, a 2004 annexation should put the city's...
(a maximum penalty of $500 fine or up to six months in prison), wearing low slung pants that reveal buttock cleavage
Buttock cleavage
Buttock cleavage is minor exposure of the buttocks and the gluteal cleft between them, often because of low-slung or loose trousers. The crena is another formal term for the cleft between the buttocks.- History :...
or undergarments is considered a misdemeanor. Garments that reveal underpants were banned in four other Louisiana towns including Alexandria
Alexandria, Louisiana
Alexandria is a city in and the parish seat of Rapides Parish, Louisiana, United States. It lies on the south bank of the Red River in almost the exact geographic center of the state. It is the principal city of the Alexandria metropolitan area which encompasses all of Rapides and Grant parishes....
and Shreveport
Shreveport, Louisiana
Shreveport is the third largest city in Louisiana. It is the principal city of the fourth largest metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana and is the 109th-largest city in the United States....
, where violators face fines of $150 or 15 days in jail, as well as Hawkinsville, Georgia
Hawkinsville, Georgia
Hawkinsville is a city in Pulaski County, Georgia, United States. The population was 7,487 at the 2010 census. The city is the county seat of Pulaski County.-Geography:Hawkinsville is located at ....
.
In February 2005, the Senate Courts of Justice Committee
Senate of Virginia
The Senate of Virginia is the upper house of the Virginia General Assembly. The Senate is composed of 40 Senators representing an equal number of single-member constituent districts. The Senate is presided over by the Lieutenant Governor of Virginia...
of Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
voted unanimously in a hastily convened meeting against a bill proposed by Delegate
Delegate (United States Congress)
A delegate to Congress is a non-voting member of the United States House of Representatives who is elected from a U.S. territory and from Washington, D.C. to a two-year term. While unable to vote in the full House, a non-voting delegate may vote in a House committee of which the delegate is a member...
Algie T. Howell Jr. (Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....
) to impose a $50 fine on any person who publicly and intentionally "wears and displays his below-waist undergarments, intended to cover a person's intimate parts, in a lewd or indecent manner" in a public place. The bill (HB1981), also known as the Droopy Drawers Bill, was earlier passed by Virginia House of Delegates
Virginia House of Delegates
The Virginia House of Delegates is the lower house of the Virginia General Assembly. It has 100 members elected for terms of two years; unlike most states, these elections take place during odd-numbered years. The House is presided over by the Speaker of the House, who is elected from among the...
by a 60–34 vote. Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
, Dallas, Texas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
, Baltimore, Maryland, Charlotte, North Carolina
Charlotte, North Carolina
Charlotte is the largest city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the seat of Mecklenburg County. In 2010, Charlotte's population according to the US Census Bureau was 731,424, making it the 17th largest city in the United States based on population. The Charlotte metropolitan area had a 2009...
, Yonkers, New York
Yonkers, New York
Yonkers is the fourth most populous city in the state of New York , and the most populous city in Westchester County, with a population of 195,976...
, Duncan, Oklahoma
Duncan, Oklahoma
Duncan is a city in Stephens County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 23,431 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Stephens County.The official birthdate of the town is considered to be when the first train arrived there on June 27, 1892...
, Natchitoches, Louisiana
Natchitoches, Louisiana
Natchitoches is a city in and the parish seat of Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, United States. Established in 1714 by Louis Juchereau de St. Denis as part of French Louisiana, the community was named after the Natchitoches Indian tribe. The City of Natchitoches was first incorporated on February...
, Stratford, Connecticut
Stratford, Connecticut
Stratford is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, located on Long Island Sound at the mouth of the Housatonic River. It was founded by Puritans in 1639....
, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Pine Bluff is the largest city and county seat of Jefferson County, Arkansas, United States. It is also the principal city of the Pine Bluff Metropolitan Statistical Area and part of the Little Rock-North Little Rock-Pine Bluff, Arkansas Combined Statistical Area...
, and Trenton
Trenton, New Jersey
Trenton is the capital of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Trenton had a population of 84,913...
and Pleasantville
Pleasantville, New Jersey
-Local government:Pleasantville operates under the City form of New Jersey municipal government, led by a Mayor and a seven-member City Council. The City Council consists of two members elected from wards to three-year terms, and five members elected at-large to four-year terms in office, all of...
of New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
, as well as three other Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
towns including Rome
Rome, Georgia
Located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, Rome is the largest city and the county seat of Floyd County, Georgia, United States. It is the principal city of the Rome, Georgia Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Floyd County...
