Yeahhh… I call them “undershirts” but where I come from they are known exclusively as “wife beaters.” BUt that’s because I come from the whitest trash area of the white trash neighborhood. We didn’t have front lawns, so we had a fridge and stove sitting in the alley between houses for a year and a half. Which probably explains all you need to know about my high level of sophistication and class

No, everyone for whatever awful reason calls them “wife beaters”.

I work in costuming professionally. When I got to college, one of the first things I was ever told was to never call them “wife beaters”. There are a number of correct names that can be used for these shirts. “Wife beater” is an awful derogatory term that should be abolished forever everywhere.

Here are some other things you can call them that are more correct:

• Singlet (other uses include: wrestling singlets, biketards, etc.)
• Tank top (refers to old-style swimsuits)
• A-shirt (short for “athletic”)
• Vest (in the UK)

Idk about other Canadians, but shirts like this were always called ‘muscle t-shirts’ where i grew up. coz you got to see your hella rad muscles coz whoa tank top. i had never heard the term ‘wifebeater’ until i moved to the USA, and i remember being horrified that someone would call a shirt that.

When I first heard the term ‘wife beater’ I was so confused I was like “what kind of top is that?”; I was sent an image and I was like “…yo that’s a singlet not a wife beater what the hell”