Came into this thread wondering “who the hell wears belts?”. Then saw everyone in here was taking belt wearage as a given. Then looked over at my husband and saw he’s wearing a belt.
TIL, all men apparently wear belts and I just never noticed before.
Men’s pants can be a lot more loose around the waist and we typically have no butt to hold things up.
It’s to leave space for full pockets
You know, in my jealousy about the capacious pockets in men’s pants, I never thought about how they must weigh the pants down when they’re full of keys and wallet and phone and tampons and condoms and stuff. No wonder y’all need belts!
Yarp. I have a pair of shorts I wear around the house, no belt no problem. The moment I put anything in a pocket, though? They’ll be 'round my knees if I don’t watch out!
Before I transitioned I used to wear cargo pants. (When presenting male, I didn’t give a fuck what I looked like lol). I put so much stuff in those pockets, including a charger for my laptop. My pants were so heavy I had to wear suspenders to hold them up - a belt wouldn’t cut it.
Do some squats my brother, everyone loves a good ass.
I tell you hwhat
A lot of jeans don’t have a good cut for an athletic man butt that I have built from 30 years of sports, mostly hockey. I end up tearing out the crotch on all my pants because I can’t find the right cut.
Reporting in with a similar problem. In my case, the crotch gets worn out because I have THICC footballer (soccer) thighs
I finally started doing squats despite bad knees to make my pants fit better.
Man I miss my high school ass, it was glorious.
Yeah it definitely makes sense when I think about it!
You have probably noticed but never appreciated that men don’t usually have big hips to keep our pants up (or more specifically our waists and hips tend to be very close to the same size). Some men do, but even well fitting pants slide down on me without a belt. My wife is always amazed when we take our measurements and the hip to waist ratio is so wildly different. She’s like “I knew women’s hips were bigger but Jesus Christ”.
I mean I’m trans and even though I have massive hips to keep my pants on, wearing a belt still helps me pass better since they’re so ubiquitous
That’s fascinating! Especially given thread-OP’s comment.
Are there any other fashion-related things you’ve noticed like that?
I’d say the main other thing I’ve noticed would be angular, (like a sharper rectangle) smaller glasses, since they sit in front of your browline and (I think) make it more pronounced, at least at a glance.
That’s purposeful I think. The difference between men and women’s glasses is fairly subtle, but I have definitely noticed that men’s glasses lend a more masculine look to someone and women’s glasses lend a more feminine look to someone.
Also the buttons and zippers on pants that aren’t jeans are usually kinda flimsy, so the belt gives an extra layer of security ._.
Not just men, I’m a woman and I wear a belt regularly. It keeps my pants from drooping because I’m thin with wide hips.
Possibly my love of high waisted everything has helped me avoid that particular pitfall. This is a whole new world :D
Ah yeah that’ll do it. I love mid waisted jeans. And a belt has the perk of looking great with them as well as keeping them on
I’m an elder emo… I still wear my studded belts. D:
Same here! Rarely leave the house without it
Rawr xD, friend
What’ll really blow your mind is look to see if the belt color matches his shoes.
That’s a fashion rule that I think is stupid but obey 100% of the time.
It’s just one of those things. You never think about it. But we do it.
3 years ago I didn’t wear any Then I did for work for like a week
I where one every single day now, it makes me feel Soo well in my clothes
That is the style at this time.
all men apparently wear belts
Not me. I used to wear them once upon a time, but I learnt to just buy better fitting pants, or get them altered at the tailors so they fit well.
Look at Rockefeller over here with their tailor.
Something I accidentally did for myself as an adolescent is get a tailor. I cannot recommend enough!
Your clothes look nicer, but they also last a lot longer when they’re altered to work with your body instead of against it.
How much do they cost?
It varies. You can find some very affordable tailors that do really good work. It depends a lot on what you want done. Take in a shirt? Maybe $30. Tons of alterations on a suit jacket? Could be $150+. It really depends.
I’ve found that a good tailor is worth every penny, though. I have many 20 year old clothing items that still look good and aren’t overly worn because they fit well.
Alright, so probably not for me, as the only upper body wear I like is plain red t-shirts, which come pretty cheap anyways.
Yeah, I don’t think t-shirts are necessarily bigtime tailoring candidates, but pretty much all pants are!