Brunswick
Brunswick, Georgia
Brunswick is the major urban and economic center in southeastern Georgia in the United States. The municipality is located on a harbor near the Atlantic Ocean, approximately 30 miles north of Florida and 70 miles south of South Carolina. Brunswick is bordered on the east by the Atlantic...
and Plains
Plains, Georgia
Plains is a city in Sumter County, Georgia, United States. The population was 776 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Americus Micropolitan Statistical Area.-Notable people:...
have seen attempts to ban underwear peeking over the pants. School dress codes sometimes also banned some low-rising pants or visible underwear.
Decline
By the end of the decade whale tails suffered a bit of a backlash. Trinny WoodallTrinny Woodall
Trinny Woodall is an English fashion advisor and designer, television presenter and author. She was raised in a wealthy family and was privately educated...
, presenter of BBC1's What Not to Wear, described women who wore thongs showing above their trousers as "disgusting". Jessica Kaminsky wrote in I Hate the Gym, a lifestyle commentary, "I hate when girls let their "whale tails" creep out of their pants." In 2007, religious writer Tamie Bixler Lung wrote, "There is something wrong when Christian guys and girls want to run around with their underwear hanging out the top of their pants, or their thong strap sticking out the back of their low-rise jeans." In 2008, model and reality TV star Jodie Marsh
Jodie Marsh
Jodie Marsh is an English media personality, former glamour model and bodybuilder. She has appeared topless in many tabloid newspapers and has appeared in her own reality show, Totally Jodie Marsh.-Early life:...
said, "Showing your thong is a bit old now."
The trend of wearing whale tail-revealing jeans started to dissipate somewhat in the late 2000s when American clothing designers started shifting focus from low-slung jeans and exposed midriffs to high-waisted trousers and cardigans. Jess Cartner-Morley, fashion writer of The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, claimed that the whale tail and the muffin top
Muffin top
"Muffin-top" is a generally pejorative slang term used to describe the phenomenon of overhanging flesh when it spills over the waistline of pants or skirts in a manner that resembles the top of a muffin spilling over its paper casing.- Origin :...
(the bulge of flesh hanging over the top of low-rider jeans), "twin crimes of modern fashion", had led to the decline in the popularity of hipster jeans. She quoted Louise Hunn, editor of the British edition of InStyle, as saying — "When a look goes too mainstream, people start wearing it badly. And then the really fashionable people run a mile". While the thong still represented 24% of the US$2.5 billion annual market in women's underwear, it stopped growing by end of 2004. By 2007, thongs were overtaken by boyshorts
Boyshorts
Boy shorts, also known as boy short panties, boys' cut, booty shorts, shorties, tap panties or boyleg briefs are a kind of women's underwear that goes all the way down the hips, named for their similarity in looks to men's knit boxer shorts, which themselves are a variation on traditional boxer...
and accounted for only 12% of the knickers market. Some vendors, including Victoria's Secret
Victoria's Secret
Victoria's Secret is an American retailer of women's wear, lingerie and beauty products. It is the largest segment of publicly-traded Limited Brands with sales of over US$5 billion and an operating income of $1 billion in 2006...
and DKNY
DKNY
DKNY is a label of fashion designer Donna Karan. It is also the name of a clothing store in New York City featuring Donna Karan's associated line.-History:...
, started selling thongs that do not result in whale tails. Adam Lippes, founder of the lingerie line Adam + Eve, said, "Women got tired of it. And they got sick and tired of seeing string hanging out of the top of every celebrity's jeans."
Socio-cultural analysis
Attributing whale tails to mainstreamingMainstreaming
Pilot or policy Mainstreaming is the act of broadening the application of a change or innovation from a small-scale pilot to the whole of a programme or policy domain. It involves recognising that the results of an experiment are positive and the learning deserves to be applied more widely...
of the sexualization
Sexualization
The definition of the term, Sexualization has been the subject of debate and dispute. It has been described as the act or process of sexualizing. It refers to the making of a person, group or thing to be seen as sexual in nature or a person to become aware of sexuality...
of young women, The Press Democrat termed the trend as "stripper
Stripper
A stripper is a professional erotic dancer who performs a contemporary form of striptease at strip club establishments, public exhibitions, and private engagements. Unlike in burlesque, the performer in the modern Americanized form of stripping minimizes the interaction of customer and dancer,...
chic". Post-modern thinker Yasmin Jiwani and co-writers described the trend in Girlhood: Redefining the Limits as an attempt to redefine girlhood while acknowledging the debate around it. The book termed the trend as the defined look popularized by Britney Spears. Some experts even dubbed whale tail flashing as "thong feminism" for young girls. Other experts accused marketers of "outrageous selling of sex to children".
