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Commandos in the Land of Lingerie
In the United States, people are sharply divided about whether undergarments should be worn neck to ankle, especially by women, whether they should be utilitarian, or simply for sexual provocation and excitement. Most people agree that some form of undergarment is necessary for people; that without them, there is something really wrong with a person - but especially women.
Some men insist that women be covered underneath her regular clothing from neck to ankle at all times except in the bath and in the bed, even while he has the option of wearing an undershirt and briefs. There are some comparatively liberalish men who feel that women should be able to opt whether or not they wear something more comfortable. There are still some others that believe women should be able to wear undergarments of their choosing, even if it's just a thong and nipple tassels.
In any case, the vast majority of men and women agree that undergarments are correct, even if minimalist. Something...anything...is better than nothing.
Simply, they are underwearers.
There is a smaller population, a marginalized community, that believes that undergarments are completely unnecessary. They are the nonderwearers. They recognize that people are born without them, and that although many different claims have been made about their necessity (breast support for the women; boxers help men's fertility by letting "the boys" hang free and loose; jockeys to hold men's packages neatly protected; etc), this subset of people knows that freeballin' doesn't harm the testicles...that while a bra can hold breasts upright, gravity catches up with all of us as a product of aging... and that no matter how snug those tightie whities are, old man balls will eventually develop.
This smaller population is disliked by the underwearers, by degree. The nonderwearers are called dirty, amoral, loose, unhygienic...the men are called dangerous, the women are called sluts. All because they don't buy into the notion that one must wear underwear to lead a good life. Nonderwearers know, though, that goin' commando has a few adjustments, especially when one was made to wear some form of undergarment from birth, but that all-in-all, life is much more free without the constraining bits of fabric.
Because this group of nonderwearers is such a small subset, and is highly distrusted by the majority of the population even though ugly things are said about them, they are pretty much left alone and treated as though they do not exist, like an evil boogieman or a monster, used to scare small children to keep their britches on.
Now, none of this is to suggest that there is no interaction, communication, and even in many cases friendships between underwearers and nonderwearers. In fact, there were, for generations, marriages and such between underwearers and nonderwearers who never let on that they only wore the undergarments to fit in. (Those types of relationships continue still.) Most nonderwearers never really let on their undergarment status one way or the other, figuring whether or not they wore undergarments wasn't anyone's business; many understood there were social risks involved in revealing that they didn't wear underwear, after all.
Except that after generations of nonderwearers made their small mark, inspiring younger generations, eventually the nonderwearers started seeking each other out, trying to form groups for solidarity. There were areas of disagreement, of course, which was to be expected. There were some nonderwearers who were adamantly anti-underwear, and who were antagonistic to underwearers for a variety of reasons. There were also nonderwearers who were more live-and-let-live, willing to support the right of underwearers to wear whatever they want, so long as they didn't try to force others into any, much less their specific, type of underwear. There were also nonderwearers who simply wanted to be left alone. More often than not, people got along, even while they disagreed from time to time. But because everyone -underwearers and nonderwearers- were all human beings, they were all subject to typical human flaws and frailties, such as ego, jealousy, envy...and some of the bigger things like homophobia, racism, sexism, xenophobia, etc etc etc.
In the underwearer community, social justice issues are rampant. Sides are regularly taken, especially in the political realm, with people wanting to know who wears what kind of underwear, and is it the right kind of underwear, and does it cover ENOUGH (of course with plenty of blame to heap onto women if their bras and panties aren't the right KIND, since it doesn't matter that nobody else can SEE the underwear, it's still HER fault if she's raped - typically without holding men accountable, since their underwear isn't designed to keep their dicks from getting hard, y'know). Plenty of political wrangling about where to wear certain types, who is taking it off in front of whom, and omigawd, are people wearing the proper COLORS ffs??
Most of the nonderwearers, of all varieties, observe the underwearers with a range of perspectives...from pity to annoyance to contempt, and in some cases, outright hostility. Yet, a few nonderwearers happen to notice that despite being nonderwearers, some of the same behaviors of underwearers are prevalent in their own community. There seem to be several men and women who want to know what is underneath clothing...what that lack looks like on different people. It isn't quite as big of a problem, in certain quarters of the community, as it seems in society at large, but it is still present. Some nonderwearers understand that, as part of the larger society, some of the social programming is pervasive, and in some cases pernicious.
At one point, a woman spoke out about an unverifiable event on an escalator, and was largely ostracized by many of her fellow nonderwearers, for speaking out about behaviors in their own community that *everyone* seemed to agree were prevalent among the underwearers. However, as events played out, her willingness to speak out, despite the backlash -even from one of the most prominent and outspoken nonderwearers who wrote a statement that she should hush about discomfort because there are women who are forced to wear razor-blade studded chastity belts under their neck-to-ankle underwear- other people began speaking out about their discomforts. As more people began talking, what became evident was that certain behaviors that were typical in the larger society were also typical in the the smaller subset community of nonderwearers.
About a year after the escalator fiasco, another nonderwearer woman had an idea. She wanted to open a group, a voluntary-entry group, opt-in if desired, where people could freely discuss matters of social concern being talked about by some, scoffed at in denial by others. A safe place. The idea was a proposal, with no formalized agenda, and no name. Someone suggested adding a letter...the letter e...partly to honor the woman from the escalator, partly to represent Everyone who understood and identified with the problems being discussed. The group's name, nonederwearers, was born and took off.
Almost immediately, the woman and her idea were vilified by other nonderwearers, who claimed that there were other groups handling social justice issues, and how DARE the nonederwearers co-opt the nonderwearers' name to even exist and provide another avenue for discussion?! That E was going to create a massive rift in the community! Those nonErrs were as bad and dangerous as the underwearers! Nonederwear rhymes with Underwear...the E is really for Eeeeeeevvvillll!!! Comments about personality disorders were hurled at nonederwearers by nonderwearers. Nonderwearers said things like, "Nonederwearing is pathology where you call people 'assholes' if they disagree with you" -- when in fact, one prominent nonderwearer who did not adopt the E, but who applauded the ideas presented, merely pointed out that, "...the assholes creep out of the woodwork to find excuses to tell these people, indirectly, that applying critical thinking to social issues is bad. Oh, they can’t come right out and say that, of course, because that would make their stupidity obvious; so they invent bizarre excuses..."
After weeks of getting verbally attacked and receiving personal threats, the woman whose idea became the Big E decided to step away and take a break. And the assholes cheered...never recognizing that they had created an environment every bit as hostile to members of their own community - for the sake of a single letter - as the underwearers made their larger society a hostile place to simply BE a nonderwearer...with or without the E. And at least the underwearers covered up their assholes with their undergarments instead of speaking out of them.
Since after all, opinions are kind like assholes. Everyone has one...nobody really wants to see 'em...and they usually reek of shit.
The E idea is a good one. It won't tear the nonderwearer community apart, and time will demonstrate that with clarity. Nobody is expected to join...there has been no insistence or threat of force. It is strictly voluntary. And as the E indicates, Everyone is welcome -- IF they can leave their intolerant egos at the door.
~*~
[Updated 29 Mar 2017 in honor of Jef; added some of the linkage to the actual events of 2011-2012, and the subsequent response from the "traditional nonderwearer" community-at-large, which explains, in small part, why I stepped away from the "movement" itself.]
