I found this story of how the "Wife-Beater Shirt" got its name. It seems to make sense, but I wonder how truly valid it is.
First, we must address the origins of said "wife-beater" shirts. Whether or not you know it, the history of the "wife-beater" goes back to the Middle Ages, where knights who lost their armor in battles often had nothing but the chain-mail undergarment to protect them. Now, those chain mail undershirts, if you will, were strong -- even a sword couldn't get through. Often, when a knight lost their armor and continued to fight successfully, they were referred to as a "waif beater" ("waif", referring to an abandoned or lost individual). Due to the fact that knights who had been abandoned and continued to fight with only the "shirt off their back" (albeit chain mail), they were given this noble title -- an abandoned fighter, beating their way through battle.
During 1700’s Europe, of course, the phrase "waif beater" no longer had much meaning due to the fact that there weren't really knights running around fighting battles in chain-mail undershirts. As a result, the phrase was changed to the similarly sounding "wife beater" and used to refer to husbands who treated their significant others in a less than stellar way.
The trend changed in 1947 in Detroit, Michigan -- when police arrested a local man (James Hartford, Jr.) for beating his wife to death. Local news stations aired the arrest and elements of the case for months after -- constantly showing a picture of Hartford, Jr. when he was arrested -- wearing a dirty tank top with baked bean stains on it... and constantly referring to him as "the" wife beater.
From there, everything snowballed. From then on, men wearing dirty tank-topped undershirts were referred to as people who were "wearing wife-beaters" and the lexicon stuck from that point forward.
An unpleasant topic, to be sure, but can anyone validate this story?
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The mere fact that science may not yet adequately explain an object, event, or experience does not mean the immediate explanation should automatically default to a conspiratorial, extraterrestrial, paranormal, or supernatural cause.
06 Aug 2019, 9:15 am
