As a man I feel i must concur. I am sure many of my fellow men will nod sagely in recognition of the advantages of more fullsome items of male underclothing, when faced with, shall we say, a small yet unexpected natural disaster ; ).

Shocker, Cambridge,

Finally a sensible voice! I'm with you all the way, Caitlin, especially in the idea that big knickers should also come in pretty colors. You can actually find some over here from Hanes, among other brands--Google a bit and you'll find them.

Shannon, Belspring, VA, USA

I'm with you, Caitlin. Speaking as a man, I can say honestly that the only thing I find less arousing than underpants that look like medical bandages applied to some wound are underpants the color of flesh that SHOULD be covered with a medical bandage. Even white is sexier than beige. The thong is wrong -- and all its meager relatives. Less is less. I love underpants that sort of look like very short skirts; that have some visual complexity and mystery, something that invites -- exploration. Yes, for the good old days when the sun never set on the British Empire; and, more to the point, when it never set on an Englishwoman's underwear.

Robert, Elizabethtown, USA / New York

From these comments, I see the world is still full of dirty old men and silly women who let their sex down.

Judy , Liverpool, england

Has it never occurred to anyone that some men actually ENJOY seeing the castigated VPL?

Just George, Swindon, UK

I don't know where the women who claim thongs are uncomfortable are doing their shopping. I've reached the point where if I'm wearing briefs, I feel overdressed, no matter what they look like. Well-fitting thongs and G-strings are extremely comfortable. It might be an anatomical issue depending on how one's buttocks are formed (I'm not a gym bunny, so it's not as if I have no posterior to wind up feeling chafed). And if someone's thong is breaking up the line of how their slacks fit, they're wearing the wrong size for sure. The purpose of the thong and G-string is to eliminate the panty line, not create it.

Brenda, San Francisco, USA

Went to the sales yesterday in need of an entire wardrobe of new pants as husband dyed mine a turgid grey in the washing machine. Noticed that all the unwanted ones are the thongs. Agent Provocateur do some fab sexy and fun big knix.

Alicia, Islington,

Londongirlinmanchester - thanks for confirming my suspicions! I think that's the point of clothes beyond functionality isn't it? To make the wearer look and feel good.

Obviously ill-fiting and ill-advised garments don't really meet the criteria of looking or feeling good!

I'd be happy if thongs were cut from the records tomorrow, the cause my eyes more pain than they do pleasure (mostly due to unwelcome public displays!).

To play devil's advocate (having watched my nephew's savagely open my lovely sourced Christmas presents) - are we sure that "it's not the packaging, it's the present" as Dave in California puts it.

Dave , Shoreditch, London, UK

Three cheers for big knickers! They are sexy! I an't abide skimpy ones on women. Ditto pubic hair! sahven havens are seriously n-sexy!
Let's bring back natural woman!

steve moxon, sheffield,

Just about gagged on my coffee when a steaming bevy of sinewy lady cyclists descended on my breakfast cafe this morning; mysterious, ugly bulges distorting the lines of their sweat-soaked lycra. Ah, for the good old days when girls were all frilly and proud of it!

Bill, Brisbane, Australia

Good for you Peter. I can't do without the odd Gaussian curve either, and I'm only 41.

Marc C, Holland,

who is Clarissa?

Simon, Crawley, Sussex

Here in Japan, us boys can get down the 100-yen shop for vest, pants and socks. Did it today. That's like £1.40 the lot. Hell, it's cheaper to chuck um than wash um. You women simply have to choose function over fashion. When the new man in your life says, "You having a bath or shower, Love?", you'll kick yourselves for spending a fortune on underwear.

Andrew Milner, Yokohama, Japan

I am nearly 76 and still enjoy the occasional flash of frilly little knickers under a miniskirt.

Girls, please don't take away the last remaining bit of fun you can give me!

Peter Lloyd, BLACKER HILL, South Yorkshire

Brilliant, essay.

