Plastic Pant Definition

[WBxx]

Of all the different waterproof pants (diaper covers) available I’m wondering which others think of as plastic pants.  Until recently I thought waterproof pants fell into two main groups … (1) rubber with all other being (2) plastic.  But I believe some folks use the term “plastic” for all waterproof pants.  While still others use “plastic” for some subset of non-rubber pants.  What are your thoughts on this important issue?

[carsfan]

I was born in 88, and wore cloth diapers and actual pants made of plastic until I was 4 years old in 92, 93. I was too young to remember any plastic pants type pants being made from rubber. I have always called any waterproof pant covering a diaper “ plastic pants” regardless of how it’s constructed.  Today I wear pants made of plastic over my cloth diaper.

 

I wonder if it’s a generation thing. Those who remember when plastic pants were made of rubber call them rubber pants.

 

 

 

[willnotwill]

Actually, it went the other way in my family.   My mother referred to any sort of waterproof brief as "rubber pants."    We actually had both at various times.    There's pictures of me in what clearly are plastic, but I remember seeing pairs of my sister's real rubber pants.   They may have been hand me downs from my diaper era (I am the oldest).   I don't have any recollection of myself in diapers (though I sort of remember my first pair of "big boy" briefs).   I only have the slightest rememberences of my sister a year younger in diaper, but more of the even younger brother and sister that followed.

I think it might been the era.   I was born in 1959, so I think rubber pants were more common then.

 

[rusty pins]

Yes, for years my mom referred to any type of waterproof pant as "Rubber Pants".  I was born in the 1950's and my mom in the 1920's.  Back then it most likely was rubber or Gerber vinyl pants and cloth diapers.  I refer to them as plastic pants as what I wear is not rubber.  They could be nylon coated tricot, vinyl, PUL or some other mix of materials.  Just like my mom always called any waterproof pants "rubber pants", I think we tend these days to call any waterproof pants "plastic pants" regardless of exactly what they may be made of.  Changing times.

[Dartplayerinwvc]

vinyl pants same thing

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

In the real world, outside the medical and fetish communities, as late as 2007 I heard "rubber pants" for them and if you look on ebay. "rubber" is very much in the mix and do not even mention "diaper covers" and here is one as late as the Urban Dictionary today https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=rubber diaper What is interesting is that I read in one of the Google Books a medical evaluation by a doctor recommending  the "rubber diaper [panties for babies in 1915

"Rubber" for the material is like Kleenex and Coke. It has been the genereic term for so long that it stuck except among those who need to make the distinction and the pedantic. Off-forum I never say"plastic" panties because it would draw more attention to myself than I need or want. "Rubber" has become "correct through usage". When I was very little, the material itself, no matter wat was made of it, was called "rubber". "plastic" was used for the hard, glossy material like Styrene. In the very late 40's and up to about '56, when we had many local and regional companies making things from vinyl, it was called  "French Satin", "RosEtte", "FlowerPetal", "EasyKare", "DuraPruf" and "Taffe-Teen" depending on who made the item. That was before we found the Nauga

http://other.sandralyn.net/rphof.html

[happyindprs]

I heard the term “rubber pants” when I was a kid, although most of what we all wore back then were the vinyl ones from Gerber  I think the term rubber pants were a throwback to when outer parents were kids.  Until recently, I always wore plastic pants over my disposable diapers. Not so much for leaks but more for softening the “crinkle” of my disposable diaper.  I frecently switched to Netter Dry diapers and wear boxer briefs over the.  MUCH more quiet and oh so comfortable!

[Dartplayerinwvc]

 “rubber pants”  - aka rubber duckie - late 60s early 70s - 

[ValentinesStuff]

Oddly having been born in the mid 60s, I think of them as plastic panties. 

[rosalie.bent]

Even now, some people call their waterproof pants as 'rubber pants'. Here in australia, they are called 'pilchers' and I still use that term here. I think it is what you are used to and the actual material is less important.

[oznl]

2 hours ago, rosalie.bent said:

Even now, some people call their waterproof pants as 'rubber pants'. Here in australia, they are called 'pilchers' and I still use that term here. I think it is what you are used to and the actual material is less important.

I *think* that "pilchers" is any covering for a nappy.  A plastic pant could be used as pilchers as could rubber, vinyl or in the case of my grandparent's generation, wool.  Wool is moderately water repellent.

In my family they were described simply as plastic pants, which in the 1970s (VIC) is what they were but there does seem to be some regional variability on this.  I know a bunch of words that vary state by state (consider the "Stobie pole") for an obscure SA reference.   I think even as a child I would still have recognised the term "pilchers" though.

Summoning greater pedants than I for clarification :-)

 

[willnotwill]

I had a rubber swan.

Oddly, it was years later when I realized it was a swan, not a duck.   I was listening to Vaughn Meader's parody of the JFK White House (The First Family) where he's talking about the Rubber Swan bath toy.

 

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

"Rubber" is what we heard as children from our parents in the 1950's irrespective of the material itself. So, my generation used it with their children and thus taught it to them as the first thing theyy heard the item called. Since it was the first and most often term they heard, they carried it on. It is like calling a person who is very mercurial often saying one thing one day and the opposite the next (without context), "schzophrenic"", meaning having a split personality,. Schizophrenia has nothing to do with split personality. It is characterized by auditory hallucination. The "split" in Schizophrenia references the diaphram, which, by the ancients was belived to have been the seat of the soul. That name has been carried on to this day and is the scientific name for that condition. None of the "phobia"s reference a thing; there is no such condition as "acrophobia". There is a condition of having an overdone fear of falling that is "acrophobic", which is NOT "fear of hights". That condition is "aerophobic". I am a prime example. I get the shakes if I am standing on a ladder 5 feet above the ground, yet I will fly in anything that has the remotest chance of getting off the ground beyond 20 feet. But during that first 20 or so feet of the ascent, I am terrified. Once beyond that point, I will boogie with the best of them and look out the window as much as I want. I am acrophobic, not aerophobic, yet people say I have a "fear of heights". Now, unless the metter is worth correcting., as it is with "Schizophrenia" ("split personality" is "Dissociative Reaction: Multiple Personality type") but not in whether waterproof panties are pade of rubber or plastic, the earlier term is passed on and learned at the formative years of age

[BabyJune]

20 hours ago, WBxx said:

Of all the different waterproof pants (diaper covers) available I’m wondering which others think of as plastic pants.  Until recently I thought waterproof pants fell into two main groups … (1) rubber with all other being (2) plastic.  But I believe some folks use the term “plastic” for all waterproof pants.  While still others use “plastic” for some subset of non-rubber pants.  What are your thoughts on this important issue?

Actually, the more modern fabric is vinyl. I make waterproof pants out of polyurethane laminate, which is a fabric laminated under heat to a thin vinyl coating that bonds the waterproof material to fabric. It "breathes" to let air in, but it keeps moisture from coming out...well, for the most part. Occasionally with an overly wet diaper there may be some compression leaking but it hasn't been a problem for me.

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

If the waterproof componet is vinyl, why is it called "polyurethane"? What does it feel like?

[willnotwill]

It's not vinyl.  PUL is marrying polyurethane film to cloth.

 

[rosalie.bent]

'plastic' is a fairly generic term covering vinyl and anything remotely similar.