Five options for captions for Renee's boxer-briefs:
About Men's Undergarments
Ancient man, accustomed to wearing loincloths, added more layers by the fifth century. Diaper-like swaths of fabric were worn underneath to keep outer layers clean. Pull-on boxers and briefs entered the market in the 1930s, with eventual changes in fit and color that reflected fashion as equally as function – eroticizing garments once worn for practicality and modesty.
About the History of Diapers
Mothers once wrapped babies in animal skins, moss, leaves, or linen. Nineteenth-century parents with expensive furnishings to protect used thick cotton fabric fastened with safety pins and covered in wool or rubber. Wrappings in 1500s Europe were changed every few days; disposable diapers (available since the 1960s) are changed an average of five times a day.
About the Cultural Role of Diapering
A parent leaning over a baby to change his diaper communicates at close range with eye contact and smiles. At this young age, a baby’s sense of safety depends on physical connection and routine, like regular diapering. European babies in the 1500s were changed once every few days; babies today get this opportunity for caregiver bonding an average of five times a day.
About the Diapering Stage
Babies are seen as cute, powerless, and sexually and morally innocent. As a cultural activity, diapering represents the dependence a baby has on its caregivers, with adults performing a task that would be embarrassing at later ages. A child’s maturation can lead caregivers to idealize the diapering stage, when children are helpless and pure.
About Totemic Uses of Apparel
The ancient practice of wearing the clothing or bones of the dead or geographically distant persists today. Although stigmatized before the 1970s, attachment to a comfort object, such as a stuffed animal or item of clothing, is now seen as an acceptable way to ease the stress of separation.
