Untidy
According to Atieno, a primary school teacher in Umoja, Nairobi, most men, unlike women, simply don’t care about what they wear inside.
"They expect us to understand that men are naturally untidy, but they have no idea how much it puts us off," says Atieno. "In fact, married men are only better off either because their wives buy them innerwear, quarrel and nag them to style up or simply gather those old discoloured rags and throw them in the dustbin!"
But the men that Crazy Monday spoke to argue that what a man wears inside shouldn’t be a big deal.
"Underwear is basically ‘non essential’ stuff. I would rather buy a nice watch than waste Sh1,000 on something no one sees. It is not like women undress us anyway. In fact, casual girlfriends never even get to see our underwear because we remove ‘everything’ at once," chuckles Sam, a cyber cafÈ operator.
What Sam may not, however, appreciate is that certain situations force men and women to undress — like accidents. In fact, were it not that medics are cold blooded professionals, they would be breaking into laughter each time an expensively dressed man was wheeled into the emergency wing only for his dirty little secret to emerge.
Jacinta from Karen swears she would never date such a man.
"A man who cannot take care of small things like his underwear cannot be trusted to take care of a woman, leave alone children or a home, so he might as well go to hell," asserts Jacinta.
Her disdain originates from the first man she dated, a clumsy fellow who nearly put her off men and sex.
Cheap
"He was wearing this horrible looking orange thing. It made me wonder what I had got myself into. I never spoke to him after that because he made me feel cheap and dirty. To this day, I can never think of him without the image of that orange thing crossing my mind," adds Jacinta.
Those who neglect this little item of clothing could, however, do themselves a favour by listening to hawkers. At busy bus stops, naughty hawkers, obviously male, often display new underwear through bus windows chanting "Kifuli ya boma (a padlock for the homestead)!"
