"What did you just say?"

"I said you can stop looking so horrified, it's not like I'm going to just wear this wifebeater out to the restaurant, I do have a nice shirt to go over it."

"You said it again, could you spell it, please? It sounds like you are saying 'wife beater.' "

Ah. Now I see where the confusion is coming from, and why my new Arabic travel-roommate is looking so horrified. Wifebeater. I've said the word so many times, to refer to a white tank top, that it's lost all literal meaning for me. But this guy isn't from America. And while I'm sure they definitely have wife beaters in Iran, they probably aren't the kind you wear. So as far as he's concerned, I'm talking gibberish. Gibberish, but also possibly being offensive and misogynistic?

"Oh sorry," I say. "Yeah, for some reason we call this a wifebeater. I'm not too sure about the etymology of that, actually, I just know that it pairs quite nicely with my rape pants and murder hat."

I try to keep a straight face long enough for him to process this.

"Are you f*cking with me?"

"About the last two yes." Now I'm laughing. "There's no such thing as rape pants. But this white tank top really is called a wifebeater."

"Then why do you wear it?"

"Well, it's not like a have a wife... And if I did, I probably wouldn't beat her. Unless she really deserved it. Kidding, Faraz, I'm kidding!"

But even as I'm joking, the upsetting mental imagery of beating a woman has entered my head, and I do really wonder if the reason this undergarment is often referred to as such, is because an abusive man would strip down to his undergarments before beating his wife, so as to not get blood on his nice work clothes. I feel like this is a very possible explanation, and also that this story has taken a dark turn, so I am going to refer you to my OTHER WIFEBEATER STORY.

Try not to think about the fact that I have multiple wifebeater stories...