Floss thinks… about sharing underwear!
Last week saw everyone on the merry move from their unreasonably priced student accommodation to their ‘free to heat’ homes for Christmas. The uproarious sound of suitcase wheels echoed round the streets of Lenton, as it did in Manchester’s Oxford Road, Liverpool’s Smithdown… I could go on (if I knew the names of more student areas). Bags bursting with gifts of dirty laundry and little else; everyone hoping to have remembered everything to see you through the festive month ahead. But what if you’ve not?
The nomadic life of a student, having belongings scattered across the country, is an issue throughout the year, but one that is amplified during this extended break. My brother managed to return home having left his dental retainer behind. It had to be posted home by his tutor to the pleas of my mum over the phone, sending poor Mr Clark fishing through whatever 17-year-old boys have in their drawers to retrieve the forgotten retainer.
At least the ludicrous rule of having to entirely strip our bedrooms before the end of term whilst living on University Park prevented any such misfortunes. But now we have no safety net, and left to our own devices it is commonplace to forget to pack the essentials. Some items left behind can hopefully be easily borrowed from the likes of a generous mother. The black heels I can’t do without were easily replicated by a pair from my mum’s collection (although my heart does break a little to think of those new heels, sitting cold and alone in the darkness of my Nottingham wardrobe, longing to be dancing the night away during this party season).
So, shoes are fine to borrow. Jumpers – yes; socks – yes; I wouldn’t think twice about borrowing my mum’s tights… But what if you forget your underwear? Is it okay to borrow delicates from your mum? Tights cover a larger quantity of bare skin, and are equally as intimate, but there is something rather unnerving to me about the thought of wearing someone else’s smalls (or indeed, someone wearing mine)! An old colleague once kindly gave me a lift to a friend’s house I unexpectedly went to after work one night (due to my mum’s ex-boyfriend locking me out of my house while she was away in Hong Kong… But that is an entirely different story). This colleague pulled up outside my mate’s house and said she keeps a toothbrush and a pair of knickers in the back of her car for emergencies, and if I liked I could borrow them. I was absolutely appalled at the thought; would rather stick to my own, thank you.
“But what if you forget your underwear? Is it okay to borrow delicates from your mum?”
How about if you are in a same-sex relationship, would it then be okay to share underwear, I wonder? Every straight female has dreamt of the advantages of being in a relationship with a woman when HE still drops his wet towel in a pile on the floor no matter how many times you tell him. My ideal woman would, of course, be just like me! But would we go underwear shopping together, and have one set of lingerie? Surely you would be okay with the level of intimacy sharing underwear requires if you are going out with this girl, but how do you decide who wears what?! In a straight relationship clothes are sometimes shared. There is something rather cute about a girl wearing her boyfriend’s shirt, but then the idea of my boyfriend in my pyjamas is… Less than cute. Would that tummy-churning feeling be the same as seeing your hypothetical girlfriend wearing your brand new Boux Avenue set before you had had a chance to wear them? I believe it would.
Okay, so sharing underwear, it seems, is unacceptable. I just hope that the thousands of students in transit last week remembered to pack their pants!
Merry Christmas everyone!
x
Floss Binks
Featured image: Floss’ own. Embedded image: Christian Haugen via Flickr
