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It’s International Sweatpants Day & gray sweats have social media overheated

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Gray sweatpants

January 21 is International Sweatpants Day, and yes, it is news to us that that’s a thing. 

As far as social media is concerned, however, every day that a man puts on a pair of gray sweatpants might as well be a holiday.

As Vox’s Rebecca Jennings covered in a 2019 think piece about “the enduring, endearing cult of gray sweatpants thirst,” this casual garment has become a symbol of thinly-veiled exhibitionism and voyeurism online. (So thinly veiled, in fact, that it’s usually just one layer of form-fitting fabric between the viewer and the full monty.)

“It’s the safest way of sending a dick pic without the social stigma of it,” Thirst Aid Kitco-host Nichole Perkins explained Jennings. “Even if you don’t have a body like Chris Hemsworth, It’s a way for men who have different body types to still get the attention they want. They know what they’re doing, and they can get away with it. It’s a very casual flex.”

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A year later, GQ’s Max Berlinger reported on fall being “the time of year for a very specific, very horny delight: gray sweatpants, and the faint outline of the wearer’s dick they allow.” In internet parlance, that’s Gray Sweatpants Season.

“The sweatpants exhibitionist gets the plausible deniability that they’re not showing off,” SfSx comic book author Tina Horn told Berlinger. “And the sweatpants voyeur gets the thrill of witnessing something, like a dick, that they’re ‘not supposed to be seeing.’”

Below, see those who celebrate this sartorial selection—on both sides of the equation—every January 21, every Gray Sweatpants Season, or any other time of year.

Related:

Chace Crawford shows off his hairy pits and abs in grey sweatpants & he’s got all ‘The Boys’ drooling

Chace Crawford may have been a cute twink when he rose to fame on the OG Gossip Girl in 2007, but he’s transformed into a full-on muscle zaddy.

@lucaambrose_

I just stare back at it ? #fyp #gay #fyp? #humor

? aki hayakawa my beloved – mia
@iosacragana

And I really mean it too each time ???#gay #lgbt #gayboy #gaydating #greysweatpants #CapCut

? My Meds Aren’t Working – Dystopia

Related:

Neil Patrick Harris launches ‘Dad’ range of sweaters and sweatpants

Grey sweatpant season is upon us.

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