G-string

The term G-string is first attested in 1878.{{Citation | quote = Around each [Navajo] boy's waist is the tight "geestring", from which a single strip of cloth runs between the limbs from front to back - these two articles never being removed from the person in the presence of another.|author= J. H. Beadle |title=Western Wilds and the Men who redeem them |date= 1878

|page= 249 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101078191184&seq=11}} In the same book girdle and breech-clout is used for the same garment.{{Citation | quote = [the Moqui] often appear entirely naked, except the girdle and breech-clout.|author= J. H. Beadle |title=Western Wilds and the Men who redeem them |date= 1878

|page= 282 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101078191184&seq=11}} It originally denoted the loincloths worn by certain American Indians, and did not come to be used for a type of female undergarment until the 1920s. The significance of the G is unclear. Charles Fletcher Lummis said it resembled a capital 'G'.{{Citation | quote = so named, probably, because its convolutions somewhat resemble a capital G — is in Apachedom a strip of unbleached muslin about six feet long and two feet wide ; and after it has been knotted, the extremities form small aprons in front and rear|author= Charles F. Lummis |title= The Land of the Poco Tiempo |date= 1893 |page= 179 |publisher= C. Scribner's Sons |url= https://archive.org/details/landpocotiempo00lummgoog/page/n197/mode/2up?q=g+string&view=theater }} It has been suggested that it represents a euphemistic abbreviation of groin,{{Cite OED|G-string|1116244313}} or else that it is short for girdle; the term girdle-string is attested as early as 1846.{{cite web | url = http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/262/what-does-the-g-in-g-string-stand-for | title = What does the G in G-string stand for? | date = 2010-09-02 | last1 = Adams | first1 = Cecil | author-link1 = Cecil Adams | website = The Straight Dope | access-date = 2014-12-21 | quote = Littell's Living Age, Vol. IX, 1846: 'Their arms were a small hatchet, stuck in their girdle-string.' While that hardly proves G-string is an abbreviation of girdlestring, the fact that the latter word existed and means the same as G-string supports my conjecture that the shorter term derived from the longer. | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150225024121/http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/262/what-does-the-g-in-g-string-stand-for | archive-date = 2015-02-25 | url-status = live }}

There are numerous examples in 19th century newspapers of a girdle (as the belt of a breech clout) being the repository for scalps, tomahawks and knives of native americans{{cite web | url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/search/pages/results/?state=&date1=1800&date2=1900&proxtext=girdle+scalp&x=16&y=3&dateFilterType=yearRange&rows=20&searchType=basic | title=Chronicling America | Library of Congress }} and with the same meaning girdle string was still in use in 1899.{{Citation | quote = he stripped the scalp from his fallen enemy and tied the hair to his girdle string

|author= Charles T. Abbott |title=The Cliff Dweller's Daughter, 1899, page 249 |date= 1899 |publisher= F. Tennyson Neely |url= https://archive.org/details/cliffdwellersda00abbogoog/page/n242/mode/2up?q=girdle+string&view=theater}}

As attire for a dancer it is known from 1910 when Elbert Hubbard wrote: "Down in New York a girl gave a Salome dance in a G string and sandals"{{citation |title=The Philistine | date=April 1910 |url=https://archive.org/details/philistineaperi02nygoog/page/n150/mode/2up?q=%22g-string%22&view=theater}} and as beach wear from 1921.{{citation|title=Fringe sewed on beach queens who lack conscience |journal=The Coronado Strand

|location=Coronado, Ca.|date=August 20, 1921|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=CJ19210820.2.8

|quote=The women police go armed with a needle and thread and when a girl is discovered tastily clad in a gee string and a light sprinkling of tan, the coppess takes her to one side and sews on a fringe.}}

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The G-string first appeared in costumes worn by showgirls in the United States in Earl Carroll's productions during the 1920s,B. Foley, Undressed for Success: Beauty Contestants and Exotic Dancers as Merchants of Morality, page 143, Springer, 2016, {{ISBN|9781137040893}} a period known as the Jazz Age or the Roaring Twenties.{{cite book|first=Rachel |last=Shteir|title=Striptease:The Untold History of the Girlie Show|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mn48DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA202|access-date=10 March 2013|date=1 November 2004|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-512750-8|page=202}} Before the Great Depression most performers made their own G-strings or bought them from traveling salesmen, but from the 1930s they were usually purchased from commercial manufacturers of burlesque costumes.{{sfnp|Shteir|2004|page=201}} During the 1930s, the "Chicago G-string" gained prominence when worn by performers like Margie Hart. The Chicago area was the home of some of the largest manufacturers of G-strings and it also became the center of the burlesque shows in the United States. Early performers of color to wear a G-string on stage included the Latina stripper Chiquita Garcia in 1934, and "Princess Whitewing", a Native American stripper near the end of the decade.{{sfnp|Shteir|2004|page=205}}

