wife-beater: form-fitting white ribbed tank top worn by men; looks good on well-built
fellas, pathetic on skinny fellas, and disgusting on fat beer-bellied fellas.

How did this phrase become associated with an undershirt? Some people trace the etymology back to the late '60s or early '70s. Ike Turner used to wear them in black, and we all know how he treated Tina. Robert De Niro as Jake LaMotta wore one in "Raging Bull" while he was beating his wife. And don't forget "Honeymooners" tank top clad Ralph Kramden as he promised "To the moon, Alice!" Few would argue the political incorrectness of the usage. Women's rights groups certainly see its pop definition as a blow to the cause. Regardless of protest, the antipathetic term for the form-fitting tank appears to be here to stay.

You'll find wife-beater undershirts everywhere - online, on fashion runways, on a braless beach beauty waxing up a surfboard in a calendar on your mechanic's shop wall... They're made in every color. Spin-offs include the "boy-beater," just a wife-beater in a smaller size. Silk screen a slogan on it, add a little glitter, sell it for at least thirty bucks and they will buy it.

One German website explains the fascination of the "wife-beater" this way: Far from glamorizing domestic violence, this tongue-in-cheek name mocks the self-conscious machismo of the upper-class teen as he struggles to evoke the blue-collar image of another time and place.

Bottom line: The phrase has certainly gotten our attention, and in this era of "controversy sells," it's little wonder that wife-beaters are being sold more now than ever before.