At the top of the page the words “Go Commando” and below, a perky blond woman in white pants, leaning slightly forward in profile with one hand pulling the waistband down an inch or two. I was leafing through one of those home and garden magazines in the waiting room. It was an ad for toilet paper that will make you super clean with their ripple product, especially if you were going to “go commando.”
With the words and the picture, I grasped the concept. No underwear. The picture would have been even more fitting for a “go commando” waxing ad. With those white pants, she’d need the full Brazilian.
What did I think about all this?
Ho hum. Excuse me while I yawn.
Back in ’73, my junior year in college, my friend Karen went panty free and a number of us liked the idea and followed her lead. No white pants for us – it was jeans only, cut-offs if it was hot.
No waxing. No shaving. We were hairy high and low – feminist hippies. Did I mention it was a women’s college?
Why would we go commando? The motto of the day was “question authority.” Was that it? No. The real reason the idea took off with my crowd is a four letter word. L-A-Z-Y. Hey – it reduced our pile of laundry. No bras for us either. Hang loose baby.
No one asked any of us to model for a picture for an ad back then. They probably would have sold more toilet paper, or, for sure, sold more underwear to the people who wanted to avoid being like us. We weren’t magazine material and I think most of those who go commando these days aren’t either.