The term G-string started to appear in Variety magazine during the 1930s. In New York City, G-strings were worn by female dancers at risqué Broadway theatre shows during the Jazz Age. During the 1930s and 1940s, the New York striptease shows in which G-strings were worn were described as "strong". In shows referred to as "weak" or "sweet" the stripper wore "net panties" instead. "Strong" shows usually took place only when the police were not present, and they became rarer after 1936 when Fiorello H. La Guardia, the Mayor of New York City, organized a series of police raids on burlesque shows{{cite book|first=Gypsy Rose|last=Lee|contributor-first=Rachel|contributor-last=Shteir|contribution=Afterword – Gypsy Rose Lee: "Striptease Intellectual"|title=The G-String Murders|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WeqMAgAAQBAJ|publisher=The Feminist Press at CUNY|year=2012|isbn=9781558617612}} and closed strip clubs in the city for the first time in its history. The Mayor also banned showgirls from performing fully nude at the 1939 New York World's Fair.{{cite news|newspaper=The New York Times|title=Who Gets to Wear G-Strings Now?|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/16/style/g-string-thong-trend.html|first=Mya|last=Guarnieri|date=16 July 2023}} Showgirls sometimes wore flesh-coloured G-strings to give the illusion that they were completely naked.{{cite book|title=Showgirls of Las Vegas|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EDUoFbrnPxEC&pg=PA84|first=Lisa|last=Gioia-Acres|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|date=2013|isbn=9780738596532|page=84}}

The American burlesque entertainer Gypsy Rose Lee is popularly associated with the G-string.{{cite book|title=Mama Rose's Turn: The True Story of America's Most Notorious Stage Mother|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JRacAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA239|author=Carolyn Quinn|publisher=University Press of Mississippi|year=2013|isbn=9781617038532|page=239}} Her striptease performances often included the wearing of a G-string; in a memoir written by her son Erik Lee Preminger she is described as gluing on a black lace G-string with spirit gum in preparation for a performance.

By the late 1980s G-strings had become widely available in the Western world, and they became increasingly popular during the 1990s.{{cite book|title=Research on Gender and Sexualities in Africa|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9egvDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA80|first=Valerie|last=Opiyo|chapter=The 'G-String' as a Space for Sexual and Political Imagination|editor1-first=Jane|editor1-last=Bennett|editor2-first=Tamale|editor2-last=Sylvia|publisher=Codesria|date=2017|isbn=9782869787124|pages=80–81}} Men's G-strings had developed from garments worn by physical culture and bodybuilding models,{{sfnp|Cole|2018|page=115}} and in 1994 a men's G-string was the best selling design of HOM, a luxury men's underwear brand owned by Triumph International. Other underwear brands, such as Sloggi and Jockey International, also introduced men's G-strings.{{sfnp|Cole|2018|page=109}} In Africa the G-string has become a fashionable item of clothing for young women, and they are often visible above the back of low-rise jeans as a whale tail. As lingerie they are sometimes worn with a babydoll.{{sfnp|Martin|Lehu|2009|page=360}}

In modern strip clubs the strippers often wear G-strings and the customers often give them tips by placing banknotes in their G-strings.{{cite book|title=Behind the G-String: An Exploration of the Stripper's Image, Her Person and Her Meaning|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GH2FAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA9|first=David A.|last=Scott|publisher=McFarland Incorporated|date=2003|isbn=9780786418497|page=9}} The wearing of G-strings in strip clubs is required in some jurisdictions under laws that prohibit public nudity.{{cite book|title=Raw Judicial Power?: The Supreme Court and American Society|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D-nBAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA234|first=Robert J.|last=McKeever|publisher=Manchester University Press|date=1995|isbn=9780719048739|page=234}} Some regulations cover the design of G-string allowed. These regulations have in many cases been determined by liquor boards and can differ significantly over a short distance. The constitutional legality of such regulations has been upheld in two cases by the US Supreme Court, when it had to rule on whether First Amendment rights were being infringed.

Disposable G-strings are sometimes worn for modesty when spray tan is being applied at a beauty salon.{{cite book|title=Professional Beauty Therapy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xENMDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA657|page=657|first1=Lorraine|last1=Nordmann|first2=Andrea|last2=Day|publisher=Cengage AU|date=2017|isbn=9780170386272|version=Australia and New Zealand Edition}}

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Category:20th-century fashion

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