Clarissa: You really must go out immediately and copyright the term "Arse-Trinkets"! Do it now, before someone starts a lingerie line of the same name.

Sharon Langworthy, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Wendy V,
Your boyfriend need look no further than the glory that is the Jeff Banks trunk experience. Cotton with 'a hint of lycra'. Aye there is the rub (and yet, no actual friction). There is a need for lyrca but not too much, lest it all gets a wee bit too much like - the tropics in the trousers....eh anyway...to summarise.hey are excellent and you can get them for about a fiver per pair. And, one last point, which Caitlin didn't mention, was the problem for the gent as regards the front of the pant. Buttons need to be eschewed - embrace the fly trunk. Literally? That's your own business!

boydie, Glasgow, Scotland

Sweethearts... It's not the packaging. It's the present.

Dave, Fremont, California

Too right, Caitlin. I've always been a fan of the big pant, but like them to look good, too. I remember coveting the type worn by Melanie Griffith in the film Something Wild back in 1986 (she straddles Jeff Daniels in them at one point). I went into Selfridges lingerie dept and specifically asked the assistant if she'd seen the film. She hadn't a clue what I was on about.

A few years later M&S brought out a line that was perfect - black, with embroidery detail and a black net panels at the sides, very sexy - and I bought about a dozen pairs. Sad to say I've found nothing so good since.

But my boyfriend also has trouble finding good pants: black, long-legged ones that don't ride up. He finally found the right sort (on Figleaves) before Christmas, for £22 a pair! I've never spent that much on pants myself.

Wendy V, Isle of Wight,

I can fully appreciate the sense and sensibility disseminated, pithily as ever, by Caitlin but - being a) a man and b) a man that largely judges the suitability of a partner by her choice of underwear ('special days' excepted) - and I have a misogynist male chorus of approval behind me here, this discussion being had a few weeks ago, myself plumping in favour of seven different colours of the La Perla Magic Silk Knicker's (probably not the correct name of the style, but no matter) that, crucially, have the little bows at the side that disrobe the wearer with the slightest little tug - and I make no apologies for this. I am of the standpoint that a women's choice of underwear outlines (not defines - that would be churlish) the divinity of her feminimity. And I would also like to point out that the aforementioned La Perla number's cover a substantial area. But they are a bit pricey. But who cares? They're magic! You can't put a price on magic...

Gerard Urquhart, Edinburgh, Scotland

Dave in Shoreditch -

Personally, most days I wear plain cotton undies which may not reach up to my belly button but do cover everything they are meant to (as opposed to thongs which I do believe are the most uncomfortable piece of apparel ever invented).

However, to answer your question I, like Caitlin, would also prefer it if it was easier to obtain lovely pretty french knickers and cute shorts etc. On the days I wear lacy french knickers I feel like dynamite - distinctly more sexy as a result. It's a fab-u-lous feeling! I have SO much more self-confidence on those days, and not just about how I look, but about everything!

It's just a shame that it is so hard to find that type of gorgeous but also functional knickers which make a girl feel like a million dollars (and are also within a reasonable budget).

Long live pretty (but functional) knickers!

LondongirlinManchester, Manchester,

Has a man, last I checked, I've always preferred the type of underwear that flatters the wearer rather than cutting her in two. I've never understood just how thongs (g-strings) and the like could possible be comfortable to wear. They have all the support capability of Network Rail on new year's eve, and are smaller than a pygmies privates.
Thankyou Clarissa, for confirming what I suspected, that these torture devices are indeed better suited to cutting cheese or holding fruit, than cosseting ones 'better half'.
Whilst saggy, badly fitting pants in retirement home beige, are up their with bad breath or Big Brother as a turn off. A pair of big comfy pants, is more appealing as they provide an element of surprise. The wearer is comfortable and happier since she's less likely to do a Britney, and the VPL that's made an unwelcome return will be banished; nothing says chav better than your undies on display. I mean Kylie's bum may look great on a poster but I bet at home she's got big ones!