One conjecture assumes that the style of exposed thong may have "bubbled-up" from the street level
Street fashion
Street fashion is a term used to describe fashion that is considered to have emerged not from studios, but from the grassroots. Street fashion is generally associated with youth culture, . Japanese street fashion sustains multiple simultaneous highly diverse fashion movements at any given time....
to the high street
High Street
High Street, or the High Street, is a metonym for the generic name of the primary business street of towns or cities, especially in the United Kingdom. It is usually a focal point for shops and retailers in city centres, and is most often used in reference to retailing...
s, like the jeans and t-shirt
T-shirt
A T-shirt is a style of shirt. A T-shirt is buttonless and collarless, with short sleeves and frequently a round neck line....
look of James Dean
James Dean
James Byron Dean was an American film actor. He is a cultural icon, best embodied in the title of his most celebrated film, Rebel Without a Cause , in which he starred as troubled Los Angeles teenager Jim Stark...
. Another assumes the fad was initiated by glamor model Jordan
Jordan (Katie Price)
Katie Price , previously known under the pseudonym Jordan, is an English media personality, author, former glamour model, occasional singer and businesswoman....
in England and singers Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. She made her recording debut with the release of her eponymous studio album in 1990, under the guidance of Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola, whom she later married in 1993...
and Spears in the United States. The phenomenon has been compared to the phenomenon of visible bra
Brassiere
A brassiere is an undergarment that covers, supports, and elevates the breasts. Since the late 19th century, it has replaced the corset as the most widely accepted method for supporting breasts....
straps. Saying that "just as Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
made bras a public garment in the 1980s, Ms. Lewinsky
Monica Lewinsky
Monica Samille Lewinsky is an American woman with whom United States President Bill Clinton admitted to having had an "improper relationship" while she worked at the White House in 1995 and 1996...
, Paris Hilton
Paris Hilton
Paris Whitney Hilton is an American businesswoman, heiress, and socialite. She is a great-granddaughter of Conrad Hilton . Hilton is known for her controversial participation in a sex tape in 2003, and appearance on the television series The Simple Life alongside fellow socialite and childhood...
and Britney Spears transformed women's panties into a provocative garment intended for public display", the New York Times claimed that the thong, with straps worn high over the hips and exposed by fashionable low-rise jeans and "Juicy Couture
Juicy Couture
Juicy Couture is a contemporary line of both casual and dressy apparel based in Arleta, Los Angeles, California founded by Pamela Skaist-Levy and Gela Nash-Taylor in 1996...
" sweat pants, had become a public icon.
Term usage
"Whale tail" was selected by the American Dialect SocietyAmerican Dialect Society
The American Dialect Society, founded in 1889, is a learned society "dedicated to the study of the English language in North America, and of other languages, or dialects of other languages, influencing it or influenced by it." The Society publishes the academic journal, American Speech...
(a group of linguists, editors, and academics) in January 2006 as the "most creative word" of 2005, winning with 44 votes. The other nominations for the year were muffin top
Muffin top
"Muffin-top" is a generally pejorative slang term used to describe the phenomenon of overhanging flesh when it spills over the waistline of pants or skirts in a manner that resembles the top of a muffin spilling over its paper casing.- Origin :...
(25 votes), flee-ancée (a reference to runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks
Jennifer Wilbanks
The runaway bride case was the case of Jennifer Carol Wilbanks , an American woman who ran away from home on April 26, 2005, in order to avoid her wedding with John Mason, her fiancé, on April 30. Her disappearance from Duluth, Georgia, sparked a nationwide search and intensive media coverage,...