I currently have a brand of OTR pants that fit me nicely, so I don’t have every single pair of pants I buy tailored. But the difference is noticeable when I do have a pair done. I like Levis 514 jeans, but they’re cut for wider hips than I posess. A little take-in and maybe a different hem length drastically changes the way I look in jeans. It adds a tidiness that makes them more versatile.
massive phone, wallet, keys, car keys, airpods, tape measure; all kinds of stuff on the pockets, need a belt to hold the pants up
Hell, half the trousers I buy come with a belt. (It’s a problem for vegan trouser-customers actually, as many of the free belts are crappy cheap leather, meaning you can’t buy the otherwise cruelty free trousers.)
I’m learning so much! 😄
Gotta be prepared with a tourniquet just in case!
Plus, most of us have flat grandpa asses that can’t hold our pants up naturally.
I did not think of the first aid implications!
I remember seeing a post shooting interview with a victim and he was wishing that he wore multiple belts because he could have saved more people. It’s kind of sad I couldn’t find the video though… Too many shootings.
Katy : You guys going to be wearing belts? Wayne : Hard no. Dan : Why donts yous guys wears belts? Wayne : Because we buy pants that fucking fit.
Generally speaking men pants are not form fitting.
The belts keep the pants up, the pant loops let the belt up. Who is the real hero?
Not all of us.
I hate that I know this now.
This reminds me, I need to go see if Lemmy has a Thanks I Hate It (TIHI) community yet.
Thanks. The community must be very new.
Thanks
Perhaps one could even say… you hate it?
Am I the only person that washes hands before putting the belt back on?
You think you’re anonymous here, but next time I see someone in a public toilet washing their hands with their pants down, I will know their Lemmy handle is @PopularUsername.
This assumes they use the toilet when out of their home. I sure as hell don’t.
Now we all know you touch your pants with your filthy poop hands.
Cursed knowledge
You never wash your belt? I bet you never wash the poop-knife either.
Sheesh.
Some things probably should stay on Reddit. Like poop-knives.
Along with Jolly Ranchers and guys who break both of their arms.
And Colby
I remember the jolly rancher story, but not the one where they broke both their arms.
It goes way back. That one must be at least 8 years old.
Let’s see… according to Know Your Meme it’s from 2011. You’re probably better off not reading about it.
Hopefully I never have to see or hear “poop-kinives” ever again.
I was expecting some rando to comment on this with his fediverse username related to something poop-knify. Might still happen.
Unfortunately it’s become part of internet lore, I think it will last a long time as a reference or old in-joke. Luckily Lemmy is also giving us new ones, like beans or the 3-day no-poop challenge.
WHAT ABOUT MY TOE KNIFE
Tip: Just like on old Reddit, you have to use two spaces after a line to get a proper line break.
View the source on this comment if you need an example.
This will outlive us, no matter the platform.
I’m sorry, the what now?
The poop-knife.
Fellow poop knife enjoyers i see!
wtf are you doing with your poop knife to enjoy it? Poop knifing should be all business, sir.
It’s fine, the poop-knife gets wiped off when I start cutting up my food
taps-head.gif
I have a family member that had to use a poop knife growing up and I always wondered if that story was him…
If you wash your belt you lose all your jiu-jitsu knowledge and have to start from white again. Everyone knows this.
Is that why no one at the gym will spar with me as a brown belt!?
Maybe if you’d put on something beyond the belt Mr “Sumo Jitsu”
Prestige mode. Excellent.
I don’t know who started this idea but I want to find them and wrap their smelly ass belt around their face.
The sport is gross enough without people dragging their MRSA strips all over the mats.
Wash your hands in the bathroom, nobody bats an eye.
Scrub down your belt buckle in the sink and people lose their minds!
If someone gets uppity in a bathroom when you are practicing good hygiene, ask them why they don’t. And don’t let up.
might wanna rethink using the word ‘uppity’ it has deep-rooted slavery connotations. just fyi.
try ornery/agitated instead
Haven’t seen a minority get uppity about bathroom behaviour in the bathroom.
From https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/uppity:
The adjective uppity is an informal, somewhat old-fashioned word. When used to mean “arrogant” or “presumptuous,” it is no more offensive than either of these synonyms. In its meaning of “aspiring to a rank or position higher than one deserves or is entitled to” it is decidedly disparaging, the implication of the word being that the one described does not deserve or is not entitled to rise in standing. Beyond this denotation, however, uppity has a long history of being applied to members of racial minorities and especially to Black people. Its association with such uses, and the bigotry they represent, means that when it is used to describe a member of a racial minority it is likely to be considered especially offensive.
Huh. TIL.
Bruh
As someone with a job involving regular public speaking before some potentially-sensitive audiences, I’m always afraid that some word I use will turn out to have a hurtful impact on people despite being completely innocuous to my ear. Thanks for pointing out another one to add to my “don’t say this word anymore” list! Potentially saved me some awkward conversations.
