I've Been Wearing Leggings for 20 Years. Thank God a Man Has Finally Explained Them to Me!!!

Am I a leggings expert?

Well — yes.

I mean —come on! I've been wearing them as pants since at least ten years before it was cool. I was rocking my first pair by 1998.

Image: Google Trends.

In fact, I'm still rocking those pants!

Image: Next Time You Feel Like Shopping, Clean Your Closet, Instead.

I've got leggings for every occasion, from Thanksgiving to Christmas to the Fourth of July.

Image: People Ask Where I Found Those "Amazing Holiday Leggings." The Answer Is Usually Amazon.

I've reviewed leggings on my blog, and am one of the top writers in Leggings on Quora. 

Which — quick detour — is never something I set out to do. One of my recurring frustrations with Quora has been that my great, research-based, thought-provoking answers get maybe 168 views per year...

Then I write something about what it's like to be a pretty girl or whether women wear underwear with leggings, and my answer is so popular, it gets emailed to 100,000 users in the weekly newsletter. 

So here we are. I'm among the top-viewed writers in Leggings on Quora — and I've probably exceeded 10,000 hours of legging-wearing, which makes me an expert for sure.

So thank God a man has finally explained leggings — and my vagina!! — to me!

Before someone gets emotional and accuses me of being emotional, I could care less about this dude. I am sharing this story for two reasons:

1. It's hilarious.
2. While I am critical of the overuse of the word "mansplaining" (there is typically a very simple solution to this problem), mansplaining is clearly a thing women contend with regularly, and I thought this was a neat and obvious example.

So a while back, I was asked whether some people like to "wear leggings only."

I answered that I wasn't 100% sure what that meant, but that some women wear leggings without underwear (if that's what you're asking), and leggings make wonderful, comfortable, and flattering (technically, the best) pants, but they might not be tactful for every occasion (if that's what you're asking).

Years later, I got a comment from a dude named Nathan:

​Personally, I would recommend women wear underwear beneath leggings (and any other outerwear) because it’s another layer of both friction and absorption.

Women have natural secretions that can soak through thin, moisture-wicking materials used in leggings and these are often highly acidic and sometimes result in bleached spots that otherwise would be trapped in their underwear instead of the leggings. Leggings are also typically more expensive than underwear and stained underwear can still be worn under most clothing without revealing the stains.

I would also recommend anyone wear socks with shoes because it stinks up the shoes faster if you go barefoot, creates more foot sweat while wearing them, and it produces hot spots and blisters much more readily. The sock is not just for sweat absorption. It is also for friction displacement.

​

This is funny for so many reasons. Like... does he really think I would spend 20 years wearing leggings if I were constantly soaking through and destroying them with my toxic, polyurethane-bleaching waterfall of a vagina? Does he really think that I would continue dressing this way if I were getting vulval hot spots and blisters from it?

And has this man never heard of a gusset???!!!

Image: Art Of Where

Gussets are wonderful because they allow for extra stretch without putting too much stress on the seams, as well as extra modesty — there's a reason women in spandex and leotards don't have to layer up anymore.

Image: Flashbak

And, not to womansplain, but part of the point of gussets is so leggings can be worn without underwear. 

Adding to the comedy is that I know exactly why this man thought he was a leggings expert. 

A few days prior, a horrible boy had mocked his girlfriend's stained underwear on TikTok... and Quora user Adara Ivanova wrote:

[His behavior] disgusts me because discharge is completely normal. It means your vagina is cleaning itself and is nothing to be ashamed of.
​
It can sometimes stain a woman’s underwear because a normal vaginal pH level is between 3.8 and 4.5, which is moderately acidic. That means sometimes it can leave a stain (a bleached-looking stain), even if you wash it 100’s of times.
So why this guy thought it was ok to humiliate his girlfriend for something natural. That’s beyond me.

Her answer went viral. It showed up on my feed — and no doubt, Nathan's, too. 

Which is how he learned more about leggings in two minutes than I have in twenty years. 

​I called him out on this. He replied:

I don’t have to speculate on things I already know. It’s simple biology.
​
I also don’t need personal experience when others are happy to volunteer it freely.
​

​Oh — you mean like I just did?
​

It *should* be widely known that women experience natural, regular vaginal secretions.
​​

Yeah, so, crazy story. I've had a vagina for more than 30 years. I think I know more about it than you, dude. 

The point is why you would ever remove underwear from the equation. If *some* women are so self-conscious about *feeling* like they are leaking/soaking through their clothing *sometimes*, why would they ever remove an absorbent layer?
​

​

Why are you arguing with me about whether or not I should wear underwear under my leggings? 

If *some* women are self-conscious, then they should do what makes them feel comfortable. 

​But I am *not* self-conscious... so why are you mansplaining all this inaccurate and weird stuff to me? 

The point is, it's fine to remove an "absorbent layer" because leggings are designed for women and to be worn without underwear. 

These are comments I’ve heard from actual women.

​

​"Actual women." As opposed to.... me? 

 I should have known that making *any* comment would result in argument, though.

​

Well, so here's the thing, honey. I am the one who wrote the answer. You are the one who argued.

Take a moment to let that process.

I don't have to agree​ with you, simply because you disagreed with me.

​If you have a problem with statements of fact in this matter, I suggest you take it up with nature… I have no influence over *that* reality.

I am not the one arguing with reality in this situation — I am the one for whom living in a female body is a biological reality. You're running on your imagination.

A friend shared another hilarious example of mansplaining recently. 

So she's dating this guy — let's call him Mikey — and she's having some bad period cramps, so she asks him to bring her a heating pad. 

He says no.

"You shouldn't use heat," this man who has never menstruated before mansplains to my 30-year-old friend who has been menstruating since she was 12. "You should use ice. Ice is better for sore muscles."

She gently told him that uterine muscles are different from hamstrings (not to mention, icing is only really useful after a workout — a 2012 review in Sports Medicine found that most studies conclude that applying ice to a muscle reduces its strength and increases risk of injury — whereas applying heat before a workout can reduce pain and injury risk), and that heat reduces cramping and has worked for her in the past.

Instead of admitting he was wrong and getting her the damn heating pad, he continued to argue with her about whether she should use heat or ice. 

​And you wonder why some women get grumpy on their periods. 

I don't care about Nathan and I don't care about Mikey. Their individual ignorance is not the point of this post. 

Instead, I'm writing with the moderate viewpoint that, while the term "mansplaining" is both overused and misused (it doesn't mean "disagreed with me"), it is a very real thing that probably every woman has experienced at least once. 

If men can so confidently mansplain a woman's menstrual cycle, her underwear, and her own body... what else might they be mansplaining?

Want to know more? Check out: 

• Behold: Woman's Most Powerful Weapon Against Mansplaining
• Hedging Language is Alive and Well. C'mon, Ladies! Stand Up For Yourselves!
• If a Girl You Were Hitting On Was Rude to You, It's Probably Your Fault
• "Creepy" Isn't About Attractiveness. It's About Reciprocity.