, 15 votes), and pinosaur (a very old Wollemi pine
Wollemi Pine
Wollemia is a genus of coniferous tree in the family Araucariaceae. Wollemia was only known through fossil records until the Australian species Wollemia nobilis was discovered in 1994 in a temperate rainforest wilderness area of the Wollemi National Park in New South Wales, in a remote series of...
tree near Australia’s Blue Mountains, 6 votes). It has been reported that Wayne Glowka, member of the Georgia College and State University faculty and head of the New Word Committee of the Dialect Society, was in favor of "muffin top" for the top spot, while Grant Barrett, project editor of the Historical Dictionary of American Slang, was in favor of "whale tail", at the Society's 6 January 2006 conclave to decide the winners of the year in Albuquerque.
While discussing these new coinages, Sali Tagliamonte, associate professor of linguistics at the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
, observed that young women in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
were ahead of young men as influencers. The use of the word to indicate an underwear phenomenon has shown up in serious mainstream news media, sometimes in reference to the pop stars who made the fashion trend popular. Wayne Glowka, member of the Georgia College and State University faculty and head of the New Word Committee of the Dialect Society, said about the happening, "Language is just going on its merry way, creating many new words. It's time for men to win something."
Though the word is not included in major formal dictionaries, web-based user-generated dictionaries like the Urban Dictionary
Urban Dictionary
Urban Dictionary is a Web-based dictionary of slang words and phrases, which contained over 6 million definitions . Submissions are regulated by volunteer editors and rated by site visitors...
(which provides "pull me thong" as an alternative term for whale tail), the Double-Tongued Dictionary and the Wiktionary
Wiktionary
Wiktionary is a multilingual, web-based project to create a free content dictionary, available in 158 languages...
, have entries for the word. The book compilation of Urban Dictionary describes the whale tail as "the shape formed when a G-string rides up high over a woman's pants or skirt". The Dialect Society mentioned "longhorn" as an alternate term for the whale tail. A related term – sagging
Sagging (fashion)
Sagging is a manner of wearing trousers below the waist, hanging below the waist area and therefore revealing much of the underwear. Sagging is predominantly a male fashion...
– implies the practice of wearing pants
Trousers
Trousers are an item of clothing worn on the lower part of the body from the waist to the ankles, covering both legs separately...
or shorts
Shorts
Shorts are a bifurcated garment worn by both men and women over their pelvic area, circling the waist, and covering the upper part of the legs, sometimes extending down to or even below the knee, but not covering the entire length of the leg. They are called "shorts" because they are a shortened...
below the waist so as to reveal some or all of the wearer's underwear
Undergarment
Undergarments or underwear are clothes worn under other clothes, often next to the skin. They keep outer garments from being soiled by bodily secretions and discharges, shape the body, and provide support for parts of it. In cold weather, long underwear is sometimes worn to provide additional...
. Another related term – buttock cleavage
Buttock cleavage
Buttock cleavage is minor exposure of the buttocks and the gluteal cleft between them, often because of low-slung or loose trousers. The crena is another formal term for the cleft between the buttocks.- History :...
– implies a minor exposure of the buttocks
Buttocks
The buttocks are two rounded portions of the anatomy, located on the posterior of the pelvic region of apes and humans, and many other bipeds or quadrupeds, and comprise a layer of fat superimposed on the gluteus maximus and gluteus medius muscles. Physiologically, the buttocks enable weight to...
and the gluteal cleft
Gluteal cleft
The intergluteal cleft, also known as the natal cleft, the vertical gluteal crease, and the gluteal cleft, is the groove between the buttocks that runs from just below the sacrum to the perineum, so named because it forms the visible border between the external rounded protrusions of the gluteus...
between them not covered by an underwear. A third related term – visible panty line
Panty line
A visible panty line is the situation when the outline of a person's underwear is visible through the clothing. The underpants may be seen as a ridge or depression in the clothes, or as a result of the clothing material being sufficiently transparent....
(VPL) – implies underwear becoming visible through clothes.
Use of the term beyond fashion
The term has other uses too, some in coinage even before the fashion connection. These uses encompass diverse areas like science (arterial branching, magnetization curvature), industrial design (photographic flash diffuser, bicycling saddles and helmets, power trowel handles, hydrofoils), art (sculptures, license plates), geography (beach formation), and one of the most popular automotive spoilersSpoiler (automotive)
A spoiler is an automotive aerodynamic device whose intended design function is to 'spoil' unfavorable air movement across a body of a vehicle in motion. Spoilers on the front of a vehicle are often called air dams, because in addition to directing air flow they also reduce the amount of air...
that spilled over into other vehicles as a fashion statement.
