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OK, so I have been skim reading too many yaoi fanfics whilst trying to finish my own. That means lots of men taking their clothes off or, as many authors put it, stripping down to their boxers. Apparently men wear boxers whether they live in Japan or in a fantasy land, in a cave or in a village, in the past or in the future. Maybe some words stand out to me while others don't. It's probably my age in that I know that many words used now weren't commonly used ten, twenty or even thirty years ago. And there are worse examples than 'boxers', like brand names turning up in the wrong culture or era. Sometimes it feels like there is a team of time-travelling, universe-hopping marketing men specialising in product placement. There again, maybe boxers are particularly annoying. All those beautiful, long-haired men wearing cloaks and wielding swords who turn out to be wearing boxers under their breeches. Somehow I had something more exotic in mind. My serious point is that a writer uses words to build a world to share with his/her readers so each should be selected with care.

Most of the fanfic I read and write is set in the American West, circa 1870s, and it irks me as well when the men are wearing boxers when they weren't developed for about 60 more years and the word wasn't even in use until 1944 (according to Webster's). Or when they unzip their pants (zippers were invented in 1913). So my characters go commando often, like purported inventor of the suit, Beau Brummell, one of whose "foibles (shared by most fashionable men of his generation) was to eschew underwear. The clean cut of the early nineteenth century trouser was far too important to be disturbed by visible panty lines." from http://suite101.com/article/why-do-men-wear-suits--five-things-you-didnt-know-about-fashion-a311982#ixzz1Bz2UVIP8 Unless it's cold, then they wear a union suit or 'combinations' (a two part union suit), but that's a pain to get off for a hot sex scene. And I've always wanted to use a codpiece like Henry VIII's in a Renaissance time period A little research into a story's time period can go a long way.

I want to cheer this as well. Although, Bronxie, did the little elf pout at you as hard as he's pouting at me for the pantsu comment? Pantsu are by the way also known as shimapan, those cute little, Japanese anime meme striped girly panties, for those of you who don't know As for myself personally, I agree with Bronx on the tighty-whitey front. They make me think of my father, and thus, completely kill the mood. Therefore I have most of my current era characters wearing boxers, or boxer briefs. For my fantasy novel though, most of my humans wear linen small clothes, or just silk lined leather breeches, the fancier ones opting for silk or velvet pants, with no small clothes, all depending on status and finances. The elves tend to forgo the small clothes too, but it does depend on the elven kin. But my favorites are my clerics, who wear the most irritatingly complex robe, a thick velvet one for winter, and a slightly thinner cotton one for summer, but underneath they must always wear long flowing linen pants, that have a waistband that reaches up to their ribs and is laced around their torso a certain amount of times, much like their much hated robes. And yes, they all hate my guts for wanting to dress them up like that, but they are oh, so pretty in their linen pants.