Lewis, London, UK

Having written a whole column in praise of sensible underwear, and realised that 90% of the time it doesn't matter what your underwear looks like, Ms Moran contradicts herself in the sidebar ('No more sins of the flesh-coloured pants') where she admires vintage lingerie and complains that M&S' products looks horrible because they're flesh-coloured. Um, referring back to the main column, why does it matter if they look horrible?

Ladies, believe me: nothing, nothing, NOTHING is so tacky as visible underwear. Your bra must NOT show through your chiffon top, and your pants must NOT show through your trousers. If a flesh-coloured bra doesn't show, wear one. Even the straps mustn't show: don't wear a strapless dress or "strappy top" with visible bra straps. If there's no way to stop your bra showing under your garment, you have only two alternatives: don't wear a bra, or don't wear the garment.

Therefore, choose underwear for comfort, fit and invisiblity, not for looks.

John, Winchester,

There is nothing better than a comfortable pair of knickers, and they don't have to of the Bridget Jones' variety. It is the cut more than anything that makes the difference. So Jimbo can rest assured in his chauvenistic paradise that he will still be able to enjoy (nice) ladies' bottoms in sexy pants. Perhaps he could clarify why he had to put (nice) in there? How does your rear end rate for us females, by the way Jimbo? Is it (nice)? I succumbed (once) to the recent g-string fad and spent the whole day wanting to pull out the offending garment from between my buttocks where it had lodged making me feel extremely uncomfortable. However one can hardly start digging around and pulling for relief in public. Also, if you are able to restore the garment to a more comfortable position via the ladies' loo, within seconds it's right back where it was! So shop around ladies. There are pants out there which are sexy, pretty, well-cut and above all, comfortable.

Clarissa, Melbourne, Australia

As a man (echoing what you've astutely established) I'm not troubled (directly at least) by these pants-based dilemmas. However, one point I wanted to chuck in if I may...

We are told at times (and granted, this may have been on the Jeremy Kyle Show) that women dress in certain ways to feel sexy for themselves, not necessarily just as a precursor to Nigel from IT making for a furtive grope at the water cooler.

So perhaps there's some positive externality to this whole uncomfortable equation that you've missed.

Be interested to hear any thoughts on that one...

Dave, Shoreditch, London, UK

When I was about 13, my mother managed to lock my family out of our house and as a result had to call the fire brigade to break into it for us. A rather trifling episode in my opinion but nonetheless it managed to make it into our local paper the next day!

Rachel, Devon

Rachel, Plymouth, England

This might be the funniest article Ive ever read on this site. Caitlin, thanks for making me laugh so much

Minzo, Kigali, Rwanda

I'm sure the big pants thing is all well and good for the ladies, but I'm a man, and I want to see (nice) ladies bottoms au natural, or at the very least in tiny sexy pants, not in huge figure-destroying big pants.

Jimbo, Newcastle upon Tyne,

I nearly wet my big knickers laughing at this! I have been of the opinion for decades that the smaller and lacier the article, the more chance there is of seeing it through your clothes, not to mention the lumps and bumps it produces.
We all used to deplore the VPL (visible panty line, as they say over here) so why this awful trend of elastic bits appearing two inches above the trouser top? Give me larger, plainer, smoother knickers every time. I even have to go so far as to defend the beiges and creams since any other colour limits the amount of clothes you can wear on top. Call me boring, but at least my bum's controlled!

Toni S Hargis, expat, Chicago, USA

and 'even the occasional visitor to the gym' is a typical female shape ?

bums are seldom 'relatively toned' and even a 'relatively toned' bum looks daft in knickers which are too small and / or distort the natural shape....

Rosie, Stamford, UK

Even an occasional visitor to the gym will find that a relatively toned bum will comfortably support itself without the need for elasticated scaffolding.

Neel, London,

Ha! You're funny.....and this nearly made me choke this morning;

"like a gift ribbon on a slightly battered parcel"

Ladies, please don't listen to her! Carry on wearing sexy pants please!

Jonny, London, UK