The most distal branch of the left anterior descending
Anterior interventricular branch of left coronary artery
The "LAD", or left anterior descending artery is an artery of the heart.-Course:...
(LAD), or the anterior interventricular branch of left coronary artery, at the apex
Apex of the heart
The apex of the heart is the lowest superficial part of the heart.It is directed downward, forward, and to the left, and is overlapped by the left lung and pleura.-External anatomy:...
is called a whale tail or a pitchfork. The LAD traverses the anterior interventricular sulcus, giving rise to septal and diagonal branches before bifurcating distally and tapering out as whale tails. A certain behavior of hysteretic magnetization
Magnetization
In classical electromagnetism, magnetization or magnetic polarization is the vector field that expresses the density of permanent or induced magnetic dipole moments in a magnetic material...
curves in bulk superconductors is described as a whale tail profile, which differs qualitatively from a plane tail profile. A flash diffuser designed by photographer Gary Fong
Gary Fong
Gary Fong is an American entrepreneur and former wedding photographer. After twenty years, Fong ended his photography career in 2002 to pursue business interests such as marketing photography products, luxury vacation rentals, yacht chartering, plastics manufacturing, a distribution and...
is dubbed as the "whale tail". In bicycling
Bicycle
A bicycle, also known as a bike, pushbike or cycle, is a human-powered, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A person who rides a bicycle is called a cyclist, or bicyclist....
terms, a style of saddle
Bicycle saddle
A bicycle saddle, often called a seat, is one of three contact points on an upright bicycle, the others being the pedals and the handlebars.The bicycle saddle has been known as such since the bicycle evolved from the draisine, a forerunner of the bicycle...
s designed for Wilderness Trail Bikes
Wilderness Trail Bikes
Wilderness Trail Bikes is a privately owned company based in Marin County, California, USA. Founded in 1983 as a company that specialized in mountain bicycle parts, today WTB sources and sells its product worldwide supplying bike manufacturers and bike shops with bike components such as tires,...
(WTB) is sometimes called a whale tail, as well as a certain array of LED blinker
Blinky (Novelty)
Blinkies are small electronic devices that make very bright light using LEDs and small batteries. They are often sold by vendors at night-time events that have fireworks displays such as Independence Day, Canada Day, or Guy Fawkes Night...
on bicycle helmet
Bicycle helmet
A bicycle helmet is a helmet intended to be worn while riding a bicycle. They are designed to attenuate impacts to the skull of a cyclist in falls while minimizing side effects such as interference with peripheral vision...
s.
A published article appearing in Trailer Boats magazine dated January 1989 describes a hydrofoil
Hydrofoil
A hydrofoil is a foil which operates in water. They are similar in appearance and purpose to airfoils.Hydrofoils can be artificial, such as the rudder or keel on a boat, the diving planes on a submarine, a surfboard fin, or occur naturally, as with fish fins, the flippers of aquatic mammals, the...
sold under the trade name "Whale Tail" as "a flat plate without the shape of a foil" and of one piece construction. A whale tail is also one of two types of guide handles commonly used on power trowel
Power trowel
A power trowel is a piece of light construction equipment used by construction companies and contractors, to apply a smooth finish to concrete slabs....
s, the other being a bicycle style handlebar. Reverence
Reverence (sculpture)
Reverence is a sculpture created by Jim Sardonis in 1989. The sculpture depicts two tails of whales "diving" into a sea of grass and is meant to symbolize the fragility of the planet...
, a 1989 sculpture created by Jim Sardonis on the side of Interstate Highway 89
Interstate 89
Interstate 89 is an interstate highway in the New England region of the United States travelling between Bow, New Hampshire and Highgate Springs, Vermont. As with all odd-numbered primary interstates, I-89 is signed as a north–south highway...
between Exits 12 and 13 in Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
, is popularly known as whale tails. A popular specialty license plate in California has been dubbed as a "whale tail license plate", as it features a the tail of a Pacific Humpback whale
Humpback Whale
The humpback whale is a species of baleen whale. One of the larger rorqual species, adults range in length from and weigh approximately . The humpback has a distinctive body shape, with unusually long pectoral fins and a knobbly head. It is an acrobatic animal, often breaching and slapping the...