Bruh the sink be nasty AF
Here’s me running ass naked after pooping to wash my hands before pulling up my pants
I do that too. That is the most annoying point for using public restrooms
That’s the spirit
Pooh bear!
Jokes on you, I wash my belt all the time!
…which is definitely not because I leave it on my pants and forget to take it off before I throw them in the laundry.
Why can’t the TSA ever be there to remind me to remove my belt when I actually need them!?
Leather and steel are anti-microbial. If something does get on it, it won’t survive for very long.
Tell that to the mold covered belt I just found in my closet.
Do you live in a retention pond? How on earth does a belt get and stay damp enough to grow mold? How long has it been sitting undisturbed? I didn’t know about leather being antimicrobial until just now. Even then, a moldy leather belt just seems wrong lol
All my leather jackets, belts, shoes get mouldy if left unused for some time. All you need to do is live in a humid country… that’ll do the trick!
Neither of those are true. Some steel and leathers may be treated to make them anti-microbial, but they are generally not
You guys aren’t washing your belts?
Alright.
I’ve never even thought about it. I use leather belts and I throw them out after they wear out.
You can’t exactly toss them in the machine.
Now, the belts I’ve had over the years that were made from cloth went in the laundry with everything else.
I don’t know why I never thought about this.
Leather ones you can wipe down with a rag and water. Canvas ones just go in the wash and you can air dry.
You wear out leather belts? I swear I still have the same 3 leather belts I had 15-20 years ago
There’s a lot of shitty “leather” belts that look great but fall apart rather quickly. I also tend to go through belts on my work pants, but I work construction and that is hard on the leather
Exactly. I have one really expensive belt my uncle gave me that I’ve been wearing since about 2012 and it’s just fine.
I have trashed several Walmart belts in that time.
I have a Dickies belt that has held up pretty well too.
And there’s always that torn up section on the right hip where the tape measure goes
Get some dubbin and treat your leather products with it. They will last longer if they are treated right.
Here is another shower thought. You touch things other ppl who don’t wash their hands touch all the time… That is worse in my opinion. Because you can wash your hands before touching anything else (belt included) it isn’t as easy to wash your hands everytime on the go. Corona made me very aware of this
Not sure if I am the only one, but ever since the pandemic, even if I step outside to get the mail up about 500’ away , I just have to wash my hands immediately when I come in. Go to the store? I just feel really gross after. It’s surreal. I guess I’ve become a bit OCD as a result.
I’ve just always been this way. I will catch myself going to wash my hands going from room to room in my house sometimes, but even I think that’s weird when I realize I’m doing it. I unapologetically wash my hands after handling anything like mail or packages as well. Might be slightly OCD in that regard. On the plus side, I didn’t get COVID until a few months ago for the first time.
Y’all are correct to wash your hands after touching mail and packages. I’m a mailman, and if I don’t wear gloves, I have to scrub my hands a few times to make them even visibly clean at the end of the day. That, and I’ve totally seen other mailmen leaving the bathroom without washing (mostly older white men).
You touch money all the time. Money is filthy, There’s a 100% chance you’ve held a $1 bill that was in a strippers ass-crack at some point. Same goes for being used for blow.
Not sure where you are (lots of places use $), but it’s been many many years since I used cash for anything, and it’s probably the same for anyone below retirement age in UK/Europe?
Paying for something in a shop typically means touching your bank card against the payment terminal.
I live in Ireland and was fairly slow to adapt to this cashless mularkey but my mind was blown when visiting Germany how many places were cash only.
Cash only is common in New York City as well but not so much anywhere else I’ve been in the US.
In Canada, many people pay with their phones and smart watches.
Wallets are essentially buy-x-items-get-one-free punch card holders these days.
Cash in the U.S. is the only way to pay for a certain plant which is legal in some states but still illegal federally for some stupid reason.
I’d say that’s probably true for most younger people in the US as well.
There are obviously exceptions though. I like to golf and it’s (unsurprisingly in the US) normal to tip the bag guy at the end of a round that wipes down your clubs and cleans out your cart, so I keep cash on me that I handle somewhat regularly for that. But really that’s the only thing I can think of that I use cash for these days.
I’d assume some people also prefer to use cash when traveling to other countries since (in the US at least), using your debit/credit card in a foreign country can accrue significant fees.
Only place I use cash for is the Fish and Chip shop. They did have contactless during covid, but the transaction fees from the bank are a big % if most of your custom is small orders, so they bite those for online orders and it’s cash only in the shop.
