Device or Method for Preventing Frontal Wedgies

October 24, 2005 7:44 PM

Ladies A number of years ago I saw an inventor on a daytime talk/variety show talking about this little thing she had invented to prevent ...umm... frontal wedgies. She said it would be marketed through gynecologists offices. I have looked and looked since then and found nothing, nor anyone who's heard of it. Help me find it and/or advice on preventing frontal wedgies.

Basically it was a small flat/rounded piece of flexible plastic/rubber. It wasn't a solid surface, but more like a web of the plastic/rubber (presumably to facilitate air circulation in the region). You positioned the little piece of plastic in your jeans and it blocked them from riding up, basically.

Besides the obvious comfort issue, the plan was to sell it to help prevent yeast infections, which is why she was selling it through gynecologists offices.

It may have had the word "butterfly" in the name. I believe the one they showed was purple.

I'm tired of my jeans riding up. I'vee searched and searched for this and asked my doctors but no one has ever heard of it. Does it still exist? Is there something similar? What's it called and where can I find it?

If it no longer exists and there's nothing similar, what's your advice for preventing the riding up. My pants fit and they are not particularly tight or loose. It's only certain pairs, though.

posted by duck to Health & Fitness (16 answers total)

I believe the official term for this is "camel toe".
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:52 PM on October 24, 2005 [1 favorite]

By Googling "prevent pants from riding up" (yeah, I'm so creative), I was able to find several references to a product called 'Rainbow Butterfly' listed as "a shield to prevent pants from riding up into crotch". All of them link to this site, which doesn't seem to be working anymore. I didn't have as much luck looking up the name 'Rainbow Butterfly', but now you have the exact product name, so maybe you can go from there!
posted by mewithoutyou at 8:12 PM on October 24, 2005

Is this like the face bra?
posted by jellicle at 8:20 PM on October 24, 2005

Following up mewithoutyou, the wayback machine's history of rainbowbutterfly.com shows that in 2000 it was selling "solutions for women," which sounds about right, but by 2003 and 2004 it was selling handcrafted jewelry. So that looks like a dead end.
posted by emyd at 8:26 PM on October 24, 2005

Old article on the inventor from 2000.
posted by jazon at 8:53 PM on October 24, 2005

Response by poster: Fantastic...I'm going to call the inventor in the morning and see if and how it's still possible to buy one.
posted by duck at 9:02 PM on October 24, 2005

What a good question.
posted by nickerbocker at 10:22 PM on October 24, 2005

Note: it is not a camel toad.
posted by five fresh fish at 11:16 PM on October 24, 2005

Uhmm...have you tried those cotton things, maybe they're called Panties? They work great for me!
posted by pomegranate at 5:59 AM on October 25, 2005

Buying pants just one size larger would do the job, too. Some Texans call such wedgies "tacos."
posted by Carol Anne at 6:10 AM on October 25, 2005

Method for removal found here. Site, though full of Camel Toe humor, may not be safe for work.
posted by Pollomacho at 7:00 AM on October 25, 2005

Change your style of jeans. Maybe low rise would work better, or waist high - I think it's something in the way they're fitting through your hips. Not all pants do this - basically, you have to figure out which pants work for you and which don't, and bid a fond or otherwise farewell to jeans that don't fit right.
posted by mygothlaundry at 7:37 AM on October 25, 2005

Response by poster: Well she's not home, so I'll try again tonight.

Thanks for the links/advice. For the record, I'm pretty sure the problem isn't visible, and of course I'm wearing panties.

Low-rise pants are better, but my problem is that since my hips are so much wider than my waist (a ratio that pant-makers have obviously never considered), any pants that fit my hips are huge around the waist. I end up with this big "basketball hoop" in the back where the waist of the pants bows out. I have to get the wiast taken in several inches whenever I buy a pair of pants. So buying bigger just exacerbates that problem.

I bought and just received yesterday a pair of custom-made jeans from Target to a T and they fit perfectly with no basketball hoop in the back, and I was thrilled. I don't think I've ever had a pair of pants that fit both waist and hips so well...but then I discovered the wedgie issue. Hence my finally being exasparated enough to post the question.

I ordered two more pair of the same pants, with the fit adjustment of "add 1 inch to rise" which is hopefully the right fit adjustment to make (my options were waist, hips, thights, leg holes, or rise).

But even if that works, it would still be nice to have one fewer issue to deal with when buying pants. I hate buying pants. If Target starts making custom dress pants, I'll never go out shopping for pants again and that will be a happy day.
posted by duck at 8:45 AM on October 25, 2005

"of course I'm wearing panties."

- Why "of course"?
posted by Pericles at 8:56 AM on October 25, 2005

I daresay, Pericles, that it's "of course" because women "seep" during the course of a day. Most women would prefer their panties soak up this mucousy moisture, instead of their pants.

IMO, WMMV.
posted by five fresh fish at 10:08 AM on October 25, 2005

Holy shit, I think that's the first time I've EVER heard anyone mention/discuss, uh, seepage. YOU GAVE AWAY THE SECRET YOU DICK
posted by Juliet Banana at 10:25 AM on October 25, 2005