's tail painted in pale blue by artist Robert Wyland. Three beaches in Destin, Florida
Destin, Florida
Destin is a city located in Okaloosa County, Florida. It is a principal city of the Fort Walton Beach-Crestview-Destin, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area.Located on Florida's Emerald Coast, Destin is known for its white beaches and emerald green waters...
, Puntarenas
Puntarenas
Puntarenas is the capital and largest city in the province Puntarenas, Costa Rica, at the Pacific coast. The eponymous and oddly shaped province has its largest section in the South, far from the capital.Some 100,000 live in the city and close towns...
in Costa Rica
Costa Rica
Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....
, and Sandy Bay, Jamaica
Sandy Bay, Jamaica
Sandy Bay, Jamaica is a seaside town in western Jamaica. There are several churches such as the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the Baptist Church, the Methodist Church, and the Church of God....
are named as Whale's Tail Beach for their shapes.
Porsche 930
The 930 was a sports car built by Porsche, 930 actually being the "type number" for the pre-964 generation 911 Turbo produced between 1975 and 1989...
and Porsche 935
Porsche 935
The Porsche 935 was introduced in 1976, as the factory racing version of the Porsche 911 turbo prepared for FIA-Group 5 rules. It was an evolution of the Porsche Carrera RSR 2.1 turbo prototype which had scored 2nd overall in the 1974 24 Hours of Le Mans....
race cars in 1973. Both types of spoilers were designed while Dr. Ernst Fuhrmann
Ernst Fuhrmann
Dr Ernst Fuhrmann was the chairman of Porsche AG between 1972 and 1980. He was a German citizen....
was serving as the Technical Director of Porsche AG
Porsche
Porsche Automobil Holding SE, usually shortened to Porsche SE a Societas Europaea or European Public Company, is a German based holding company with investments in the automotive industry....
. It was introduced to the Turbo in 1974 (as a part of the H-program), and as an option on non-turbo Carreras from 1975. Designed to reduce rear-end lift and so keep the car from oversteering at high speeds, the rubber-edges of the whale tail spoilers were thought to be "pedestrian friendly".
The Turbo, with its whale tail, became an instant hit. It also became one of the world's most recognizable sports cars, remaining in production for the next two decades in one form or another, with more than 23,000 sold by 1989, although from 1978, the rear spoiler was redesigned and dubbed teatray on account of its raised sides. These whale tail spoilers of the Porsche 911 caught on as a fashion statement, and the term has been used to refer to large rear spoilers on a number of automobiles, including Ford Sierra Cosworth
Ford Sierra
The Ford Sierra is a large family car that was built by Ford Europe from 1982 until 1993. It was designed by Uwe Bahnsen, Robert Lutz and Patrick le Quément. The code used during development was "Project Toni"....
, Focus, Chevrolet Camaro
Third-generation Chevrolet Camaro
The third-generation Chevrolet Camaro was introduced for the 1982 model year. It continued to use General Motors's F-body platform and would produce a "20th Anniversary Commemorative Edition" for 1987 and "25th Anniversary Heritage Edition" for 1992...
, and Saab 900
Saab 900
The Saab 900 was a car produced by Saab Automobile from 1978 until 1998 in two generations. The first generation from 1978 to 1993 is known as the "classic"; the generation from 1994 to 1998 is known as the "new generation" ....
. Whale tail spoilers also appear at the rear of tricycle
Tricycle
A tricycle is a three-wheeled vehicle. While tricycles are often associated with the small three-wheeled vehicles used by pre-school-age children, they are also used by adults for a variety of purposes. In the United States and Canada, adult-sized tricycles are used primarily by older persons for...
s, trucks, boats, and other vehicles.
See also
- Buttock cleavageButtock cleavageButtock cleavage is minor exposure of the buttocks and the gluteal cleft between them, often because of low-slung or loose trousers. The crena is another formal term for the cleft between the buttocks.- History :...
- Crop topCrop topA crop top is a T-shirt or blouse with the lower part cut off, showing of some of the abdomen. The half shirt is a kind of shirt that is cut off from the bottom of the chest....
- Muffin topMuffin top"Muffin-top" is a generally pejorative slang term used to describe the phenomenon of overhanging flesh when it spills over the waistline of pants or skirts in a manner that resembles the top of a muffin spilling over its paper casing.- Origin :...
- Spoiler (automotive): Whale tail