I don’t know how true it is but here in the UK they say the majority of banknotes in circulation have traces of cocaine on them
I think the last time I used actual cash for something was about 4 months ago.
I am glad I only use a credit card. Damn that is nasty!
The number of men that I see on a regular basis leave the bathroom after going without washing their hands is alarming. I’m almost old enough now to start calling them on it, but not quite.
Oh god the lingering germophobia as a result of the pandemic shining a massive spotlight on surface contamination and spread vectors has completely ruined me.
Same, I went from drinking from friends glass to only do so if I felt “forced” as in it would be weird if I didn’t haha And I have a “dirty” hand that can touch things and a “clean” hand that will only touch my stuff that I know is “clean”. Corona really ruined me… But ppl still get corona so I don’t want to just stop doing this either. My parents were out for a week not long ago because of corona, I am pretty sure I will react the same way and I hate being sick it cost time, boredom and money…
Public transport is the real killer for me. It seems bizarre to me now that there was a time I could stand on a bus or train and comfortably just hold the support handrail with a bare hand and not wash it afterwards or anything. These days I avoid them at all costs and still gotta carry disinfectant for mental health purposes.
You guys wear belts?
You guys use toilets?
How do you hold up your trousers? Suspenders?
I have some clothes that fit well enough that I don’t need a belt in order for them to stay up. I do use a belt for some of my clothes though.
You guys wear trousers?
I feel like a belt ruins the appearance of many pants, sometimes you just don’t want a belt with your outfit. I like to focus of finding pants with a good fit, and take them to a tailor for some modifications if necessary.
I buy my clothing at Goodwill because Walmart over charges.
I buy my clothing at walmart because goodwill over charges.
The duality of Man
The man of Duality.
It really depends on the outfit/aesthetic. Some outfits are very much ruined by a belt and others will look very “weird” if you aren’t wearing one.
Everyone’s different, but I find that cargo pants and shorts look very much “I used to wear my phone on my belt” if you wear a belt. But jeans, slacks, and outright suits look REALLY weird if you don’t have that bar of color dividing pants and shirt.
Although, if you are wearing a more “outdoorsy” outfit (e.g. you shop at REI) then I find the belt very much becomes essential for aesthetics again.
Suspenders are the superior method, yes.
Also stretchy waistbands don’t require either.
Button
And we wash our hands after touching our belts. Still, point taken.
Yeah I’m having a hard time understanding this entire thread. Like… Is everyone here completely baked?
We touch our belts and then we wash our hands. Just like we touch our dicks AND THEN WE WASH OUR HANDS.
y’all are acting like I should be washing my dick too.
i agree. washing a belt is fine but cleaning it all the time after every use sounds very anal.
i work in kitchens half your food is dirtier than that piss belt before it even makes it to a kitchen. y’all know you can’t eat chicken and pork undercooked only because of how the animal is kept right? it lives too dirty.
also the fuck you do in the bathroom? are people fisting themselves and spraying piss all over their hands??
i work in kitchens half your food is dirtier than that piss belt before it even makes it to a kitchen.
I had a roommate that did food prep for a restaurant. After sharing with me his typical day, I stopped going to restaurants for a while.
If you dress before breakfast: hands > belt > food and whatever else. Unless you also wash your hands after you dress?
You don’t clean your belts? 🤢
You don’t need to throw it in the washing machine to clean it. That’s not the only way to wash clothing, guys. At least hit that shit with a spray on sanitizer like Lysol or something once in a while.
Saddle soap for all leather belts and saddle soap then shoe grease for leather work belts/suspenders/boots.
Maybe I’m a weirdo, but my belts are leather and I wipe them down with sanitizing wipes when I get home and take them off, for this exact reason.
That poor leather!
Eh, its not been hurt by it in years and years of doing it. Granted I dont wear belts every day, and its not like its some premium leather.
I wash my belts
how do you wash your belts?
When i forget to take them off my pants mostly. I don’t wear like nice leather belts though I just throw them in and let them clank around
Lmao this is gold. You gave me a nice chuckle. Thank you
In the washing machine. Then, I throw them out because they are ruined and buy some more.
I don’t actually do this, but I imagine that’s what the response will be.
lol i saw somebody else comment about cleaning their belts with wet wipes, now i wonder why i didn’t think of that.
Leather cleaner/conditioner and a brush.
Power washer.
I have a cloth belt. I throw it in the laundry when I go to wash all the pants.
I use saddle soap.
Depends on the material, but with leather I give it a light spray of lysol and then just let it air out. TBH I don’t know how effective it is, but I figure it’s better than nothing.
Me too.
